Sun, 30 Oct 2005

Sustainable agriculture: Canadian institute offers definition, recommends tax

Unbelievable! The way to promote sustainable agriculture is to tax it? Do these people not realize that only the large farms they're trying to coerce into sustainability will have the time and expertise required to apply for whatever new subsidies are offered under this program? And they're only apparently planning on giving half the tax back to farmers in any event:

The 7% GST alone on grocery store sales would generate an estimated $3.3 billion annually, still a considerable sum if only half of it were to be dedicated to supporting economic viability measures for farmers linked to sustainability goals and objectives.

It wouldn't surprise me to see big Canadian farmers support this wholeheartedly: what better way to finish off the family farm than to tax it to death?

Applying a levy to groceries to help farms transition to sustainable practices and using immigration policy to bolster rural communities are among several major recommendations in a landmark discussion paper on achieving sustainable agriculture, published by the Agricultural Institute of Canada on the eve of AIC's annual meeting (Quebec City, Nov. 6-9). The paper says as farmers' incomes whither, small farms vanish, rural communities decline and megafarms mushroom, major consequences are underway for future environmental conditions and food safety.

(link) [EurekAlert!]

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