CELEBRATING 131 YEARS AS CANADA’S PREMIER HORTICULTURAL PUBLICATION
APRIL 2011
VOLUME 61 NUMBER 04
Horticulture practises the honourable art of lobbying KAREN DAVIDSON Make every word tell. That prescription, from Strunk and White’s 1918 book “The Elements of Style,” holds true today in a different arena: lobbying. It’s the art of persuading, cajoling, communicating the facts to legislators. And it’s not necessarily about asking for money or for supporting a piece of legislation. Broader than lobbying, sometimes it’s straightup advocacy that works – asking for support of a cause. That’s what the Canadian Horticultural Council (CHC) and Canadian Produce Marketing Association (CPMA) did recently by inviting Members of Parliament to attend an Ottawa event called Hort for Health. The key message is simple. No legislation is required to make half your plate fruits and vegetables. Horticulture holds the card for reducing the health care bill in Canada. And to garnish the plate, horticulture’s contributions to the economy are worth $44 billion. What politician is not going to like that message? Federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz (BattlefordsLloydminster) and federal fisheries and oceans minister Gail Shea (Egmont) agreed as did 23 other MPs who attended such as Larry Miller (Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound), Peter Milliken (Kingston and the Islands), Wayne Easter (Malpeque). During a political week that saw heightened preelection tensions on the Hill, a canapé of cucumbers looked easy
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Let food be thy medicine. Hippocrates’ prescription resonates at the Horticulture for Health event held March 8 in Ottawa. A swath of politicians slipped away from the House of Commons to meet with members of the Canadian Horticulture Value Chain Roundtable. From left to right: Earl Kidson, chair of the Canadian Horticulture Value Chain Roundtable; federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz; Larry Miller, MP Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound; Andy Vermeulen, past-president, Canadian Horticultural Council and Brian Gilroy, chair, Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers’ Association. Photos by Patrick Doyle. to digest. Beyond the hor’s doeuvres, strategy is at work explains Anne Fowlie, CHC executive vice-president. The event was a chance for face-to-face relationship-building for a working group that’s been meeting for months. Horticulture for Health, in fact, is one of a seven-point platform led by the Horticulture Value Chain Roundtable co-chaired by Earl Kidson, Nova Scotia. One of its key objectives is to gain increased recognition by government of the value of horticulture, edible and non-edible, to the Canadian economy. Because horticulture is so diverse in its crop make-up, it’s not as easy to gain profile for
broccoli or pears as it is for grains and oilseeds. What does success look like? “Sometimes the metrics are difficult to measure when it’s encouraging the minister to talk up horticulture amongst cabinet colleagues,” says Fowlie. “It’s about connecting the dots with other departments on policy development. A salad bar in every school? That could be one outcome.” “Better access to fruits and vegetables is one key goal,” says Brian Gilroy, chair, Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers’ Association. “Statistics show that up to 1.7 million Canadians don’t have access to fruits and vegeta-
bles. I was just reading in the local newspaper that a family relying on the food bank had no fruits and vegetables, except for an onion, in their weekly basket. They were actually feeling sick at the end of the week.” Horticulture’s lobbying efforts are as much with health officials as agriculture officials. The nonedible partners in horticulture – the nursery segment – are keen to promote the mental health benefits of gardening. Hence their many contributions and presence at the event. The next major milestone is June 2011 when the working group will sew together its plan. One thread is to identify federal
representatives to speak in support of horticulture across a range of public events and also within other government departments such as health. “Unlike the American political system, which provides opportunity for horse-trading between and amongst the legislative and executive branches, political power is far more concentrated in Canada,” says Scott Proudfoot, principal of Hillwatch, a lobbying firm in Ottawa. “Aligning selfinterest with the public interest as defined by the Prime Minister’s Office and Cabinet of the day is critical to lobbying success.” Contined on page 3
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