The demise of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association should serve as a wake-up call to farmers and farm organizations of all political stripes, say leaders.
“I think there’s a lesson in this for all of us, including the Canadian Wheat Board,” said wheat board chair Ken Ritter.
“We really have to work hard to stay in touch with farmers and make sure we’re doing what they want.”
Wheat growers member Dan Hochhausen of Strome, Alta., said the lesson arising from the disappearance of the wheat growers is that farmers can no longer afford to be splintered into many small lobby groups.
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“I would hope that the other farm organizations all use this as a wake-up call and work to develop one unified voice,” he said.
“You don’t need 10 farm groups. You might need two or three at most.”
National Farmers Union president Stewart Wells is aware of how difficult it is to maintain membership in a voluntary farm organization during a time of shrinking farm numbers and reduced income.
Wells is no fan of the wheat growers, disagreeing with the association on almost every significant issue and describing it as a “shill” for grain companies, railways, chemical companies and the like.
He said the association has had too much influence with the federal government, which liked its message of deregulation and the need for more commercial systems and often pointed to the wheat growers as proof of farmer support for such policies.
But despite all that, Wells said he took no pleasure in the news that WCWGA is suspending operations as of June 30.
It’s important to have a thorough debate of the issues facing farmers, he said, and the wheat growers always made a vigorous presentation of its point of view.
“If it actually leads to fewer farmers being involved in the whole farm politics scene, that would be bad,” he said. “We need more farmers to be involved, not fewer.”
Terry Hildebrandt, president of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan, said while the wheat growers association had many hard-working people and accomplished much during its history, in recent years it seemed out of step with views of most farmers and didn’t work well with other groups.
“I think the wheat growers tended to want to go their own way,” he said.
Wheat board chair Ritter said the association was once a force for positive changes, such as the introduction of protein pricing for wheat, but in recent years it had become obsessed with its opposition to the CWB and lost credibility with farmers.
Longtime wheat grower member Bill Cooper said he has heard that criticism, but made no apologies.
“Somebody had to say something about the board,” he said from his farm near West Bend, Sask.
Ritter added the end of the WCWGA doesn’t mean the open market philosophy will disappear from the farm policy debate.
“There is rarely a vacuum in politics,” he said. “If there is a policy viewpoint that is missing, somebody will step in and take it up.”
Wheat growers chair Tim Harvie said that those who disagree with the association may be “doing cartwheels” at last week’s news, but it could come back to haunt them.
“If the left-wingers get their way unopposed and things get worse, maybe the right-wingers will get the fire in their belly and get something going again,” Harvie said, adding that things may have to get worse before they get better.
