There are words that will eventually come to reflect certain times in the continued evolution of agriculture.
We can think about the influence of "zero-till" farming on the sector.
"Diversification" was certainly a key trend through the 1980s and the low price cycle that had farmers looking for alternate ways to make a living.
"Precision-farming" pretty much reflects farming today.
And then there is "value-added."
In Saskatchewan in particular, and across most of the Canadian Prairies, the idea of adding value to what farmers produce has been much talked about in times when commodity prices were low and farmers needed options for increasing returns.
The idea of value-added has always been a good one in the sense such enterprises would offer local, alternate markets for farm produce, and at the same time create jobs here on the Prairies.
With commodity prices in the record high range these days, and overall economies on the Prairies percolating along at a near boom-pace that has employees in short supply in many communities, the need for local grain markets and jobs are not nearly so high, and the idea of value-added processing for farm products has been pushed largely to the backburner.
Since farm commodity prices are cyclical, ultimately that may not be the best thing for our overall economy. While they may not dip as low as they have in the past, input prices are also higher, which means that at times margins will be pressured based on the prices of export-bound grains and oilseeds.
The reduced interest in value-added farm produce processing has also pushed this country into an even deeper deficit in terms of trade and food processing.
While traditionally Canada has been known for supplying raw produce to the world, whether it be minerals, wood, or grain, there has been a feeling we should do more processing here.
And in terms of food processing it simply never happened. In fact, the situation is getting worse.
A recent Western Producer story showed just how bad a deficit there is.
Author Doug Hedley, a former senior Agriculture Canada official, wrote, "Canada's net trade in value-added processed food has deteriorated from a deficit of about $1 billion in 2004 to $6.3 billion in 2011."
When you are talking billions, it is a massive deficit that will be hard to ever overcome.
There are reasons for the situation, starting with factors such as it being easier to ship raw grains and oilseeds to processors closer to large population bases.
I have used the example before, but it remains a good one. Farmers in the Kelvington, Sask. area had the idea of making snack chips out of pea flour. It was an idea that had its merit, but the reality was bags of snack chips are bulky and expensive to transport to places like Los Angeles where there are enough people to create a market. It is easy to ship raw peas and make the chips closer to where there are large populations.
The whole of Canada is a small market when compared to the U.S., or in a global economy, India, South Korea, China and Japan, and that means processing here may never catch up to exports.
Of course the downside, beyond the aforementioned trade deficit in the area, is that processing jobs are being left to others.
And, in a world where more and more of our daily food that shows up on our table was processed into something microwaveable, we also leave a lot of our food security in the hands of corporations outside our borders.
With the current high prices that farmers are getting for their grains and oilseeds, value-added is not a priority, but it should remain something we aspire to see more of in this country.
