Liberal leader Jon Gerrard, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives Stan Struthers, PC leader Hugh McFadyen at KAP's Farmer Appreciation Day at the Legislative Building.

 

 

All three provincial parties shared praise for Manitoba farmers yesterday as part of the 7th annual Keystone Agricultural Producers' Farmer Appreciation Day at the Manitoba Legislative Building.

"What we saw was the premier, along with officials from every side of the House, coming together with the leadership of Keystone Agricultural Producers and really underscoring a process by which we come up with good decisions for farmers," says Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives Stan Struthers. "Farmers are huge contributors to our local economies. You cannot talk about local community or economic development without talking about the work farmers do, and I think society needs to come forward and appreciate that every now and then."

Struthers, Tory leader Hugh McFadyen and Liberal leader Jon Gerrard each spoke very highly of Manitoba farmers in their opening remarks before sitting down for lunch with several dozen producers representing KAP and each of the provincial commodity organizations. Roughly 20 MLAs were in attendance. Premier Selinger also made a short appearance. Producers shared their experiences and spoke with the members about some of the timely issues such as business risk management tools, the future of the livestock industry in the province, drainage and excess moisture challenges.

"It's important for farmers to make the connection with MLAs, whether they represent rural or urban constituencies. We keep getting more and more generations removed from the farm so it's important to reconnect and discuss issues that affect us on the farm," says KAP president Rob Brunel. "Rules and regulations that they develop here at the Leg affect us on a daily basis so we need to have this discussion and in a sense, tell them how their decisions affect us everyday on the farm."

~ Tuesday, November 30, 2010 ~