Letters to the editor

BSE & public

Good for The Western Producer for supporting prairie beef farmers. “A simple business message from the Western Producer” (WP, June 5) helps put BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) in perspective, and I myself have already made a few phone calls to colleagues and friends to explain the relatively low threat posed by the recent outbreak.

Heck, even aspirin kills more people every year through side effects than all those who died in England from vCJD (variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease.)

But you have overlooked one important factor that I’ve also been discussing with my colleagues and friends. The cause of this problem has nothing to do with the public, neither with the farmer who works every day with his herd, nor with consumers who expect that every day, officials are overseeing the system.

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Farmer ownership cannot be seen as a guarantee for success

It’s a powerful movement when people band together to form co-ops and credit unions, but member ownership is no guarantee of success.

Yet farmers and consumers are suffering as a result of government officials who didn’t get out of their offices to see how the industry really works until it was too late. Paper trails don’t ever tell the whole story and they should no longer be relied upon so heavily.

Perhaps “a good start to real education” should also be with those at the top. I suggest that your readers phone some CFIA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency) or other government officials to educate them on the realities of spending existing tax dollars to provide food security.

Whether the risk is high or low, it is a risk, and it almost slipped the attention of our public servants.

If, over time, it proves that BSE is indeed a relatively minor problem in Canada, then we should still take this as a wake-up call for Canadian food inspection. We might not be so lucky the next time.

– Mischa Popoff,

Winnipeg, Man.

Market evolution

In one of the (April) issues of The Western Producer (April 17) the front page headline stated that prairie pork production is in trouble and losing money.

This could have been forecast at the time of the loss of the pork marketing boards.

The Manitoba government of the day (Conservative) and the Alberta government (Conservative since 1971 under Peter Lougheed) were and are in the back pockets of the multinationals.

Big multinationals cannot make as much money if they have to deal with a monopolistic marketing board that gives marketing strength to producers. Through unity is strength….

The producers are at the mercy of the monopolistic packing plants that don’t have to bid for their inventory, as all the competition has been bought up.

Hog farms are bidding against each other to sell their production. Pork producers had everything and have now gone back 30 years and have nothing.

This is what happens when governments listen to multinationals instead of their own constituents and the power of the processor is more important than the power of the producer.

Until the producers are given a return to some type of marketing strength, they will be in trouble. Even the mass producers are in trouble because of very low margins. This is called the cheap food policy of North America.

– Bernie von Tettenborn,

Round Hill, Alta.

Lost votes

I was listening to the news this morning, June 9. (Alberta premier Ralph) Klein was on the radio lamenting how the Americans are being selfish because they won’t open the borders to Canada so the beef trade can start again.

He (said he) thinks the Americans are selfish because they are enjoying the higher revenue or prices on these cattle they’re getting. Well, I think they are only doing what anybody would do, including Mr. Klein.

If it means selling more beef in their own country without having to share the profits, why not?

Doesn’t Mr. Klein sell our gas and oil to other countries for next to nothing and they in turn sell to their customers for $1 or $1.50 a gallon, whereas we who own it pay $3 to $4 a gallon. What do we call that?

Next, you won’t open up our books in our own country so we can buy and sell our elk. Yet you’re mad at another country who won’t open the borders to you. …

Also on the news they were talking about farmers just burying their dead cows if they die, which we’ve done for hundreds of years but I bet they’re going to start forcing the ranchers to cut (the animals’) heads off to send in for testing like they do the elk.

We are two years ahead of the beef industry on this but never once do I hear from the media putting a plug in for the elk industry that this is being done.

Boy, we were crucified by Klein and his government and fish and wildlife on our elk and hunt farms, but one thing for sure, they won’t be getting my vote on the next election. …

Now, Mr. Klein, how does it feel to be at the mercy of someone bigger than you – the Americans? Now you know how you make the elk ranchers feel.

– Beverly Lein,

Manning, Alta.

GM, no thanks

What right do countries like Canada and the United States have to be literally pushing the European Union to accept the imitation crops they grow or want to grow? Are we all gone mad or what?

I don’t want imitation grain to eat and anyone with a hair of common sense should be very leery of genetically modified products.

Soya beans for example: 20 or more years ago if I fed a horse a handful of soya meal along with its grain, that animal became very lively in short order. You were careful with soya meal.

The bags are still marked the same protein content today, but it sure doesn’t have the kick it once had.

In fact, you have to feed plenty to get results today. Obviously it’s not up to snuff anymore.

You can’t make me believe GM food or grains are going to be 100 percent exactly the same. It’s bound to have a different pattern of substance in one way or another.

I don’t care what marvels science claims; it would take at least 50 to 60 years to know exactly how it compares to the real thing.

So there is much to be concerned about and Canada and its farmers better think twice. And furthermore, why do we need it, when we have no shortage of the real thing?

It makes no sense, except some big corporations like Monsanto are looking to make lots of money off the farmer and gain complete control.

All the way around it’s a deal with more questions than answers. It’s away too early to start mass production of such a questionable and unproven product.

That WTO (World Trade Organization) is another thing that could turn out with complete control over humans, let alone farmers. It’s questionable beyond a doubt.

Who is it really good for? We could do without all this manmade mess of problems. It was beautiful back then – keep it simpler is best in the long run.

We must stop and think. Let’s get back to organic foods, the real foods that fed generations of smiling, happy, hard-working folks.

– R. Bohush,

Sherwood Park, Alta.

Sovereignty lost

(Re: The Moral Economy column, WP, May 15)

When (prime minister Jean) Chrétien signed the Free Trade Agreement, after saying he wouldn’t, Canada, once and for all, relinquished its sovereignty.

As long as we tie our trade almost exclusively to one foreign nation who is larger and more aggressive, the outcome becomes a foregone conclusion.

Throughout the history of Canada, annexation to the United States has been an issue. Free trade declared open season on Canada as a country ripe for the picking.

We have long been a source of raw materials for the U.S. and now, with them owning us body and soul, it is time to pay the piper. Money over sovereignty wins every time.

The Liberals mouth the words of sovereignty but are busy handing us over to the Americans with both hands.

Calling someone a moron or worse does nothing to keep Canada free.

It just plays to the basest emotions and, the Liberals think, makes Canadians think they are for a free Canada.

Of course the subsidy issue is a joke. Every facet of Canadian society knows we pay exorbitant taxes, but no one gets a subsidy except for Liberal cronies.

I disagree with Mr. (Rob) Brown on his argument re the (Canadian) Wheat Board. Western farmers are held hostage by the wheat board and the federal government.

Why does the government not think that western farmers are capable of making trade deals themselves?

They have jailed enough of them who were successful in trading their own commodity.

How is it that eastern farmers can trade freely while western farmers are held hostage by their own government?

What is the fear of the federal government that they will not allow dual marketing?

Heaven knows the CWB is not a subsidy for the farmer, but for the federal government.

The CWB disallowed the building and operating of a pasta flour plant in Western Canada.

Was this not just another hit at enterprising western farmers, forcing them to only produce the raw material?

Liberal policies are just as responsible for our loss of sovereignty as U.S. incursions into Canadian affairs.

It is time all Canadians wake up and smell the coffee.

– Rebecca Gingrich,

Princeton, Ont.

BSE connection

Mark Purdey’s cleverly made connection between BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) in cattle and the application of a powerful insecticide is probably only part of the puzzle about brain wasting diseases.

The Western Producer article in the June 19 issue refers to the replacement of copper by manganese after the insecticide application prevents the uptake of copper.

As well, many soils are deficient in this element.

An overload of manganese and/or a shortage of copper is suggested as the basic cause of both BSE and chronic wasting disease in elk and deer. This changes the structure of the natural prions, causing a cascade of deformity throughout the animal’s brain and spinal tissue.

An article published last year referred to the increased levels of manganese (that were) measured in the U.S. western states.

Carried by air pollution from the coal burning power plants in California and Utah, the manganese accumulated in the tips of branches that deer and elk normally feed on.

Of special interest, the prevailing winds from those western states flow north-northeast, consistently blanketing the areas where deer and elk CWD is now found in Montana, into Alberta and Saskatchewan.

There is another possible source of airborne manganese and that is the manganese additive that has replaced lead in gasoline. If I recall correctly, that gasoline additive has been mandated for use in California and its millions of cars.

Didn’t our federal government pay out a large amount of money to keep that gasoline additive out of Canadian sold gasoline?

Should we be asking questions about possible connections to Alzheimers? The increasing rates of Alzheimers correlates to our increased consumption of conventionally grown food – grown with the aid of fertilizers and with insufficient trace elements?

Not only may the soils be deficient but the forced growth may further lower necessary nutrients and vital trace elements while adding traces of pesticides.

There’s some connection to the aluminum found in the brains of Alzheimer victims, which we don’t understand.

Do prions take up and substitute harmful and destructive elements when a vital element, copper perhaps, is either not available or has been blocked from absorption by some subtle and as yet unknown substance?

The subtlety of the prion diseases baffles our researchers.

Evolution has prepared humans to react to immediate dangers but we don’t connect past decisions to present evils that rise from old innovations as to how we grow our food or what we have released into our environment.