Nova Scotia farmers want the Tory government to address what they call a crisis in the agriculture industry.

"On behalf of farm families, I am asking your government to establish an all-party committee to consider immediate and sustained action with respect to the short-term needs of farmers across the province," Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture president Frazer Hunter said Wednesday in a letter to Premier Rodney MacDonald.

On Tuesday, 500 farm families and supporters met in Halifax to impress upon the province’s politicians the immediate needs of the industry and to call for a new approach to agricultural policy-making.

Mr. Hunter, a sheep and dairy farmer from central Nova Scotia, said Agriculture Minister Brooke Taylor has spent much time over the past few months meeting with commodity groups and discussing their short-term requirements.

"This is an opportunity for all political parties in the House of Assembly to sit down and begin to examine the problems facing Nova Scotia’s agriculture industry in a non-partisan context," he said.

Source: The ChronicleHerald.ca