Kelly Shockman’s analysis (Don’t call it a marketing system, WP Feb. 28) was so accurate that it nearly took my breath away.
Those who took part in the non-delivery strike of 1946 saw the stupidities of the so-called system and asked for governments to take action.
Nothing was done, and the agricultural sector of Western Canada (and, I suspect, of the western U.S.) has been underdeveloping ever since, while it subsidized all the other sectors with cheap food.
The task we face in inventing a workable system is truly daunting. Almost all of our politicians are “market forces” in their thinking and they cannot, or will not, see that a problem exists.
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Higher farmland taxes for investors could solve two problems
The highest education and health care land tax would be for landlords, including investment companies, with no family ties to the land.
Those who have profited have become very rich and powerful, and will oppose any moves to change things. And our farmers on the land, instead of seeing the need for co-operation with their counterparts in the U.S., in Argentina, in Australia and elsewhere have swallowed the line that competition is the answer.
However, Shockman’s letter encourages me to believe that some good minds are thinking about a solution.
– Allen Ronaghan,
Edmonton, Alta.
