CWB & organics
In “Organic growers feel restricted by CWB,” (WP, April 8) Canadian Wheat Board director Rod Flaman profusely defends the CWB ripping off organic farmers. He has the unmitigated gall to claim that an organic farmer marketing his own grain into the United States is “stealing from your neighbour and we can’t allow that,” even though the CWB cannot be certified organic and cannot service U.S. organic buyers.
The CWB’s buy-back policy of extracting money from organic sales not only stops organic exports in its tracks, but even impairs organic marketing within Canada. Canadian mills, including mills on the Prairies, routinely import organic wheat from the U.S. when the CWB’s buy-back cost for western Canadian organic wheat is too excessive.
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Meanwhile, U.S. organic growers can and do sell directly to Canadian mills without any CWB involvement or costs.
Considering that the CWB can’t sell into the organic market, it is unconscionable what the CWB is doing to prairie organic farmers, and Flaman represents everything that needs to change at the board table.
– John Husband,
Wawota, Sask.
Made in Canada
I am disturbed by the notion our business leaders have that we would drop the Made in Canada label for a Made in North America label to improve business.
First of all, half of those businessmen are foreigners and the only allegiance they have is to the almighty dollar and nothing else.
Our business-minded federal and provincial governments are ready to join them by outsourcing jobs to foreign countries to save a buck. They do not understand that by paying a Canadian $15 to $20 an hour that they will get half of it back in GST, PST and income tax, at the same time employing someone instead of paying employment insurance or welfare and the money stays here.
I also think the government is trying too hard to be nice to the United States and will get us into things that are not good for Canada as they are talking about integrating services, army and now space.
They are also talking about easing the ban on bluetongue and anaplasmosis. Look at what the U.S. did about one mad cow. It shut down one whole continent, and everything that is good for Canada is either tariffed or disputed. What good are (free trade agreements)?
I see no dumping charge on natural gas, oil or hydro. I’d like to see us be more Canadian and treat the U.S. like any other foreign country, no more and no less, and when they make a mistake, we should be able to say so and should not have to join them in their adventures because they are our neighbours …
– Ron Verkerk,
Chetwynd, B.C.
Smells funny
Why did (Conservative leader Stephen) Harper’s gang vote to remove the penalty from the contempt of Parliament charge against the two American packing plants in Alberta? According to Cattle Buyers Weekly, the one Tyson plant in Brooks made more money in the last eight months than the 10 Tyson beef packing plants in the U.S. I would suspect the same is also true for Cargill in High River. They both took advantage of a weak market situation and when the Alberta government threw their money at it, the plants dropped the price to 35 cents a pound and gobbled up most of the government money.
Now they want to cover up their actions. Is there anyone in Alberta that does not believe that the cow suspected of having BSE in Texas wasn’t carefully sent to a rendering plant without a test, which wasn’t a careful coverup?
The Harper bunch is protecting the coverups for the Americans and not working for the Canadian farmers and ranchers.
– Jack Horner,
Pollockville, Alta.
Class required
Re: Ken Larsen’s “Speaks for whom,” Open Forum, April 15.
I was shocked to read the insults thrown by Ken Larsen at Jim Chateney and his supporters over a meeting that Mr. Larsen never attended. I believe that it is customary to actually be present at an event before writing a scathing article about it.
When Jim Chatenay commented on Roundup Ready wheat, he was explaining his understanding of the Canadian Wheat Board’s position on the subject, not necessarily his own beliefs. Ken Ritter explained the CWB’s position on the subject in the same edition of the paper but I didn’t notice Mr. Larsen taking issue with him.
Let us remember that all our CWB directors are working hard for the farmers in their districts and each and every one of them deserves to be treated with courtesy and respect.
Whether we support the board or an open market system, we are intelligent, articulate people who do not need to resort to personal insults to get our points across.
– Lynda Swanson,
Elnora, Alta.
Contribute much
In reference to a couple of paragraphs in the April 22 article, “Rural Canada moving backward,” where an unidentified Saskatchewan senior provincial official said “most of the remaining farmers contribute little to the food supply but much to the demands for public assistance,” left me furious.
That kind of short-sighted, uninformed comment by a government office really make you question the ability of leaders in our province.
When we talk about farmers, it is all farmers, grain, dairy, hog, beef, chicken.
You can’t tell me if we all decided to take a year’s holiday from our seven-day-a-week job that it would be unnoticed.
I think maybe the truckers would notice, also the chemical and fertilizer dealers, fuel companies, how about companies like CanOat, Dairyland, Mitchell’s Gourmet Foods, Robin Hood, Lilydale and numerous other processing companies?
Their people might not like the holiday too much. Some equipment dealerships might be a little ticked.
I know this is very basic simple thinking toward this problem, but I don’t think the official was thinking when he made the comment.
Farmers have been fighting against that kind of backward attitude for a long time.
Farmers know their industry is changing. They accept that and most are working hard to create a healthy business that is constantly changing and adapting with the markets.
Farmers know all too well the effect one industry has on another.
Eliminating farmers and creating large corporate farms will only cause price setting and higher costs for food for all.
– Sharon Zimmerman,
Saskatoon, Sask.
Alberta rep
As an Alberta farmer, elected to represent my fellow farmers on the Canadian Wheat Board board of directors, I cannot let inaccurate and misleading comments by my fellow director, Jim Chatenay, go unchallenged.
At a meeting in Camrose, Mr. Chatenay stated he was the only CWB director from Alberta who really represents Alberta farmers. He is quoted as saying “Guess who represents Alberta? Me and only me.”
This is as arrogant and pompous as it is inaccurate.
District 1, which I represent, includes all of northwestern Alberta starting at a point slightly south and east of Edmonton. It takes in the Alberta Peace River area, as well as the B.C. Peace area. Most of the electorate in my district are in Alberta.
District 3, represented by Larry Hill, is in southeastern Alberta and includes Lethbridge.
District 4 includes east-central Alberta and is represented by Ken Ritter. District 5 includes northeastern Alberta and is represented by Allen Oberg.
So is Jim saying that only those who farm in District 2 are true Alberta farmers and the rest of the Alberta farmers don’t count?
Or is he saying that because the other districts include farmers from either B.C. or Saskatchewan, that the directors ignore the interests of the Alberta farmers in those districts? …
I have deep roots as an Alberta farmer. My father was one of the first pioneer farmers in the Grande Prairie area. As a homesteader, a life-long and full-time Alberta farmer with one and possibly two of my sons entering farming, I find it offensive for Jim to claim that he alone represents the interests of Alberta farmers.
I am proud to be an Alberta farmer and a Canadian.
I am honoured to be democratically elected to represent Alberta farmers and will continue to do so to the best of my ability on the farmer controlled board of CWB.
– Art Macklin,
CWB Director, District 1,
Grande Prairie, Alta.
On the bottom
Tens of thousands of Canadians who love farming and spent a lifetime building up efficient farms have been proven wrong.
During the 1980s, the Canadian Wheat Board encouraged us to grow more wheat, predicting they would sell every bushel because the world was running out of food, but while food stocks are at critical supply with millions starving, we find ourselves in a situation where world values and priorities have deteriorated.
Farmers have ended up on the bottom of the totem pole, most having exhausted their savings, while others are selling out at 40 cents on the dollar in an attempt to salvage what little is left. …
Huge profits made on the futures is one the engines driving this devastation. Over the years powerful entities have been consistently selling higher priced deferred world grain commodities and squeezing prices lower, just as they are buying lower priced deferred energy contracts and squeezing prices higher.
This allows exporters to pick up cheap grain and cheaper fuel and sell to desperate consumers at undisclosed profits.
It wouldn’t take a rocket scientist more than three minutes to figure out that buying current grain contracts with only 25 percent of money paid out in agricultural subsidies could double or triple grain prices back to an inflationary standard, while simultaneously providing a lucrative return on investment.
Unfortunately farmers haven’t figured out how to do this either. Why seed grain when we can buy it cheaper?
– Louis K. Berg,
Sedalia, Alta.
