FORT FRANCES—The agriculture community in Rainy River District had its share of hardships last year, with a lack of rain making conditions difficult to grow produce and raise livestock as well as the provincial government abruptly enforcing regulations regarding the processing of uninspected meat.
So what will 2007 hold for local farmers? Are they optimistic or pessimistic about the coming year?
“I don’t know at this point,” Trish Neilson, president of the Rainy River Federation of Agriculture, noted early Tuesday.
The group had a regular meeting that night (Jan. 2) and Neilson revealed beforehand that she wondered herself what the mood would be.
“I’m hoping it’s optimists,” she stressed, showing her own positive attitude.
“There’s no question there’s lots of challenges in front of us because agriculture is changing and I just hope we are ahead of the changes instead of behind them.”
Neilson added she feels it will be an active year in the district.
“There’s all sorts of projects and initiatives that happened last year that are still ongoing and require continuous efforts,” she noted. “We’re still working on the drought, the meat issue hasn’t totally been resolved, and the abattoir committee is quite active.
“There’s just a lot projects out there that have started and it will be an interesting year, I think, in the agriculture community because a lot of this stuff is going to come into the next phase.”
But Neilson also conceded she knows these projects will not go without continuing challenges, such as the lack of water.
“It’s one thing whether we can get funding for the drought, but we’re not exactly getting a lot of moisture over the winter, so I’m wondering if water will be an issue for 2007 again,” she mused.
“And maybe it will be for quite a long time in the future.
“With all the changes, it will be interesting to see how farmers actually are going to embrace them,” she added.
Neilson said the local ag community also will need volunteers to work on these initiatives.
“I think it will be a year we can go forward, but it’s going to be a year where people will have to decide they’re going to give freely of their time to make it happen,” she stressed.
“It’ll be a matter of rounding it up and energizing it,” she remarked. “But I get the sense there are people wanting to make things happen in the district.
“It’s just which players are going to come forth to make sure it all gets done.”
Besides working to develop solutions for the drought and processing uninspected meat, Neilson also said there’s the need for input on a federal ag policy and to get a district abattoir built, as well as a push on to promote local food.
“The ag policy is being developed by the federal government and that needs some effort put into it,” she said. “The abattoir committee—it’s going to get kind of exciting over the next year.
“And we have quite a few people doing food localism, and I hope that group of people continue and come up with some ideas.”
But Neilson also feels district residents have been working at some of the issues and will continue to do so.
“We’ve been doing some homework and I just hope we have enough energy and foresight to continue on and start coming up with our own solutions for the challenges in front of us,” she remarked, adding she doesn’t necessarily see challenges as a negative aspect.
“I think if you’re always looking to the future, then you’re naturally seeing challenges and I’d rather be looking into the future and finding challenges [instead of] waiting for them to happen and saying, ‘Okay, what’s our Band-Aid solution?’” she said.
“That’s what I’m hoping the district will do,” Neilson stressed. “I see all sorts of loose ends coming together, but lots more work needs to be done.”
Fort Frances Times
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