GM and politics
I read with interest the Jan. 21 article in The Western Producer about my private member’s bill C-474, “NDP MP’s GM bill worries canola industry.”
The article gives voice to the industry preference to avoid the market analysis of new genetically modified crops being proposed by this bill and presents a rather hollow argument that this could put a chill on research and development.
It struck me that there was absolutely no acknowledgement of the market reality which exists internationally towards GM. The recent loss of our flax markets due to contamination by GM Triffid makes it pretty clear that a GM technology that is not accepted by our major export markets has no economic value whatsoever. …
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Going beyond “Resistant” on crop seed labels
Variety resistance is getting more specific on crop disease pathogens, but that information must be conveyed in a way that actually helps producers make rotation decisions.
Is it not more prudent to learn from the crisis of GM flax contamination and take concrete measures to protect our export markets?
The industry warns against introducing politics into GM approvals in Canada but my bill is about economics, not politics.
What are the economic realities for farmers if GM alfalfa or GM wheat are introduced, for example? Is the possibility of market closure an acceptable risk? … The reality is that GM contamination happens and is hurting farmers in Canada.
Flax farmers knew that the threat of GM contamination was a danger to their European markets. Unfortunately, they were right. …
The biotech industry may wish to avoid this economic reality but the people’s government should not have that luxury. Bill C-474 is meant to ensure that the government provides an analysis of the level of market acceptance before permitting the introduction of new GM seeds.
I believe this is a necessary step to ensure that farmers are protected from unwanted GM contamination that could actually destroy their business.
Alex Atamanenko
NDP Agriculture Critic
Castlegar, B.C.
Costing review
Recently, the railways have been intensely lobbying the Conservatives to permanently postpone the rail costing review that farmers have been anxiously awaiting.
Could it be that the railways are earning excessive returns on grain freight and they are afraid what a costing review might reveal?
According to the analysis by Producer Car Shippers of Canada, the railways are definitely earning unreasonable returns. Let’s have a costing review to find out.
The Conservatives have solid representation on the Prairies so farmers should expect the government to proceed with the rail costing review as originally promised. They must not allow the railways to talk them out of having a complete costing review.
Eric Sagan,
Melville, Sask.
Grocery prices
I read Randall Miller’s views on co-ops in the Jan. 21 Western Producer.
Co-ops were a great idea and still are but I cannot afford to shop in them. Just compare grocery prices in the Co-op flyer with prices in Super-Store, No-Frills, Save-On-Foods.
I am a member of the Barrhead Co-op, the nearest one to where I live, but I rarely shop there.
I can drive the same distance to No-Frills in Morinville, Alta., and get everything I need a lot cheaper.
I do not need to shop in an expensive Co-op just to get some dividends back that I really am paying for in the first place. It’s great to shop locally but at the same time please keep the prices reasonable…
Elaine Sloan,
Busby, Alta.
Car thief jail
Re: “Foiling thieves,” Open Forum, Feb. 4.
John Hamon bemoans the fact that the new, more secure cars require $120 keys. He implies that he would like all of us to go back to the good old days, when a car key cost $2.
No, thanks.
Most vehicles that are stolen are usually left unlocked with the keys in them. Sometimes the engine is also running and occasionally an infant is on board.
Therefore, it matters not whether the vehicle uses a $2 key or a $120 key, the invitation is there.
Hamon also implies that it would be better for all the motorists in Canada to each pay $50 for the building of a jail with burglar proof locks on the front door, than to pay for burglar proof cars.
If the motorists paid for such a jail, then it would have to be dedicated to car thieves only, and no one else.
In order for the said jail to have residents in it, these people would first have to be able to steal a car, be caught, charged, convicted and sentenced.
As it would not be good to have such a jail to sit empty, perhaps Mr. Hamon would be willing to own and have a $2 keyed, unburglarproof car stolen so as to get at least one car thief into the car thief jail.
Like the unlocked Chevy that he mentions, it would be no big deal.
Don Budesheim,
Grande Prairie, Alta.
Haitian difference
A group is planning to go to Haiti to make concrete foundations to prevent the shacks from being swept away in hurricanes in the heavy rainy season.
This may help a few families but much more is needed to improve the situation in Haiti.
A few days ago, I listened to a native Haitian, who had designed the Montana Hotel, which was badly damaged in the quake. What he would like to see done is the building of a series of small dams, using mostly local labour, on the many water runs in the mountain range separating Haiti from the Dominican Republic.
This morning, Jan. 25, on CBC they aired a good explanation of the difference between the two countries and why the very great difference other than language.
The very noticeable contrast is the colour. While the east part of the Republic side is green, the west part of Haiti is generally brown.
Why the great contrast?
The east slopes have kept a tree cover, which slows the soil erosion and there are probably dams and reservoirs to make power and irrigation possible in the dry season.
While the Dominican Republic has a thriving tourist business and tropical fruits and vegetables to export with no talk of a hungry or starving population, only a few kilometres to the west the situation, even before the quake, was a sharp contrast.
Why such a difference? There are about four million, about one-third under age 15 and most hungry.
About 60 years ago I remember reading a short article in The Catholic Digest. I remember the comment that hunger is a sex stimulant. Could this be part of Haiti’s problem?
On another report I heard that not all the babies put up for adoption are orphans. The parents have more children than they can feed or nourish properly.
Lester Jorgenson,
Abbey, Sask.
Emission collection
I was shocked when I saw (the) photo and read in your Feb. 11 issue about researchers harnessing up cattle with methane collection apparatuses to measure the cow’s methane missions.
What came to mind was that they are doing their tests on the wrong species. All that the cow wants in life is to eat grass or hay and to rest under a shade tree. What could be more environmentally friendly than that?
I would like to challenge politicians and scientists of this country to tackle the root of our pollution problems.
See what you can do about smog in big cities, waste at nuclear power stations or emissions at the tar sands development.
The problem is that the species found at these places is somewhat more ornery than the poor cow.
For the politicians, it’s all about looking green and perceiving to be doing something about greenhouse gas emissions.
For the scientists, it’s all about how to qualify for more government funding for research that will not rile the big money boys or step on the wrong toes.
I wonder if our politicians or our growing number of senators could be fitted with such a harness to measure how much greenhouse gasses are wasted while they travel to meetings to discuss global warming or travel to the Olympic games.
Sometimes they even travel to Ottawa, but that’s only when parliament is in session.
Nelson Ferris,
Hines Creek, Alta.
More about Hayek
Ken Larsen and Horst Schreiber’s letters to the Editor (WP, Jan. 28 and Feb. 4) show a lack of understanding about the ideas and achievements of Fredric Von Hayek.
Before Hayek, Canadians had to deal with high inflation, a poor economy and high unemployment. Wage and price controls were instituted by the Trudeau government to control inflation.
With inflation, market prices still contain information about scarcity, but they also convey other information that has little to do with scarcity. In particular, they carry information about perceptions of the overall inflation rate. Wage and price controls increased the uncertainty of the situation and did little to control inflation, which was about 14 percent at this time.
Hayek’s ideas were followed by Ronald Reagan. He cut the supply of money and the rate of inflation dropped. Since 1992, the inflation rate has been about two percent. The world economy has had 30 years of growth.
The imposition of wage and price controls was very controversial, to say the least. One well-known academic even described them as “how to do a lot of harm by trying to do a little good.” Hayek has shown, and it is generally recognized now, that government involvement in the economy does not work…..
To put Hayek’s ideas in the old communism-capitalism scheme is wrong. Canada is a mature society. The number of grain buying companies has shrunk to four with the loss of free market competition. The probability of another railroad being built is small. …
A Canadian example of government stupidity or complicity is the Conservative government’s failure to stop rail line abandonment. These abandonments remove the farmer options in marketing his products.
If other grain companies could be persuaded to build terminals at the ports, then farmers could sell producer cars of products to them, bringing more companies into the picture.
Clark Lysne,
Wetaskiwin, Alta.
‘Wallster’ disappoints
How things have a way of changing. When (Saskatchewan premier) Brad Wall was the leader of the opposition, there wasn’t anything he couldn’t do. No matter what the request, the Saskatchewan Party leader promised he would make it happen if we just gave him the chance.
Like the TV commercials hawking Sham Wows or Slap Chops, the affable huckster from Swift Current made claims that sounded too good to be true. And so it was, but many of us went for the bait.
Now, with the $2 billion left behind by the NDP gone, and another $1 billion added to the debt, our grinning huckster has billboards all over the province telling us everything is just fine.
Well, whether it is the money promised to cities and towns, which has now become a distant memory, meaning higher property taxes for all of us, or the children’s hospital which has been shelved, or the ever-growing surgical wait lists, or the ever decreasing number of doctors in rural Saskatchewan, we are reminded daily what a great opposition politician the Wallster was.
Too bad he’s such a disappointment as a premier.
Lucile McPartlin,
Regina, Sask.
