opinion
Across the snow-swept plains of Western Canada, the debate on the future of family grain farms has begun. On the surface, it is a discussion over what marketing powers should be given to the Canadian Wheat Board. But the decision on that issue will have a huge effect on the viability of tomorrow’s family farms.
Last week, in Stettler, Alta., and Redvers, Sask., scores of farmers gathered to hear blunt debates on the wheat board marketing issue. Judging by our reporters’ accounts, both events featured healthy exchanges of views.
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Those farmers who have concerns about the board’s marketing ability, however, might have found it even more valuable if they had been able to listen in on a conversation another one of our reporters had with a 70-year-old man who was cleaning out his Winnipeg office after spending almost two decades selling farmers’ grain.
Forrest Hetland, assistant chief commissioner of the board, is retiring effective Jan. 16. The story on his retirement interview graphically summed up the major lesson he had learned in those two decades:
“Whenever he sat across the negotiating table from foreign grain buyers, there was always one thing both he and the customer knew. If they wanted to buy Canadian grain, they were going to have to buy it from him.
“That has always been a ‘tremendous advantage,’ he said, not only for him as a salesman, but for the prairie farmers whose grain he was selling.
“‘If you have another five guys sitting outside selling the same product, somebody’s going to sell at a lower price,’ he said. ‘If you’re the only seller of a product, you’re in a hell of a lot better position’.”
Meanwhile, in Stettler, wheat board commissioner Ken Beswick reminded farmers that the board provides “full service marketing,” including teaching potential customers throughout the world how to use Canadian grain to their best advantage. The open-market enthusiasts who live within a few hours’ drive of U.S. elevators couldn’t hope to do a fraction of that.
And in Redvers, Sask., Ian Cushon of the National Farmers Union said a few farmers along the border might benefit from removal of the board’s monopoly over export sales. But he raised the key issue concerning that option: “the fundamental question is, do you want to share the premium prices with farmers in Carrot River and Peace River?”
Any border-area farmers who want to answer “no” to that question should perhaps stop and think first. When those premium U.S. prices disappear in a year or two, they will need all the allies they can get. That’s what the co-operative board system is all about. It’s time for farmers to stand together.
