Letters to the editor

Risk reputation

I would like to know why a company with a long-standing history of a first class, easy to recognize product would give up that advantage for something their customers were not familiar with?

I refer to the proposal to change our grading system and abandoning our kernel visual distinguishability wheat for something determined by a black box, which hasn’t been invented yet.

I think we should give great recognition to our cereal breeders and selection committees who have been able to breed disease resistance, better yield, earlier maturity, shorter straw, higher protein and many other things into our wheat and still put it into a kernel that is quickly recognized by everyone as Canadian wheat, even with the budget cuts they have had to deal with.

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Producers face the reality of shifting grain price expectations

Significant price shifts have occurred in various grains as compared to what was expected at the beginning of the calendar year. Crop insurance prices can be used as a base for the changes.

It seems here in Western Canada, Mother Nature has a way of producing wheat we have to sell in competition to our competitors. I refer to the three and lower grades (that are) also a very high quality feed wheat for that market. And we are holding our own in the barley markets.

There are some who think this will produce a wheat for the ethanol industry. In the latest reports that I have just seen, it still requires more energy in total to produce a bushel of wheat than the energy value we recover.

If there is a future demand for this industry, we should turn to the pulses, peas and faba beans that at least fix their own nitrogen and would have a higher protein value for the residual mash for livestock feed. Then we would not be messing around with our quality wheat market. If we go down a different path in wheat breeding and grading, it might not be so easy to turn back….

Regrettably, there are still some who grow and put into our system unlicensed varieties with different baking qualities than our wheat and put our total volume at risk. Somehow we have to deal with this.

For now we should put this proposal on hold as we did previously. The reputation and customers we now have might be at risk.

– Avery Sahl,

Mossbank, Sask.

Worker rights

A large crowd attended a support rally at Brooks (recently.) The Farmworkers Union of Alberta joined the crowd to support producers, the Lakeside workers and their union.

This situation here at Lakeside clearly demonstrates our contention that these large agribusinesses like Tyson are taking a disproportionate share. The people who live off the land – farmers, ranchers, workers, small town business owners – subsidize agribusiness by sacrificing our health, families and opportunities.

These workers are not asking for the moon. They only seek a modest life. They only ask Tyson to be fair.

There is enough here in agriculture for all of us, for the workers to have a reasonable life, for the farmer and rancher to have a reasonable return on his investment and for agribusiness to prosper.

This gathering to support Lakeside workers should tell agribusiness and this government, rural workers are integral to your existence.

The Farmworkers Union of Alberta is joining the National Farmers Union in calling upon agribusiness to do its fair share to sustain the rural communities that sustain agribusiness.

The exemptions of agriculture from health and safety standards contribute to outlandish rates of death and injury in our industry. Agribusiness is the ultimate beneficiary of this great sacrifice.

People need to see that the interests of producers and workers are closely aligned, that producers do not have a symbiotic relationship with agribusiness, the ultimate profiteer in agriculture….

You cannot strengthen Alberta and its communities by weakening the position of this province’s producers and workers. It’s producers and workers who live in the countryside, together.

We have common ground.

– Eric Musekamp,

President, Farmworkers Union of Alberta,

Bow Island, Alta.

Stop toadflax

I am becoming increasingly concerned about the high number of patches of toadflax blooming in our northwest-central corner of Saskatchewan this summer.

Toadflax is a weed we had not even heard of seven years ago, until it showed up in a ditch next to some rented land of ours. When speaking with neighbours, most have never heard of it either.

Toadflax is a noxious weed, very hard to kill and I can see in the next few years our province is going to have a big battle on our hands if we don’t take action very soon.

The weed experts say that by the time you see it blooming, it has probably been growing for three years. The seeds can lie dormant for years and the roots spread six feet a year.

There are few choices to use in spraying this weed. I have been picking and spraying the ditch here for seven years and keep finding new spots. Deer spread the seeds too …

I really hope the people who have the responsibility to do something about this weed will wake up and look after the problem. I would also like to see the farm population educated about this weed. It seems to love to grow on CN property as every one of the three towns I frequent, Medstead, Glaslyn, North Battleford, all have an infestation. Please wake up and see the toadflax.

– Sharon Harms,

Glenbush, Sask.

BSE transfer

Except for what is left owing our creditors, the losses of the last few years due to BSE are now water under the bridge. We are left with being in vulnerable position where governments and bureaucracies have unlimited power in dictating rules and regulations.

As evidenced by the new requirements for cattle to move into the States, we will continually, under the pretense of safety, be given more onerous hoops and hurdles to clear.

I agree with those who felt it important that we should focus on the question (of whether) BSE is infectious and transferable through the food chain. The challenge was given: show us the proof that our beef is responsible for Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans. Of course, this challenge has been ignored since there is no proof.

On the other hand, there is a growing mountain of proof showing that the cause of BSE is environmental, including unbalanced levels of copper and manganese in the feed.

I petitioned many elected government leaders, including leaders of our cattle industry, and pleaded with them to consider the environmental aspect of this disease in solving the problem. My pleas fell on deaf ears. …

I wish to thank Mark Purdey for his contribution. He has provided us with valuable insights into all neurological diseases. Far too often he has been mistreated and ignored. Maybe in a hundred years, a research farm will be named after Mark….

– Laverne Isaac,

Medstead, Sask.

Daily work

Re: Scheer responds (Open Forum, June 30):

Regina Qu’Appelle Conservative MP Andrew Scheer recently suggested that there is no difference between NDP and Bloc Quebecois MPs often voting the same way, and Conservative and Bloc Quebecois MPs conspiring to bring down the government.

He could not be more wrong. There is a world of difference between the two.

The simple fact is that MPs in all parties often agree on the vast majority of the bills before the House of Commons. Most of these bills are routine housekeeping matters.

Whether the NDP and the Bloc tended to agree on a number of bills is not the issue. The real issue is which party was so obsessed with taking power that they wanted to trigger an election that would have, according to every political observer and analyst in the country, resulted in the Bloc Quebecois gaining a significant number of new seats. The real issue is which party would have been perfectly happy to let separatists hold the balance of power.

It was the Conservatives that played this dangerous game with the future of our country. It was the Conservatives who felt, and apparently still feel, that it’s more important to make Stephen Harper prime minister than it is to work for the best interests of Canadians. …

Andrew Scheer tried to suggest that dealing with the daily work of Parliament is the same as blindly grasping for power. I think that Canadians are smart enough to understand the difference.