It was a morning of warnings from former Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall on Tuesday, as he and former New Brunswick Premier Frank McKenna spoke at a breakfast panel discussion at the Canadian Western Agribition.
Wall warned agricultural producers of what he claims is happening to the energy industry, saying environmentalist groups could be targeting the agriculture industry next.
“Let’s not take a knife to a gun fight… we ought to learn from what happened in oil in general, the energy sector, and the agriculture sector. We ought to be ready to put resources and effort and effect into countering what is already out there, and what's probably coming from groups that want to have a run at modern agriculture,” Wall said during the presentation.
Wall warned of movements aimed at commercial farming, saying the energy industry, including the Sask Party has been flat footed with defending oil.
“I think its ways good to be proactive and in the case of the energy sector I don't think over a period of time the energy sector's done a good enough job telling its story,” McKenna said.
Wall said ag producers need to be ready.
"I think there's two parts to it, one is responding to accusations that are made often now on social media. But more importantly how do we raise the bar on raising understanding of Canadian consumers about what it is we do and how we do it,” Canadian Federation of Agriculture President Ron Bonnett said.
Bonnet feels the industry has made great improvements in all sectors, but it's often not communicated to the public.
“We need to do more work about getting teachers aware of some of the farm practices that are out there. I think we can have a larger social media presence,” Bonnett said.
Bonnett also hopes to create more spokespeople for the Ag industry, to help teach the public.
"Something as simple as explaining no till cropping, and how it actually sequesters carbon," Bonnett said.
