Western Producer staff
When editorial writers at national dailies are rushed for time, they can quickly churn out editorials bashing such banana-republic tinpot dictators as Iraq’s Saddam Hussein or the thuggish leaders of Serbia. These inept clowns would be funny if they didn’t cause so much suffering for others.
Editors at Canadian farm newspapers have equally easy targets – the lobby groups that are currently in control of U.S. farm policy.
The latest example is a 62-page “study” that contends its “research” has found the Canadian Wheat Board guilty of price-cuting and driving wheat prices down.
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As noted in our story this week, the wheat board had no trouble pointing out gross errors in this propaganda exercise – the study was $20 a tonne too low in reporting one sale, and other sales described as red spring wheat were really sales of feed wheat.
But the ludicrous aspect of this study, and of so much similar U.S. whining, is complaining about the wheat board’s ability to use central-desk selling and price confidentiality to charge different prices in different markets.
Instead of being part of some price-cutting communistic conspiracy, as U.S. wheat lobbyists want to portray it, the board is actually taking the only effective measure it can to defend the Canadian farmers it serves.
When U.S.-subsidized wheat flows into an export market, the Canadian Wheat Board has to match the price or lose sales.
There are so many export markets where U.S. subsidies apply that the board can’t afford to abandon them all. Long-term customers would be lost, and Canadian farmers would be left sitting on a mountain of unsold wheat, without cash flow.
That’s why some sales are made at low prices – because of price-depressing U.S. subsidies on U.S. wheat.
By contrast, in markets where U.S. subsidies do not apply, the board charges higher, more normal prices.
It’s that simple. Yet U.S. wheat lobbyists and U.S. politicians continue to twist facts to present a warped, distorted view of reality.
Board chairman Lorne Hehn pointed out another key element in this sorry mess. When the U.S. government applies its price-cutting subsidies, U.S. taxpayers pay the cost.
But when the wheat board is forced to respond, Canadian grain farmers suffer the loss directly through higher prices since their export sales are not subsidized.
In short, even though the U.S. government has recently moderated its subsidies, it is still subjecting Canadian farmers to economic terrorism. And U.S. farmers are still riding on the backs of U.S. taxpayers.
