Over the past week I had the privilege of attending a couple of Remembrance Day events and talking to some of the people who took part.
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It is always a moving experience.
The personal stories, of bravery and valour of course are touching especially when they relate to people who did not come back. But I am also touched by the people who turn out every year to make the commemoration happen. Those who attend the ceremony because they think it is the right thing to do.
That we have so many freedoms of course is tied in with Remembrance Day, and the fact the freedoms are not absolute is tied up with it as well. An absolute freedom can infringe on someone else.
Of course freedom is great as long as it is the freedom to do what we want to do and to say what we want to say. It isn't so great when someone else says something we may not like.
The battle over freedom, specifically freedom of speech has touched agriculture a lot over the past little while.
Let's see, fast food chains offering so-called hormone free and antibiotic free beef has been much debated, but I don't hear as many complaints about another fast food chain wrapping itself in Canadian Agriculture bragging that its beef, eggs, and the wheat for its buns are all Canadian.
Well why would we?
Both are free speech, and neither is actually aimed at farmers. Both are about marketing.
What agriculture really needs to be concerned about, it seems to me, is making sure people get the message that we have one of the safest food supply systems anywhere. Perhaps the safest.
We need farmers to speak up in their own defence. Many do, and the public generally listens.
It bothers and it sometimes rattles many in agriculture that a small minority of people claim some of the products you produce have issues. Especially when those complaints are ill informed.
If people make the decision to buy locally, that is great, if not that is their choice. It is perhaps more worrying that people can make comments about the safety of foods. Comments that can't be backed up.
As far as I know there have been no studies showing any danger in putting a bt trait in corn for example, yet there is nothing, at least not yet, to stop people saying it IS harmful.
It seems to me this is almost like shouting fire in a crowded theatre. There should be, somewhere in this freedom of speech stuff, some requirement that the speech is at least marginally true.
But that too apparently is free speech. That too is why you need to speak for your industry.
Many do and the agriculture industry owes them some gratitude.
Their willingness to speak up, rationally and sanely, and over, and over again, most likely is the reason most people agree with the statement, that our food system is among the safest anywhere.
Like every other freedom, freedom of speech must be used to be enjoyed and must be practised to be maintained.
