In a recent television program on useless inventions, I found one I’m sure would be useful around our house – dust slippers for cats. Made of wool, these slippers are meant to be placed on kitty’s paws; as the beastie frolics through the house, it will also be cleaning, picking up dust bunnies as it goes.
Thinking about the dust slippers for cats reminds me of the Canadian Wheat Board, which many people have also recently characterized as being useless.
The wheat board is on the minds of everyone in grain-growing country these days. On a trip to Manitoba on the long weekend, in the office and at the coffee shop, the talk turns to the board and its fate. The fax machine has been working overboard churning out letters and press releases from groups and individuals on both sides of the issue. The wheat board even got involved, last week faxing out a three-page handwritten letter of support from a Manitoba farmer.
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It was a good letter, but to my mind didn’t help the board’s cause much, as it was based on emotion rather than fact, and emotion is something which we’ve had almost too much of in this debate.
One woman I talked to, who was ambivalent about which way the industry should go, was being swayed in the direction of the board by anti-board rhetoric, which has characterized board supporters as being old-fashioned. She didn’t like being told she was 50 years behind the times.
I admit to having, from time to time, serious doubts about a marketing board which gives me no choice in the price I get for my crop and, in years when I may not make cost of production, has employees which still take home healthy salaries.
However, if the board is done away with, you can substitute grain companies for the marketing board and the scenario remains the same. I do have an option right now; I can grow non-board grains and never have to market through the wheat board, maintaining my freedom of choice when and where to sell and to get the best price I can.
I know if I grow wheat or barley I will have to market it through the wheat board. I have all the freedom I want to grow what I want.
For the future, it may be that the best thing agriculture minister Ralph Goodale can do is retain the board for those who want it and let those who don’t want it go their way as free marketers.
Let there be no mistake, though: once a farmer makes a decision to cut loose from the wheat board there should be no going back. A choice is a choice is a choice.
