Alberta Beef Producer directors are prevented from making the best decisions for the cattle industry because they are under financial pressure from the packing plants, says the Alberta co-ordinator for the National Farmers Union.
Jon Slomp said it’s becoming increasingly difficult for the cattle organization’s board of directors to make decisions that go against the two major packing plants.
“At the ABP semi-annual meeting it became very clear that board members were not free to speak what they wanted to because it would have a direct impact on their bottom line at home,” said Slomp, who added he knows board members who wanted to support a floor price for cattle or some way of propping up the price of cattle, but were afraid to talk because they would be frozen out of cattle markets.
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“It is that kind of bullying that is taking place and is behind the inaction of our beef organizations,” said Slomp, a dairy farmer from Rimbey, Alta.
During the organization’s semi-annual meeting, a resolution calling for a government-backed inventory control program to regulate the amount of cattle shipped to packing plants was watered down to a non-legislated way to regulate the supply of cattle.
Slomp said he doesn’t blame the beef producer directors for not speaking up in support of a regulated market if they’re afraid, but added they should step down if they can’t speak freely.
“This organization has been way too complacent and has allowed the power to be hijacked and are really struggling,” said Slomp, who supports the work of the Beef Initiative Group, which is crossing the Prairies trying to publicize the ideas of more BSE testing and a producer-owned packing plant.
ABP chair Arno Doerksen said the NFU is out of touch with what the beef producers are doing.
“They don’t know what they’re talking about,” he said.
