By DEREK PUDDICOMBE, Ottawa Sun BROCKVILLE -- RIDING THE RURAL EXPRESS

Hitching a ride in the "buddy seat" of a tractor, Ottawa Sun reporter Derek Puddicombe is on the road for the next three days with a group of Eastern Ontario farmers on their way to Queen's Park for a protest Wednesday. Here's his first report.

"Dear Consumer, We regret to inform you that we can no longer afford to grow your food. Sincerely, Ontario Farmers."

That's just one of dozens of messages Ontario farmers are taking to Toronto for a rally planned at Queen's Park Wednesday morning.

Farmers are hitting the road again to bring a stern message to the McGuinty government that they are losing money and being overregulated by policies that are stifling how they do business.

Because of the lack of tariffs on some cash crops, much of their business is being lost to fellow farmers south of the border.

I joined up with one tractor convoy before it left Cornwall yesterday morning.

I hopped into a tractor with Jan Van Criekingen, a 49-year-old farmer from Casselman who came to Canada from Belgium 25 years ago with his wife and two infant girls.

As we rumbled down Hwy. 2 in his 2003 Fendt tractor, one of two he uses to do the chores and necessary farm work around his 500-acre property, he told me about how he arrived here with hopes of adventure and a new life.

GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE

But the farm life he says he left in Belgium in 1980, one of constant government interference, overregulation and falling commodity prices is what Ontario farmers are facing today.

"The government keeps telling us to be more efficient and more efficient, but who are we doing this for -- them?" he asked. "It's getting harder. We are losing way too much money. I don't know why they have to destroy so many lives."

For much of our six-hour ride that ended in Brockville at about 5:30 p.m., Van Criekingen talked passionately about farming and the job he still loves and wants to help preserve for his family that has grown to include six daughters.

"We will one day have to depend on the U.S. for our crops and our beef," he said. "That's what I'm worried about."

Van Criekingen fears farming, as he knows it, could vanish with the stroke of a bureaucrat's pen.

He and his fellow farmers resent how government bureaucrats -- who they say know very little or nothing at all about farming -- are not able to protect them from business coming into Canada from other countries, especially the U.S.

"They can come onto your land and tell you what to do," he said. "Some things, yes. But everything? No way."

HONK IN SUPPORT

As we travelled the almost 80-km route, we were joined by farmers from Prescott and Maitland that added a couple of tractors to our convoy. Residents also lined the streets and stepped out onto their porches to offer support.

Van Criekingen gets excited and beams a big smile as cars pass and honk in support. He says reactions like that from people who stop to wave and give a thumbs-up makes his efforts worth it.

He strongly believes that if he and his "brothers" don't do anything to get their message heard by the provincial and federal governments and by consumers who rely on what they produce, their business steeped in a rich agricultural history will be lost forever.

A sign we pass on the side of the road attached to a farmer's fence said it all for Van Criekingen.

"Hey look at that," he said. "Everyone should read that."

It's a sign many of us have seen along highways and on bumper stickers: "If you've eaten today, thank a farmer."

When we arrive in Brockville, I'm tired and a bit sore with "numb bum" from sitting on a "buddy" seat for so long -- a hard and unforgiving contraption about the size of a dinner plate with limited padding and likely intended for a child.

For the dozen or so farmers, they're just getting warmed up for the fight of their lives.

"I was 23 years old when I came to this country and I was ready to conquer the world," he said, with a still very thick Belgian accent. "I want my children and my grandchildren to have the life I had when I first came to Canada."