An estimated 80 per cent of those who need assistance in underdeveloped countries are farmers. So, programs targeted at helping farmers can likewise help economies recover. Farmers who are profitable, however you measure it and wherever they farm, can feed their families and some of those around them who aren’t able to feed themselves.
Farm leader Ron Bonnett of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture hoped that message got through to G20 leaders last week when they met in Toronto. Most of their interest was in economic recovery…and that’s exactly what Bonnett emphasized in his invest-in-agriculture video, offered up through the International Federation of Agricultural Producers.
Bonnett’s hoping politicians don’t lose sight it while they try to remain cost conscious. I write about his position in the latest edition of my Urban Cowboy column in the Guelph Mercury. He thinks, though, positions such as his about agriculture and other less contentious topics were probably muted by the angry and violent demonstrations at the G20, such as that captured by Toronto Star photographer Bernard Weil below.
