WINNIPEG – Farmers have always been good at dealing with change, but the president of Keystone Agricultural Producers said changes coming this year may be greater than ever.
“This is a little scary,” said Les Jacobson, addressing the Manitoba general farm lobby group’s annual meeting last week. “But this will make us all stop and think about what we want our future to look like.”
Members of the diverse group didn’t have an easy time agreeing on some of the important policies for 1996.
One group resolved that KAP support a continental system for wheat and barley to allow farmers to sell their own grain to the United States. Another group wanted KAP to be more vocal in supporting the Canadian Wheat Board.
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Lorne Hulme said Manitoba producers have the advantage of being closer to large U.S. markets than farmers in Saskatchewan and Alberta, and should be able to use it.
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Ed Rempel said the Crow Benefit rail freight subsidy for grain and the seaway pooling were “the glue that held farmers together … the way I look at it, I am now in a hand-to-hand battle with other producers.”
Hulme also said Keystone would attract more members if it supported dual marketing. “Let’s lead the Manitoba farm community on this issue.”
In the past KAP has supported the CWB, but has encouraged it to make changes.
Bill Morningstar, a KAP executive member, said the policy allows the group room to negotiate. Defeating or passing either resolution would make the lobby less effective.
But delegates like Brad Mroz said the policy is too soft in its support. “You can’t take a stand on middle ground,” Mroz argued.
Weldon Newton added while the wheat board needs some changes, so do the railways, grain companies and the Winnipeg Commodity Exchange. In the end, delegates voted to table both resolutions.
Delegates agreed to disagree on how the government should distribute St. Lawrence Seaway pooling adjustment funds.
For the next two years, four groups of delegates had four different ideas:
- Distribute the money the same way.
- Use it for research.
- Divide it among all arable acres of land to help all farmers with diversification.
- Deposit it in net income stabilization accounts.
All four resolutions were defeated. But Owen McAuley, a departing vice-president, urged the organization to decide its position soon.
McAuley, who is on the Western Grain Marketing Panel, said he believes the government will determine in the next few months where it will put the money.
