Infested grain
Re: Alta. seeks fusarium input, WP, May 16. This is very expensive for
the cattle feeding industry. The only real use for infested grain in
Manitoba is as cattle feed and the cattle feeding industry is in
Alberta. Will U.S. corn with fusarium also be banned?
As a pathologist, Dr. Ali should know that most of Alberta is too cold
and dry in the summer for F. graminearum to flourish. The only real
solution is for resistant varieties to be licensed.
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Agriculture needs to prepare for government spending cuts
As government makes necessary cuts to spending, what can be reduced or restructured in the budgets for agriculture?
– Fritz Wehrhahn,
Vancouver, B.C.
Save coyote?
I don’t mean any disrespect to a person who runs an animal
rehabilitation centre, as it is a commendable service for wounded
animals. But rehabilitating a run-over coyote so you can release back
into the wild? I just couldn’t believe this picture of a person
throwing a ragged little blanket over a seriously hit coyote (WP, June
6).
This is a species that has extremely high population levels throughout
the prairie provinces. These high populations have increased the amount
of mange in most areas and in fact many municipal districts and rural
municipalities have bounties on coyotes. Low fur prices over the last
15 years have resulted in unchecked population growth.
Now, I am not totally heartless, and believe that saving an owl or
hawk, for instance, is the proper and just thing to do. But coyotes?
Well, maybe I am just not ready for this new, politically correct,
urban way of doing things. Personally, I would have taken a .22 and put
the coyote out of his misery. End of story. But that’s just my rural
politically incorrect way of thinking.
– Gary Godberson,
Drayton Valley, Alta.
Loss of farmers
I’m a producer in Manitoba. My husband and I farm grain and oilseeds on
about 2,800 acres. Today I received the May 30 issue of The Western
Producer and I wanted to share some thoughts. We sure do enjoy reading
this paper.
An article “The kindness of farmers” caught my eye. As a note further
to this article, I also very much agree that many a farmer has helped a
despairing passerby in one manner or another.
But to shed another light that is becoming more current in these times,
with the now numerous departures of so many of our farmers who may have
been neighbours of yours and mine, these same yards that were once
occupied with those very kind and generous farmers who were once able
to help those that needed help are often now vacant.
And if the current economic crisis of low prices remains, more farms
will become vacant and there may well be no one left for many, many
miles that will come to be of assistance. This is but just one of the
effects of the current economic times that are affecting life in
Western Canada.
– Debbie Rodewald,
Dominion City, Man.
Ag tailspin
Your article, “Farmers leave at will: official”, (WP, May 9) has hit
home. I have decided to give farm activity a rest – at least for a
while, anyway.
My parents have just decided to retire and I was given the option of
taking over the family farm. For the last 10 years, I have been
actively farming with my parents (i.e. I own a small chunk of
Saskatchewan) as well as holding down a full-time teaching job in the
city.
I would love nothing more than to ditch the teaching job, but I know
for a fact that I cannot make a living on the farm at this moment.
Perhaps things will change in the future and I will get my chance to
farm again.
I have been forced out, but hopefully not for long.
What will it take for this government to finally get the message:
agriculture in Canada (especially Saskatchewan) is in a tailspin, and
our government chooses to do nothing except watch us fall.
– Aaron Boser,
St. Albert, Alta.
Lost respect
Prime minister Jean Chrétien has lost the respect of the Canadian
people. He denies the report of the auditor general who has caught his
ministers red-handed.
At the very least, he and his party are guilty of poor stewardship. He
stood to defend Jane Stewart, who lost track of a billion dollars of
taxpayers’ money, that went out to Liberal members who in turn
contributed significantly to party funds.
He was quick to transfer his ministers to other portfolios to avoid
pointed questions from the opposition in Parliament. He adopted the
fraudulent practices and influence peddling prevalent in Quebec and
spread it across the length and breadth of Canada.
Jean Chrétien has made a farce of our democratic parliamentary system
of government. He told president George Bush that “in Canada we don’t
share power. I am the power.”
He places himself above the law and ignores the practices and
conventions that are the foundation of the heritage of our nation. He
bears the mark of a dictator. Jean Chrétien admits that a few million
dollars may have been stolen.
For shame. That is our tax dollars he is talking about. He says this
was to pacify Quebec. The referendum was well over before this scam
took place.
Jean Chrétien has made no effort to identify the fraudulent persons
involved. Rather he has threatened to punish the persons who leaked the
story. Apparently he is saying it is OK to commit the crime but don’t
get caught.
Jean Chrétien has failed time after time to appoint an independent
commissioner of ethics and to lay down proper guidelines for conflict
of interest. Jean Chrétien should be reminded that respect is earned by
integrity, honesty, fair play and trust.
Rather, he has accepted patronage, fraud and the selling of influence
and has allowed corruption to permeate the structure of the Canadian
government and to become a way of life.
It is time for him to resign. It is time for the Canadian people to
vote his entire party out of office.
– John I. Fisher,
North Battleford, Sask.
Lower standards
To the Editor:
It is hard to believe that (Alberta ) agricultural minister Shirley
McClellan would criticize Professor Roger Epp over his article in The
Western Producer.
McClellan makes statements that are hard to swallow in view of what has
been done in Alberta. She states, “The Agricultural Operations
Practices Amendment Act was developed over a course of three years of
extensive consultation with community leaders, the industry and the
public.”
The statement would have been more accurate if it had read the industry
was consulted and concerns of the majority of the community leaders and
the public were ignored. This is apparent by how the municipality’s
role has been greatly reduced and the public’s’ say has been eliminated
on most applications.
The Klapstein Committee was told overwhelmingly that siting should
remain a local issue but this was not done. The decisions are now in
the hands of the Natural Resources Conservation Board. McClellan states
that this board does not report to Alberta Agriculture Food and Rural
Development. It reports to the Minister of Sustainable Resource
Development.
If this is the case, why is McClellan writing responses on confined
feeding operations issues and not the Minister of Sustainable Resource
Development? Why are the approval officers former AFFRD staff members
and why are they still based in the same offices that they occupied as
AAFRD staff?
She also fails to mention that the NRCB has the authority in the Act to
approve a CFO against the objections of the public and the
municipalities….
This Act has lower standards than a lot of municipal bylaws that it
takes precedence over, so in a lot of areas the standards will be lower
than they were under the old system. Using “outhouse” technology on the
massive scale as multi-million gallon lagoons will take only a matter
of time until contamination starts to show up and when it does it will
be too late.
Why aren’t the studies and other information about how the outhouse
technology has been proven to be unreliable elsewhere looked at very
closely, so the people won’t have to suffer the consequences that
people in other places have?…
Our government should pay very close attention to what Roger Epp is
saying because he is giving a well-researched and unbiased opinion on
this situation. This is a lot different than the “speed up” development
policies of our provincial government.
– Malcolm McIlroy,
Red Deer, Alta.
Farmer’s courage
Humanity should thank farmers for their wisdom and courage but we
rarely do. Today I thank Marc Louiselle for his courage to stand up and
remind people that genetically modified wheat testing sites will once
again be planted, considered safe by our government, and expose our
Canadian wheats to GMO.
Maybe he does it solely because, as an organic farmer, he sees his
organic wheat market threatened, but I suspect there is more to this
decision than economics. Bringing information to the public eye takes
courage. Those who oppose the system are usually penalized, as we will
see in coming weeks with the G8 protests….
Despite the government’s attempts to delay labelling foods with GMO,
people have taken a strong stance against GMO. Despite losing the
organic canola market because of GMO pollution and the reason for the
Saskatchewan Organic Directorate class action lawsuit, for lost
markets, the Canadian government continues to stand strong as a
business partner with Monsanto and other agribusiness interests.
But who in government is standing up for the rights of seed to remain
free of GMO? Who in government is standing up for the rights of farmers
to keep their land free of GMO? And who in government is standing up to
protect the wheat crop in this country from GMO?
I’d be delighted to shake the hand of the bureaucrat who has the
courage to stand up for these rights. You’ve got to give this young
farmer Louiselle credit, he’s got courage to stand up to the government
and its partners, including Monsanto. As G8 summit time approaches, and
others stand up to say no to corporate control of life and governments,
we can remind ourselves the issue is very personal. It affects our food
supply …
I too am a scientist and faced with an internal struggle. I understand
why we have reached this point in our science evolution, but I cannot
support this GMO technology and the destruction of the side of humanity
that allows the method to be more important than the integrity of life
that is being torn to pieces with an attempt to understand the
‘whole’. …
– Sharon Rempel,
Edmonton, Alta.
