PRO-DEMOCRACY
When Alberta Milk was formed, all licensed producers were members of this organization on a mandatory basis. It was said that this membership gave every licensed producer the right to run for office as a delegate and director.
However, the Alberta Milk board made a unilateral change.
Now, before a producer’s name may stand for election, the individual must sign a document wherein the producer confirms loyalty to the board and agrees to not speak publically against the board and to support all decisions made by the board. This suggests that an elected individual will represent the board solely, and not the producers they were elected by. The Alberta Milk board has given itself the authority to remove licensed producers from the hierarchy if they don’t uphold this code. This “code of ethics” is a misnomer, as it does not include any standards of morality. If members dare to speak out against this centralized democracy, they will be responded to with bullying, coercion and profanity.
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High prices see cow-calf producers rushing to incorporate
Farm accountants are reporting a steady stream of cow-calf producers rushing to get their operations incorporated ahead of selling their calves this fall.
So why did Alberta Milk decide to take this route? I had to dig into some available documents from Alberta Milk, in which all directions point to the board developed firm STRIVE. This organization promotes the avoidance of conflict by any means necessary.
To accomplish this, they encourage leaders to actively recruit candidates for positions of authority to ensure only “like minded” individuals are elected. As outlined by STRIVE, an invaluable tool to achieve this is a “code of ethics” policy. This policy is a measure used in the screening process of possible candidates.
This concept of avoiding conflict is quite common as documented in a North American study discussed in a Ted Talks episode, “Dare to Disagree.” Eighty-five percent of organizations admitted to not knowing how to effectively handle conflict. Therefore, they instinctively cuddle up with echo chambers.
Conflict avoidance and selective blindness leads managers and organizations astray. Some organizations have adopted the belief that constructive disagreements are invaluable to progress. These groups are unafraid of differing ideas and encourage critical thinking to achieve a goal. This is a more democratic approach to management. I encourage everyone to watch Margaret Heffernan’s Ted Talks titled “Dare to Disagree” to better understand this philosophy.
I strongly believe that it is time to stand up for true democracy and return to its roots, the original ideas that shaped this form of management. Elected individuals should represent the vision of the people not the vision of one’s own mind.
Rients Palsma,
Independent Milk Producers
of Alberta
DO OR DON’T
For the second time, McDonald’s Restaurants rejects the GMO potato.
Patrick Moore says it’s another in the “myriad examples of the success of the anti-science brigade in blackmailing big corporations. There is now an anti-intellectual element that doesn’t care a hoot about people. There is no logic or science involved — only ideology and ignorance.”
Former USDA-contract organic inspector Mischa Popoff says executives are the “weak link” here. “If these executives ran the computer industry we’d all still be using keystrokes and DOS commands instead of a mouse. You either support agricultural technology, or you don’t. And the executives at McDonald’s have spoken: they don’t.”
Mischa Popoff,
Greenville, Texas
MAKING CHOICES
U.S. researchers have identified a new strain of a hog disease that has wiped out millions of baby pigs, a sign the virus will keep mutating as producers work to contain it.
As long as producers continue to raise animals in the confines of being factory assembled, as so many hogs are in our modern society today, there will continue to be new diseases and viruses to challenge them.
Perceived expectations of hope will not suffice or bring relief to such a situation.
The responsibility and compassion of how animals will be raised rests entirely with those who are in charge for they, as all of us, have been given the option of making choices. Good, bad or indifferent, the consequences of those choices are theirs alone to bear.
All animals, as with humans, require fresh air, light and freedom to move about, enabling them to remain healthy and be free from suffering.
Breathing fumes from the sewage pits below them in their state of captivity lowers their resistance, and elevates a short term and unhealthy existence.
John Fefchak,
Virden, Man.
New budget
The Saskatchewan Green Party is eager for the Brad Wall government to trim spending. The Wall government has increased spending by 71 percent since it came to power in 2007 and now faces the possibility of posting a budget deficit with the fall of oil prices. Saskatchewan Green Party leader Victor Lau says if premier Wall is going to deal with the accumulated $19 billion debt, he should consider the following moves:
• Chop the Ministry of the Economy. Government involvement in the economy should be kept to a minimum. In fact, the Saskatchewan Party is supposed to be opposed to government interference in the economy, so why have a Ministry of the Economy?
• Go back to 58 seats in the Saskatchewan legislature — the idea of adding seats to the assembly is wasteful and does little to improve our democracy.
• Cut the budget for Executive Council by half — the government can make do with half the people than it has now.
• Stop funding false ideas like clean coal technology and carbon capture. In opposition, the Sask Party MLAs used to hound the NDP on failed projects like Spudco and Channel Lake. The government should learn from this.
• Cut off third party entities like the Saskatchewan Association of Health Organizations and the Quality Health Council — let these agencies generate their own funding.
• Return Tourism Saskatchewan into an arm’s-length agency with a voluntary board. The Sask Party should never have used this agency for patronage appointments.
What is really disturbing is that the Wall government ever increased spending by 71 percent in the first place. But now there is an opportunity for this government to redeem itself. Employment involvement will ensure that real change takes place.
Victor Lau
Regina, Sask.
Grain marketing
The Canadian Wheat Board was a profitable grain marketing entity managed by duly elected farmers. Purchase of wheat and barley was based on quality and quantity. Delivery was orderly, driven by the need to attain satisfaction for the customers and maximum profitability for the producers.
Every bushel, every tonne sold to the CWB was considered a share in the company. After deductions for operating and marketing expenses, every share returned a complete profit to the producers — a profit that did not have to be shared with other stakeholders.
Near the end of its existence, the CWB was paying farmers for some on-farm storage. It is very unlikely that this option will ever be presented by the grain companies.
The federal government, while it wraps itself in Canadian flags and espouses the virtues of democracy, could not accord farmers the same privilege regarding the existence of the CWB. It felt that its political standing would be enhanced if it abolished the CWB. To do this, it took the word freedom, a friendly, positive word, and stuck the word marketing in front of it.
Many farmers were taken in by this concept. If they had been presented with the late Tommy Douglas phrase, “Everybody for himself said the elephant as he danced amongst the chickens” they would have envisioned themselves becoming marketing elephants. Reality is demonstrating that they have become something else.
Merle Harth,
Regina, Sask.
