PORTAL, North Dakota – Five days after the July 4 fireworks, American farmers tried some noise, light and heat of their own.
“Our politicians aren’t listening. This is our way of making sure they hear us. Our own fireworks,” said Ron Selzler, a Knox, North Dakota, farmer.
Selzler and 100 other farmers, their families and 29 tractors slowed traffic, but stopped no trucks, at Saskatchewan’s busiest American border point for five hours July 9. They protested their governments’ foreign trade policies, especially those affecting Canada. A similar but larger rally was held at the Sweetgrass, Montana, border crossing south of Lethbridge, Alta., where more than 600 American farmers and ranchers assembled.
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“We (farmers) can’t continue to be traded off when the politicians go to the table to talk trade,” said Selzler.
The farmers said the border blockade was their way of showing politicians that farmers in Montana and the Dakotas intend to be heard. The issue, say the farmers, is low commodity prices, which they blame partly on Canadian imports.
Reveal subsidies
Kurt Trulson, of Ross, N.D., a member of the farmer coalition called Those Guys, said: “We want to see to our satisfaction that the Canadian government is not subsidizing Canadian farmers through that state trading agency, the Canadian Wheat Board. Why is Canadian grain being sold down here at below our cost of production? It just drives down our prices.”
Others complained that Canadian products don’t always meet American health and safety standards and without country-of-origin labeling, Americans don’t know where their food is coming from.
David Nelson, who farms at Keene, N.D., drove his green pick-up truck, loaded with eight other farmers, back and forth in front of video-taping state patrol officers, U.S. Customs Service guards and highway tractor-trailer trucks to call attention to what he feels is a pattern of behavior by his elected representatives.
“I’ve seen them (politicians) do it before. Soon they’ll pass some more bills that throw a little money our way and they hope we’ll just go back to our farms and forget. Money
isn’t the answer here. This is about trade policies that help sustain the family farm. A few bucks isn’t going to solve the problem. It will come back. I hope these younger farmers out here will realize, along with our politicians, that we need to fix our trade policies once and for all. For all farmers,” said Nelson.
The farmers at the rally also called for further investigations into what they allege is the dumping of Canadian cattle into American markets and for their government to examine the role large and multinational agricultural corporations play in the U.S. economy.
Organizers billed the event as part of a national day of protest to save rural America.
Bob Thomas is a Canadian farmer who attended the Portal rally. As the president of the Bengough Rally Association and the organizer of a some recent rallies in Prince Albert and Regina, Sask., he saw similarities between his own plight and that of his American neighbors.
“We are all suffering from the same problems,” said Thomas. “Lack of support on the part of government. Lack of will to stand up for farmers because they don’t provide enough political pressure. This protest isn’t about us (Canadian farmers.) It is about the attitude of government towards farmers on both sides of the border.”
Despite the turnout and the aim of the group to draw the attentions of their politicians, no elected officials attended the rally or voiced much support for the action.
Washington trade lawyer Terry Stewart, hired to advise the group told them: “You will get further, faster with a government if you take them someplace they want to go. You have to find ways to make them want to go in your direction. For that you will need urban support. Urban people side with you on importance of American farming but you may need to remind them that you are out here and that there is a problem. The next step may be to increase public awareness of your difficulties.”
