Ontario Agriculture

The network for agriculture in Ontario, Canada

Farm Programs: What would you do to design something that works?

Tough Times for Farm Policy Designers.

When I graduated from university with a degree in agricultural economics, I was ready to take on the farm policy world. As a farm kid, I surmised that the government policy wonks at the top just needed a taste of my grassroots perspective and did I mention that I had a freshly printed degree in agricultural economics?

Yes, I was naïve, but I was also willing to pay my dues so I took a job as a policy researcher with a general farm lobby organization. It took two years, but it began to dawn on me that the life of a farm policy designer was not as glamorous as I originally thought. In fact, taking a farm policy gig means accepting the fact that you will please precisely no one. Regardless of how brilliantly you craft a new support program, your boss, the government, will say the program:

• gives too much money to farmers
• is not targeted properly
• has too many loopholes
• has high administration costs
• is not trade neutral
• is outdated even as it is released

On the other hand, farmers and their representative organizations will not be shy in letting you know that the program:

• does not provide enough money for farmers
• is not targeted properly
• is too inflexible
• requires too much paperwork
• is outdated even as it is released

The job is only getting tougher, because traditionally, farm support programs have dealt with commodity price dips and revenue erosion. We currently have volatile swings on the revenue side, but also crazy and fluctuating numbers on the expense side, whether it be feed, fertilizer, fuel, or other.

Twenty years after leaving university, I now know that farm policy design is not for the faint of heart, especially in the current environment. I’m happy to leave the job to others. The reality is, though, that traditional price or revenue support models are not going to be effective if the current environment persists. If you were given the task of designing farm support programs for tomorrow, where would you start? How would your program differ from what we see today?

Click here to join the discussion.

Peter Gredig
Farms.com


This commentary is for informational purposes only. The opinions and comments expressed herein represent the opinions of the author--they do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Farms.com. This commentary is not intended to provide individual advice to anyone. Farms.com will not be liable for any errors or omissions in the information, or for any damages or losses in any way related to this commentary.

Views: 60

▶ Reply to This

Agriculture Headlines from Farms.com Canada East News - click on title for full story

Bernard Sévigny appointed ag minister in Premier Paul St-Pierre Plamondon’s government

Sévigny is married to former federal ag minister Marie-Claude Bibeau

Febina Mathew, professor and soybean pathologist, North Dakota State University

Febina Mathew is a professor and soybean pathologist in the Department of Plant Pathology, Microbiology and Biotechnology at North Dakota State University (NDSU). Originally from India, she holds an M.S. and PhD in Plant Pathology from NDSU. She lives in Fargo, North Dakota. Where did you work before NDSU? I was an assistant professor and field crops pathologist, and later an associate professor, at South Dakota State University. Tell us a bit about what you’re working on at NDSU. My research program focuses on understanding the biology of pathogens affecting soybeans and their interactions with host plants, with the goal of developing effective disease management strategies, particularly through fungicides (foliar and seed treatments) and host resistance. My soybean research focuses primarily on Diaporthe diseases, Fusarium diseases (root rot and sudden death syndrome), as well as viruses, Clonostachys and other emerging pathogens affecting soybeans in North Dakota. We also invest

TWG Announces 1-for-100 Share Consolidation

Top Wealth Group Holding Limited (NASDAQ: TWG) (“Top Wealth” or the “Company”), announces the approval of the proposed 1-for-100 share consolidation of the Class A ordinary shares (“Class A Ordinary Shares”) and Class B ordinary shares (“Class B Ordinary Shares”, together with the Class A Ordinary Shares, the “Ordinary Shares”) of US0.009 par value each (the “Share Consolidation”). Beginning with the opening of trading on October 22, 2026, being the market effective date, the Class A Ordinary Shares will begin trading on a post-Share Consolidation basis on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the same symbol “TWG” but under a new CUSIP number of G8945S128. The objective of the Share Consolidation is to enable the Company to regain compliance with Nasdaq Marketplace Rule 5550(a)(2) and maintain its listing on the Nasdaq Capital Market. Upon the effectiveness of the Share Consolidation, every 100 issued and outstanding Ordinary Shares of a par value of US$0.009 each will automatically be co

AI for Cultivated Meat: Pythag Tech Closes $4.25 Million in Seed Funding

Pythag Tech, a data and technology company accelerating the future of cultivated meat, today announced $4.25 million in seed funding led by Azolla Ventures, with participation from Endurance28 and other institutional investors. The capital will expand Pythag’s biological dataset and machine learning platform, which is designed to optimize cultivated meat production processes that can then be licensed to food companies. The cultivated meat industry has made significant scientific and regulatory advances since it first emerged, but high costs and complexity have constrained commercialization. Pythag’s technology builds the intelligence layer that cultivated meat production needs to scale. The company uses AI models to directly drive large-scale laboratory experiments focused on cultivated meat’s three core cost drivers: 1) growth media, 2) cell line development, and 3) bioprocessing. Each experiment adds to the company’s proprietary dataset, enabling its models to iteratively identify n

Pulse Market Insight #308

Monsoon Shortfall Makes India the Market to Watch for Peas and Lentils For Canadian pea and lentil markets, no single buyer matters more in 2026/27 than India, and developments there keep pointing in a friendly direction. This year’s southwest monsoon ended roughly 15% below normal, with the shortfalls concentrated in the southern half of the country where most of the tur (pigeon pea) crop is grown. The kharif harvest is getting underway this month and poor results are widely expected. For Alberta growers, the question is how that crop damage translates into import demand for peas and lentils, and on what timeline. Because it’s a kharif crop, the tur harvest is where the damage shows up first. Prices for tur have rallied over US$230 per tonne from the early July low and now sit at their highest point since August 2024. Because green lentils are the main substitute for tur, Indian buyers are already backfilling with imports, and prices for Canadian green lentils in India are at their

© 2026   Created by Darren Marsland.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service