Thoughts?

[blackpowder]

Lots of opinions.
Had we taken off our farmer hat and put on our CEO hat what would we see?

What would a room of CEO's of national and international public businesses have said?

Ben Franklin was a lobbyist for Pennsylvania in the 1760s, Stamp Act rescinded.

[Old Cowzilla]

A CEO would say we need to buy out our competition (neighbor ) destroy his factory ( level his building site) for increased production and continue this pattern until we have more control on markets. When we are down to just a few operations ( like 10 or 20 steel plants ) than people will listen to our demands. Hard to find the sweet spot on that deal.

[blackpowder]

That's fair I suppose.
I'm just fleshing out a scenario.
The road blocks appear self illuminating.

[blackpowder]

Being a white male is not a prerequisite to farming.
There are no barriers to entry other than needing a lot of capital... borrow some, leverage assets, etc. Build.
Most people would recoil from the risk and amount of capital needed to farm. Does that mean all white male farmers are rich? No, probably a false preconceived notion.
Some farms are generations old so there could be a level of stability and security. Are other privately held businesses or corporations shown the same disdain?

Re increase in fees to support a better lobby or hire professional lobbyists. How many check-off dollars are refunded(zero from Sask Pulse as they're nonrefundable). Anecdotal(?) comments about meetings in sandy resorts and people more interested in photo ops.
Maybe there doesn't have to be more fees collected but rather reallocated to a more meaningful lobby, maybe a professional type.

Oh yeah, and don't rely on Industry "partners", like the railways, WGEA, Fertilzer Canada, CropLife Canada to look after YOUR best interests, because your best interests aren't their best interests....

....Although, some of those entities wouldn't exist without "us".

I believe the white male quote was pulled from some fed study on agriculture. It's likely read more than any industry response to it. Because there isn't one.
I feel a new look at all orgs and funding models a start. But you need goals. Clearly we don't have any.
I would love to have the budget your mentioned "partners" spend in Ottawa.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

I'm trying to envision what benefits farmers could hope to reap by bribing(sorry, lobbying) politicians as other industries do.
The saying I'm from the government and I'm here to help comes to mind.

Could we bribe Ottawa enough that they quit sacrificing ag to reward niche crony capitalist industries (EV etc) with every trade spat? Enough to reduce the climate/environment constraints? Or at least bribe them to get out of the way. I could get behind those measures.

Or do we expect to get direct aid/payments/subsidies/programs? With all the strings attached. From a bankrupt government in a bankrupt country, with a shrinking bankrupt tax payer base. I want nothing to do with that. I want to stay as far under the radar as possible.

[cropgrower]

exactly ,less government by far the best

[AlbertaFarmer5]

Thinking specifically about the EV vs ag trade dispute, where canola, pulses etc got thrown under the bus to save the non existent EV industry.

I don't think we could win that war with lobby money. The EV industry exists entirely at the whim and financing of government. The EV lobby could literally spend every last tax payer dollar they receive to lobby government, since their very existence depends on it. How do we compete with that? For every dollar we could spend, they would have no choice but to exceed it to make sure their pet cause wins, since they have no alternative.

[blackpowder]

I mostly agree with you guys from a personal perspective. Through an industry wide lens I feel we're being myopic.
The last shift in mindset took generations re cwb. This one might too. And I don't have the time on earth or energy to suggest I have answers.
Time is a finite resource. Marketers know this. Lobby efforts and marketing involve face time within limited time windows.
You're either at the table or on it.
If you don't know where you sit, you're obviously on the menu.
Do we agree on that statement?
Guy I know has multiple offices with national and international clients. I'm guessing none are ag.

Agriville is a rather narrow polling group. But gives a lot of food for thought all the same.

[blackpowder]

Conclusions.
It's a cultural mindset issue.