RED DEER – Focus on Sabbatical is focusing on Brazil.
Organizer Ken Goudy has already visited the country, and five days of
meetings with Brazilian farm leaders are scheduled for later this month
in the capital city of Brasilia.
The group wants farmers in Canada, United States, Australia, Argentina
and Brazil to cut back grain production by eight billion bushels in one
year. It believes this could create enough of a shortage to shore up
world grain prices.
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Goudy told a recent meeting in Red Deer that the Brazilians must sign
onto the plan or American farmers will bail out.
He said he’s confident the Brazilians will get on board.
“Brazil did two things for me. It showed me this thing needs to be
solved and showed me that they were interested in being involved.”
He said low grain prices are not a dip in the market, but a long-term
trend on an international scale that only farmers can resolve.
The plan calls for a cutback of 4.5 billion bushels of feed grain, two
billion of wheat and 1.5 billion of oilseeds in a single year. This
could work if farmers don’t plant a third of their acreage, he added.
Brazil’s rapid agricultural expansion, particularly in the soybean
market, places more pressure on a saturated market, Goudy said. More
farmland is opening every year. Land prices are relatively low at about
$200 per acre, labour and input costs are cheap, and growing conditions
are nearly perfect.
The Brazilians are threatened by American farm support programs, which
they feel distort world prices and production, he said.
“Brazil is very open to trying to do something to curb production and
move the U.S. subsidy out of the way.”
The group hopes to convince Brazilian farmers to take large tracts out
of production, for which they would receive $70 an acre in the form of
rent.
In North America, farmers are asked to buy one share per acre taken out
of production. Canadian farmers would pay $15 and American farmers
would pay between $15-$30. He is confident banks would lend farmers the
money that would be invested. If the program fails, the money is
returned.
However, the Red Deer audience appeared skeptical that the idea can fly
in Alberta. Many feed their grain to livestock, and convincing them to
cut back on grain production might be a hard sell.
Farmers are asked to buy $250 memberships to fund the campaign. They
are also encouraged to sell the concept to their neighbours.
So far about 1,000 memberships have been sold.
Goudy said Focus on Sabbatical will announce in advance when to
mobilize, but no decisions have been reached.
