Similar to the way he once challenged the Canadian Wheat Board, Rod Flaman tackled the issue of his support for the single desk seller head on.
The director running for another term began a speech to 30 people at a District 8 candidates’ meeting in Regina saying that six years ago he was a good friend of one of his dual market opponents, Art Mainil.
In 1998, Flaman stood before a similar meeting and identified the board as the problem for western Canadian grain farmers.
Four years ago he was elected and he changed his mind.
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“I’m a free enterpriser and a capitalist,” he said Nov. 10. “I believe in competition. I think it’s a good thing.”
But he said competition in the grain industry is not like a Rona store opening to compete with Home Depot.
“Today, there are four companies that control 75 percent of the world trade in grain,” he said.
Those companies are also the world’s largest food processors. Flaman quoted from an Archer Daniels Midland News release
news citing soaring company profits from low grain prices. The big companies also hurt farmers by buying lower quality wheat from European countries.
His change in philosophy was challenged during the question period, when someone asked how Flaman could explain abandoning the people who supported him four years ago.
“It would be irresponsible to continue supporting a position that is not supported by the facts a person is made aware of,” he replied.
“The problem is not the monopoly. The problem is not single-desk selling. The problem is the pooling system that acts as a barrier between the producer and the market.”
One of his dual market opponents, Ron Saal of Milestone, has pledged to resign if he was elected and changed his position.
“I feel so strongly about my position,” Saal said, adding that any director who changes his or her mind should step down.
“We need accountability, we need fairness and we need choice,” he added.
Terry Hanson, the Fillmore, Sask., farmer defeated by Flaman four years ago, said he decided to run again because the board continues to be under attack domestically and internationally. He said it must remain a single desk seller but it has to change.
The board alone should set initial prices and determine when interim and adjustment payments are made. The present process is too slow, he said.
Paul Beingessner, of Truax, Sask., said the board has a role to play in educating farmers about issues and it has to be more aggressive in defending farmers’ interests.
For example, the board should once again take the grain companies to task for giving farmers who want to sell malting barley on the driveway the lowest grade.
“They’ve attempted to be the honest broker, the guy who keeps peace in the middle,” he said.
Mainil, of Benson, was blunt in his assessment of what the board should be or do. He likened it to a horse-and-buggy system in today’s world.
“The wheat board’s had it,” he said.
