All colours
I really appreciate that readers have been bringing up the incredible, award-winning film Brokeback Mountain. Unfortunately, many people’s prejudices towards the gay and lesbian community have also surfaced. It’s sad.
Do we not see that this is exactly why farmers are often viewed by city folk as being backwards and out of touch with modern life? If we can’t treat others with dignity and respect, how on earth can we expect others to treat us kindly?
We need to embrace diversity, in all its colours, be it religion, sexual orientation, dietary choice or political views. After all, farmers come in all colours too.
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Crop profitability looks grim in new outlook
With grain prices depressed, returns per acre are looking dismal on all the major crops with some significantly worse than others.
– Bruce Passmore,
Brentwood Bay, B.C.
Another colour
It was astonishing to learn recently that former prime minister Brian Mulroney has been named the greenest prime minister in Canadian history.
A magazine called Corporate Knights hosted a gala dinner in Mr. Mulroney’s honour in Ottawa. Several “environmental leaders,” some of them almost overcome with emotion, we read, explained why he should be so acclaimed.
All of this has left some of us who have laboured in the environmental trenches for most of our lives with a few questions.
Was it not Mulroney and his government that negotiated and signed the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, which has had such far-reaching and devastating impacts on the environment? This agreement transferred a large slice of our sovereignty over energy and water resources to U.S. industry with all its unfolding environmental implications. Is the tar sands project not one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions on the planet?
Was it not the Mulroney government that negotiated the NAFTA with its unprecedented Chapter 11 provision that allows American corporations to sue Canada for any law which they feel harms their business and contravenes the spirit of NAFTA?
Has not NAFTA been successfully used to overturn several Canadian environmental laws – the Ethyl MMT case and the S.D. Myers hazardous waste case, to mention just two – and placed such a chill on all levels of government in Canada that any new laws, environmental and otherwise, are now carefully vetted to make sure they are “NAFTA-compatible”?
Did not the FTA and NAFTA both state they take precedence over all other international treaties, including environmental ones to which Canada is signatory?
Have these environmental impacts of the FTA and NAFTA not been sufficiently clear for the “environmentalists” who gathered in Ottawa to kiss Mr. Mulroney’s ring? Just asking.
– David Orchard,
Borden, Sask.
Grade evolution
The Western Grain Standards Committee made a wise decision to provide sufficient lead-time before moving to reduce or eliminate use of HVK (hard vitreous kernels) as a wheat-grading factor.
It was never a “mistake” to grade on the basis of HVK, which has been used for generations as an indication of superior quality and protein in wheat. The fact that modern science now suggests otherwise is part of the evolution of grain grading.
For decades, western Canadian farmers have been able to extract value from the aesthetics presented by good-looking samples of wheat with high HVK.
This is not a minor attribute. Anyone who understands marketing knows that presentation, cleanliness and curb appeal are extremely important. It’s no different with wheat. In the big picture, HVK has been a marketing asset and a valuable addition to prairie farmers’ wheat returns.
Canadian wheat is branded as the best wheat in the world, in no small part due to the role that HVK and the Canadian grading system have played.
A key marketing attribute of Canadian wheat in the international marketplace is its superior quality. For decades, HVK has been part of that quality mix. It is important that the full economic impact of its removal be adequately assessed to ensure that such a move would be truly in the best interests of farmers.
– Earl Geddes,
VP of Product Development
and Marketing Support,
Canadian Wheat Board,
Winnipeg, Man.
Terminal query
As I am unable to attend the annual meeting of the Weyburn Inland Terminal, I am writing to express my extreme disappointment with the board of directors and the senior management of the terminal in regards to a letter that ITAC (Inland Terminal Association of Canada) sent to the new (federal) minister of agriculture.
The letter in question stated that the status quo be maintained regarding single desk and supported the monopoly for wheat and barley.
I have had numerous conversations with WIT directors and as well have sent e-mails to Mr. Davies regarding this letter. … No one wants to take responsibility for endorsing the positions put forward by ITAC.
I believe that we as shareholders deserve an explanation that will clear the air regarding this matter. After all, the terminal was not built to become another farmer owned company to do nothing but endorse wheat board policy.
The Weyburn Inland Terminal has had a proud history of being an innovator in the grain handling and transportation. The board of directors should send a clear message to shareholders and farmers in general that the terminal will begin to be more aggressive and innovative in the purchasing and selling of farmers’ grain.
If you do not, then we will sell our shares and seek investment elsewhere, and let me remind the board of directors that a vast number of shareholders that I have spoken to will do likewise.
It is imperative that the board distance itself from the letter that ITAC sent to the minister and return to the proud heritage the terminal once had.
– Herb Axten,
Minton, Sask.
Step forward
Farmers in the Rural Municipality of Porcupine are facing a unique situation this spring caused, in part, by an excessive amount of rain received during harvest last fall which left fields saturated and badly damaged by deep ruts or water-covered and unable to be combined at all.
These problems were compounded by the melting of some four and one-half feet of snow which fell during the winter. It is an insurmountable task now for these farmers to combine what’s left of their 2005 crops, level water-filled ruts and try to prepare a seed bed for this year’s planting.
Delegations from the RM have met with both the provincial and federal ministers of agriculture in Yorkton, as well as the premier of Saskatchewan in Regina. At these meetings all ministers were encouraged to address the extreme plight of area farmers.
The media – television, newspapers and radio – has shown a great deal of interest in our flood situation. Most say they have never seen farming conditions as bad as we are experiencing here….
We are encouraging both levels of government to step forward and help us through this crisis.
– Lyle Birch,
Weekes, Sask.
Tractor cruise
Why all the argument about the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly? Why not give farmers a marketing choice?
According to Cherilyn Jolly-Nagel, spokesperson for the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association, Ontario farmers have benefited greatly since they were given a marketing choice for their wheat. How can you argue with success? The price Ontario farmers now get for their wheat on the open market has made their farming operation profitable. So much so, that instead of half-tons, they now drive their tractors to Ottawa.
When western farmers are given a marketing choice, they too will be able to spend some time enjoying the scenery as they cruise to Ottawa on their tractors.
– John Capcara,
Furdale, Sask.
Image query
Does the file picture of a sow and her young enjoying a meal on a bed of straw (WP, April 6, p. 49) represent the type of operation Big Sky Farms is proposing or is it to soften factory farm images?
I really dislike being misled.
– Glow Lemon,
Princeton, B.C.
