In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, a farmer-led coalition in India has set an example for the world: small voices, combined together, can make a difference.
    In summer of 2020, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi led an effort to “modernize” his country’s agriculture through the introduction of three agricultural statutes that, in the view of opposing farmers,  would have led to the loss what little control they exercised over their livelihoods.
Tens of thousands marched on India’s capital, Delhi, mainly from the nearby states of Punjab and Haryana but the protests were nationwide, according to three speakers who discussed the development during the recent Oxford Real Farming Conference – University of Oxford economist Pritam Singh, Navsharan Singh with Carleton University at Ottawa and the leader of India’s largest agricultural union, Joginder Singh Ugrahan.
    “We forced Modi to take back those rules with the same pen that he wrote them,” Ugrahan said, speaking through an interpreter. “We understood that these three laws were in favour of the corporations.”
    Pritam Singh said the movement’s success was the result of literally “decades of work” which involved not just farmers but farm labourers, educators, health professionals and other members of India’s layered society. Just organizing the lines of supply to keep the encamped protesters fed was an accomplishment of note in itself.
    Members of the movement were able to set aside their differences. Things like caste, political stance and religion were put aside to focus on the core issue – the food supply. Even the police and army personnel who were employed to discourage the protesters were brought on side.
    Rather than violence meeting violence, the farmers and their supporters reached out with food, feeding those who might otherwise oppress them.
    “Agriculture is not about the past. Agriculture is about the future,” Singh said. “Protecting agriculture is very important in the viewpoint of protecting planet earth.”
    Agriculture is a key economic driver in India, accounting for about 20 per cent of the country’s GDP and 50 per cent of employment.
    Individual farm holdings tend to be small, a matter of a few hectares and production is reliant not just on farm families but the landless peasants of that vast nation. Rather than being at odds, India farmers and their workers have an important bond; only through a cooperative effort can each succeed.
    The same holds true in Canada. As several temporary migrant workers have pointed out to me over the years, their farm employers’ success is their success.
    I’ve been around the farm community long enough to know that not every farmer who employs temporary foreign workers is an exemplary model of good behaviour. Yet the maxim holds true.
    The interest of farm workers, whether Canadian or temporary immigrant, lies with their employers. They are the ones who pay them.
    That bond of common interest has become apparent over the past two years as the federal government attempted to micromanage temporary foreign workers and farm employers through ramped up inspections of housing and working conditions.
    The federal Auditor General’s December 9 report concludes the inspection effort was an utter failure. Particularly revealing was the inability of government inspectors to interview the required number of workers during their rounds or gather sufficient information from employers.
    Here is a summation of the Auditor Report’s findings from 2021: “In 58 per cent of inspections, poor-quality evidence or no evidence was collected before employers were found compliant or the inspections became inactive. … In 50 per cent of inspections, the required number of workers were not interviewed – and in some cases, none were interviewed – before employers were found compliant or the inspections became inactive.”
    During an impromptu visit to a farm last summer, I received a taste of what government inspectors faced. Having driven up to a work site, I was greeted with the most hostile reception from migrant workers that I can ever remember from the past 40-odd years.
    As it turned out, the workers, a group from the Caribbean, had me pegged for a government inspector. They were not happy to see me.
    Canada’s farmers and their workers are natural allies, a point that the urban-based, migrant worker advocacy groups need to pick up on. If they’re looking to support workers, support the workers rather than demonizing their employers and consider supporting the farming community as well.
    Farmers are not responsible for Canada's approach to immigration, a policy that has evolved over the past 60 years, making so-called “temporary” foreign workers a permanent part of the nation. ◊