The former President of the Huron County Soil and Crop Improvement Association says farmers are under increasing pressure to use best management practices to improve their soil as well as protect the environment.
Joe Vermunt suggests that pressure is increasing with more discussion around a social contract that farmers have with consumers to adjust farm practices to protect the environment.
But Vermunt points out there is a cost related to many of those practices - a cost that puts Ontario farmers at a disadvantage in a global market against farmers who don't have to bear those costs.
Vermunt is also concerned that urban populations have decided the last federal and provincial elections.
Without some rural representation in government he's worried there is a very real danger of legislation being passed by people who have very little understanding of how it might affect rural communities.
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Vermunt argues farmers often do that without any compensation for the added costs of employing those practices
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Vermunt suggests the results of the last two elections don't offer much encouragement that help is on the way
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