Letters to the editor

Vintage wheat

While making my weekly bread this morning, I began to wonder what really does happen to our wheat after it leaves our bins?

2004 was a bad year for us, one of the worst in our 35 years of farming. Our losses were astronomical and we were left worse off than if we had let the land lie fallow. Weather, prices, everything seemed to conspire against us as it did for many farmers here in our area.

This spring as is usual when last year’s wheat was cleaned for seeding, about six bushels were set aside for our bread for the coming year. It was a bit depressing because this wheat graded only at feed quality and we understandably like to have good bread.

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But we had a surprise; this feed wheat made the best bread we’ve had for years, perhaps even the best ever.

It wasn’t just a fluke as I’ve made bread half a dozen times now with this wheat. Nor was it the variety of wheat, though that does make a difference in bread quality, as it’s the same variety we’ve grown for eight years. My recipe, grinder, and technique have remained the same for the past 30 years.

No, it’s simply that our 2004 feed wheat has something special about it. The loaves rise high and don’t sag even the least bit; the texture is even, fluffy, and elastic; the colour golden and the flavour extraordinarily good.

If bread was respected as wine is, 2004 would come to be known as one of the great Ôvintage’ bread-wheat years of northern Alberta, with that year’s wheat treasured up in special bins all over the world.

Instead it’s apparently going down the road as feed.

Ñ Joy Friesen,

Fort Vermilion, Alta.

Farmers decide

In the May 12 issue of the Western Producer it was noted that politicians on both sides of the House of Commons plan changes to the Canadian Wheat Board following the upcoming federal election. I read these comments with great interest.

While the federal government, regardless which party forms it, will be a partner in reshaping the CWB, the future direction of the CWB is a decision the farmers of Western Canada have a right to make.

Currently, like any well-run business, the CWB does plan for the future, after carefully considering the changes in the grain business and options available for change.

In fair and open elections, my fellow farmers have entrusted farmer-elected directors to run their marketing organization and prepare it for the future. We as prairie farmers had the right to choose both who represents us at the board table, and our marketing system.

These decisions should not and must not be determined by politicians or trade negotiators in Ottawa, Washington or Brussels.

Rather, the farmers of the Prairies should make these decisions, for we have to live with their consequences.

Ñ Ken Ritter,

Chair, board of directors,
Canadian Wheat Board,

Winnipeg, Man.

River protection

I wonder how many farmers and ranchers look forward to spending holiday time fishing or pursuing some kind of wilderness recreation?

Every June, I anticipate a week or two of canoeing in northern Saskatchewan. My favourite destination is the Churchill River. No finer wilderness river can be found anywhere in Canada.

Many people will be shocked to learn that government and industry are poised to strike the Churchill River Basin with large scale industrial logging. In the 1970s, governmental plans for hydro dams on the Churchill were soundly defeated by a wide ranging public outcry. The imminent threat of clear cut logging will forever alter the pristine character of this great historical waterway, unless the public once again rallies to the river’s defence.

The carrot to develop this region is jobs, but automation in the forestry industry will mean much less employment than promised. It’s the same thing that the combine and round baler did to farming Ñ more production but fewer jobs.

Even with the arrival of Weyerhaeuser, the population of Hudson Bay, Sask., has declined from 2,700 to 1,700.

There is a campaign right across Canada to preserve the remaining boreal forest. Industrial logging on fragile precambrian shield lands will be an experiment with a high price to pay.

Instead, governments should be promoting ecotourism, encouraging northern residents to work in harmony with the land. The recreational value of intact wilderness should not be underestimated as the amount of wilderness left on our planet continues to rapidly shrink. É

What better way can our provincial government help our people celebrate our centennial year than by giving official protection to the Churchill River area.

Ñ Dave Bober,

Hudson Bay, Sask.

Dire straits

Government MPs: as our responsible member and representative in Parliament, I am asking you for your help. I cannot pay my bills, I cannot retire, I cannot sell my land, my children see no future on the farm and have left.

Without some divine or government intervention, I may have to leave the land to the discretion of the banks or the vultures and go on welfare. When we learn of all the money that was absconded by the government in the sponsorship scandal, surely there is a little left for the prairie farmer.

The problem is that expenses far outweigh revenue. Fuel, chemical, machinery and repair costs are through the roof with 50 percent taxes on fuel and chemicals.É

Here is one comparison: the profit from one bushel of No. 1 high protein wheat or durum will not pay for one gallon of gasoline or diesel fuel. Grain prices are $1 to $2 less than they were in the 1970s, while fuel and machinery has risen 1,000 percent in cost. É

The proposed federal subsidy at less than $4 an acre is a joke. We need at least $50 to $60 per acre to break even. Some of the money that has been going to Quebec could now be funneled toward the prairie farmers where people are living well below the poverty line.

The Crow Benefit was taken from us and our rail line was removed, so that we are now subject to freight and handling that take more than one-third of our income.

In other words, for every three hopper car loads of grain we truck to the terminals, we pay one car load for freight and handling. This É does not take into consideration all the other expenses such as seed, spray, insurance, fuel, machinery, repairs and labour.

It is time the Canadian government started taking care of its own, the prairie farmers, who have provided the backbone of this nation instead of putting so much energy into the World Trade Organization rules.

The Canadian prairie farmer’s ability to make a living must take precedence over the rules of some international organization. We need a larger subsidy to survive.

The grain farmer is the only operator who is in such dire straits. The cattle rancher is in a better situation. For the past 10 or 15 years, calf prices have been at record high prices. Even with BSE in the past two three years they have only been 20-30 percent lower, which still puts ranching in a profitable situation. We need help.

Ñ Richard L. Bicknell,

Empress, Alta.

Devilish deal

Recently, Regina Qu’Appelle Conservative MP Andrew Scheer was quoted as saying that Paul Martin, in signing a deal with the NDP to make changes to his budget in exchange for their support, had made a “deal with the devil.”

I’m furious with the Liberals’ mishandling of the sponsorship program, and I agree that they should be held accountable for their actions in the next federal election. But that is a separate issue from the question of the federal budget. What’s wrong with our politicians working together, for once, instead of bickering with one another like schoolchildren?

Besides, the NDP may not be perfect, but at least they’re a federalist party. Andrew Scheer and the Conservatives are climbing into bed with the separatists in the Bloc Quebecois to win a non-confidence vote because Stephen Harper thinks that an election right now would make him prime minister.

They don’t seem to care that the results of their actions will mean that the separatists will win most of the seats in Quebec, possibly even becoming the next official opposition. Just who is making a “deal with the devil”?