The Canadian Wheat Board is making no apologies for spending farmers’ money to promote itself.
“I’m not sure people without an agenda would have a problem with what we’re doing,” said CWB spokesperson Deanna Allen. “They would probably say ‘it’s about time’. “
The agency came under fire from a couple of farm organizations last week over a series of advertisements published recently in 11 western Canadian newspapers, including The Western Producer.
The Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association and the Western Barley Growers Association, both vocal critics of the board’s monopoly marketing powers, said the ads are a waste of money.
Read Also
Interest in biological crop inputs continues to grow
It was only a few years ago that interest in alternative methods such as biologicals to boost a crop’s nutrient…
Wheat growers president Kevin Archibald said the “flashy” ads are designed to prop up the board’s sagging image and serve no practical purpose, especially since the board doesn’t have to compete for farmers’ business.
“We would like to know why a monopoly agency finds it necessary to advertise itself to farmers?” he said in a news release, adding that the ads provide no new information.
The ads say the CWB’s new elected board of directors gives prairie farmers a direct voice in how their grain is marketed for the first time and makes the agency more accountable to producers.
Allen said the board felt it was important to tell people about the dawn of what the ads call “a new era” at the CWB.
“Here’s a change that should be beneficial to farmers no matter what their philosophical views on single-desk selling, so we decided to highlight it through advertising,” she said.
The ads cost $75,000, an amount Allen described as “minimal” for a corporation doing $4.8 billion a year in business, making it one of the country’s top commercial organizations.
“It’s a very cost effective way of communicating something not only to farmers, but to industry and related businesses and the urban population,” she said. “This is a legitimate expense.”
Allen dismissed the wheat growers’ complaints as part of its ongoing campaign to get rid of the wheat board.
“Their agenda is to have the wheat board die a slow and probably painful death,” she said. “It’s something you would expect them to say. It’s not new but it’s also very narrow and … a bit mean-spirited.”
Barley growers past-president Buck Spencer said he received a number of telephone calls from farmers who are offended that they are paying for the board’s “self-congratulatory” ads.
“If the federal government wants to promote the merits of contentious public policy, it should use public money to do so, not farmers’ money,” he said.
Allen added it’s ironic that the board, which has been criticized for not communicatingwell enough with producers, should be taken to task for running the ads.
While the board has advertised in the past, material has usually been related to specific events such as producer meetings, crop dem-onstration plots, contract sign-up dates or the recent Canadian Transportation Agency complaint against the railways.
Running so-called image advertisements is “a bit of a departure” for the agency, said Allen, adding that the board’s image is not that great in some circles.
