A satellite view of North America last Friday showed huge masses of dark clouds covering most of Western Canada and a broad strip stretching down west of the Mississippi River.
There were clear skies over most of the Prairie grainbelt, but from the orbital perspective it appeared like a small patch of land, in danger of being overwhelmed from three sides by the masses of dark clouds.
The sight emphasized how vulnerable and fragile are the harvest-time hopes of farm families. Shifts in the weather that are minor on a global scale could play havoc with crop yields and quality.
Read Also

Late season rainfall creates concern about Prairie crop quality
Praying for rain is being replaced with the hope that rain can stop for harvest. Rainfall in July and early August has been much greater than normal.
But farmers’ vulnerability is not limited to the weather. Global market forces can send commodity prices soaring or plummeting. The effect of a warm ocean current or a rumor circulating among Chicago traders can be felt throughout prairie agriculture.
No one can change the weather, or reverse long-term market trends. But, through co-operation, prairie farm families have over the decades built institutions to help themselves cope with the risks of farming.
Farmer-controlled elevator co-operatives helped ensure fair treatment for farmers, as well as retaining for them the profits from handling their grain.
Similar benefits came as farmers joined others in building consumer co-operatives and credit unions.
But there were setbacks. Despite several years of effort, farmers were unable to revive the Canadian Wheat Board of 1919-20 that had been created as an emergency measure in unstable post-war markets. Unable to get government to meet their needs, farmers decided to do it themselves.
In their most ambitious project, they created the wheat pools to market their wheat and provide the same pooled price to all, as the wheat board had done. For five years, they succeeded magnificently, until the worldwide collapse of stock and commodity markets proved that any system of price pooling and initial payments requires the financial resources of government.
The need for a wheat board was in sharp focus again, but farm organizations struggled for more than a decade before achieving success. First came a toothless board in 1935. Wartime emergency powers gave the board the essential monopoly over wheat exports, but it took continued pressure to ensure that the board’s powers were not eroded after the war.
Far from being a wartime accident, today’s Canadian Wheat Board came as the result of a quarter-century of farmers’ efforts. That heritage does not give it immunity from criticism, but it does make it something more than just another government agency.