Farmers Urged To Push Trade During Pending Federal Election

Voters are being encouraged to push the topic of trade with area candidates running in the upcoming federal election. 

 

With growing world protectionism, Cereals Canada President Cam Dahl says political parties need to present a comprehensive approach to protecting the country's trading interests. He adds if Canada doesn't refocus its trade policy, thousands of jobs will continue to be at risk because of agricultural trade disputes.

 

"If you go back in time and think about before we had an agreement with Europe or the Trans Pacific Partnership, there really was a push for broad trade agreements that were focused primarily on getting tariffs down, controlling tariffs, as well as putting into place rules of trade and that really has benefited Canadian agriculture," explained Dahl, adding however, things have changed and the world has entered in to a new age of protectionism. "We just have to look at what's happening between China and the United States right now to see that," said Dahl.

 

Dahl says farmers need to challenge candidates and their parties to outline their plan to protect agriculture growth, investment and jobs. He has even provided three questions that he says every candidate should face in the upcoming election. 

 

The first being "What is your party’s comprehensive plan to deal with non-tariff trade barriers facing agriculture?".

 

The second question inquires whether a candidate's party will use Canada's existing trade agreement to systematically challenge non-tariff trade barriers.

 

"We have a trade agreement with Europe and since we've signed it our durum exports to Europe have fallen by sixty per cent," said Dahl. "I look at what Italy has done on the Country of Origin Labelling and I don't see that as being compliant with the trade agreement...and so are parties going to be willing to take that step and use the dispute resolution provisions of those agreements to challenge protectionist activity? We really do need to see a shift in governments being willing to do that," he added.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.