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CFFO: Agricultural Research - Who Should Pay?

May 28, 2015

By Lorne Small

Recently "science based" policy decisions have been a common request from many sectors of society. Whether the request is for "science based" or "evidence based" decisions, it is in fact asking for someone to do research. The vital question that then needs to be asked is, who should pay. Research is not free, so someone has to pay. All too often the people asking for the research to be done are not the people who are willing to pay for the research. Society keeps asking governments to reduce taxes yet provide more services. Frequently the government's response is to reduce funding for research.

Companies that introduce new products into the marketplace have a reasonable expectation they will be fairly compensated for their product and earn a profit. We live in a capitalist society. It follows that it is also fair for that company to pay for the cost of evaluating its effectiveness, safety, impact on the environment, etcetera.  All too often some potentially valuable products are not introduced because the cost of the research and regulatory burden exceeds the potential revenue the company may realise.

For many years society, better known as the taxpayers, have paid for extensive agricultural research by funding University research, establishing and funding research stations and extension services. That tradition has been changing rapidly over the past twenty five years. Government dollars have become scarce and frequently need to be focused on issues of the day. As governments have reduced their commitment to the research effort, researchers have needed to obtain funding from the private sector. Private sector industries have stepped up and funded research, however, with the caveat that the results are "proprietary" - the results are owned by the company thus not shared with their competitors. This is reasonable.

Some agricultural organizations are responding to the challenge and are helping to fund research. With limited resources, the CFFO and several other groups are committed to supporting valuable research that will help us better understand and be better able to manage soil organic matter, carbon incorporation, soil health and sustainable farm practices. Dairy Farmers of Ontario are funding a new dairy research centre.  There is much more to be done to keep our farmers on the leading edge, but funding is increasingly harder and harder to come by.

There is a federal election on the horizon. Perhaps this is the time to remind our Members of Parliament that agricultural research is vital to the future health and competitiveness of our farm sector. Just maybe, more investment in agricultural research is more important than more tax cuts.

Source: CFFO