MAXVILLE — As corn prices hit their second lowest level in 50 years, corn producers are deflated and looking for leadership, says outspoken Maxville corn producer Alain Leduc.

Following a Kemptville meeting this month of 100 producers, Leduc, who farms several thousand acres, noted that farmers "are down. There is little motivation. There is little emotion. Morale is at a low level. They need leadership."

And they’re not getting it, he says. "They think that their boards and associations will pull a rabbit out of a hat. They’re pulling a rat out of a hat. The people there are still passive. They fall into the hands of government. They need to strike a line in the sand and stop begging."

The feeling among corn producers now is "when do we bail out?" Leduc said, adding that fewer and fewer farmers have enough equity for the next generation, while more and more see the equity that they do have as their retirement package.

He added that Ontario farmers don’t need the same subsidy as American growers to compete. "I could be sustainable with 66 per cent. I hate to say that. A lot of guys will want to throttle me."

Leduc says that working toward an anti-dumping law or tariff against imported corn will have little effect. North Gower producer Dwight Foster agrees. It’s expensive – that last time it happened in the 1980s it cost corn growers $2 million – and it takes time to fight at the World Trade Organization, said Foster, who also grows several thousand acres of crops each year.