Lack of Unified Ag-Rural Policy

Basic Aspects of the Issue

Rural life, as distinct from urban life, has been viewed in the past as an agriculturally dominated reality. this has changed with the massive depopulation of the farms and resultant depopulation of the supporting towns.

One major change which has been necessary in the past fee decades was the separation of rural life from agricultural life in terms of policy development. Because the non-agricultural life is not driven so much by agricultural affairs, it was necessary to consider these two aspects separately, in the sense that there are two drivers not one in operation.

However, the boundaries between farm and town are also blending in new ways, just as the boundaries between rural and urban are blending. Elements of rural and of urban life are found in the other "camp" at increasing frequency.

In addition, aging town populations are using increasing numbers of farm spouses to fill its workforce, thus breaking down boundaries between the two spheres of rural life. When services close down in a town, it places greater strain on the economics of farm life foe many families who earned part of their family income working there.

In short, rural life is a very complex entity and needs t be considered as a whole rather than by sectors.

Rural Development Institute Research Studies

• "Towards a Whole Rural Policy for Canada" - Presentation by AARG to Joint Committee on Agriculture, Agri-food and Forestry.
  This report is a very good "big picture" document of the linkages between the rural community and the agricultural component of it. It presses for a unified approach (vs. sectoral)to the two aspects of rural life because they are so intertwined.

  The brief was presented in four parts:

  1. Reimer/Shaver: In favor of a more inclusive approach to ag. policy
  2. Stabler: Role of non-agricultural manufacturing
  3. Apedaile: speed of change; interprovincial trade barriers; predator-prey model uses

  There are 7 items raised:

  1. Put agriculture in its full economic, social and environmental context
  2. Recognize women as more than labor and skill - they are pivotal in management of uncertainty
  3. Good quality farm life (style) must develop for human resources purposes - skill at management of ag uncertainties
  4. Rural restructuring is a dynamic of all institutions and is ongoing
  5. emphasize people economies rather than place economies - voluntary organizations, networks and social services
  6. Be flexible and roll with local interactions - as in Europe
  7. Go with systems thinking regarding local complexity - "the science of complexity"