Against merger
I am writing to urge farmers to do everything that they can to stop AgPro (Saskatchewan Wheat Pool) from gaining control over Agricore United.
The strict campaign of AgPro promises millions of dollars in savings from synergies if the companies were combined. My fear is that we would be creating a grain company with the same kind of monopoly that the railways presently have.
As farmers, we should consider the implications of such a large company unionizing and then disrupting grain movement by striking for an even larger slice of the pie.
Read Also
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?
AgPro has already lost one fortune and yet the Ontario teachers pension fund seems willing to give them unlimited capital to acquire a large monopoly in the grain handling industry. As farmers, we should ask ourselves why.
I believe that the focus of such a company would be to provide a large return for the shareholders and not to provide good service for a reasonable price to farmers.
The only sure way to stop this nonsense is to refuse to sell your shares no matter how high they are. In the long run, the farmers who have to do business with both companies will be better off if they have to compete with each other.
– David Simpson,
Shoal Lake, Man.
Buying grain
A Cargill spokesman says he wants the Canadian Wheat Board buying monopoly extended (WP April 12). “We have contracts on the books with the board going forward into 2007-08 and we can’t lose those contracts,” says Cargill’s Rob Meijer. As if Cargill doesn’t know how to buy grain directly from farmers.
Meijer’s statement strongly suggests to me that he thinks a CWB that is required to compete might have trouble attracting grain from us without the use of force. If the CWB has made its sales to Cargill at high prices, then it shouldn’t have any trouble sourcing the barley from farmers. It’ll only be a problem if the CWB has once again sold barley too cheaply.
The CWB got its buying monopoly in the first place to keep the price of wheat down for Britain during the war. That’s why it was extended into peacetime, and it would seem that the CWB and its supporters, including Cargill, are still trying to keep prices down.
Breaking low price contracts might be the CWB’s problem. It might be Cargill’s problem. But it sure as heck shouldn’t be the farmer’s problem any longer.
– Jim Pallister,
Portage la Prairie, Man.
A move suggested
Re: “Eat cake” (Open Forum, April 12). A reader’s letter from last week revealed that some people do not yet understand how education funding works in this province.
A reader from Saskatoon stated that “our NDP government is doing a great job of public education.” Apparently the reader doesn’t realize that, in rural school divisions, the majority of the cost of education is funded by municipal taxes.
For example, in the Chinook School Division, less than 20 percent of the entire operating budget is provincially funded. Even so, the provincial government feels justified in reducing its contribution to rural school divisions, thereby forcing school boards to make poor decisions to balance the budget. …
For reasons too numerous to mention here, any decision to close a rural school is, generally, a bad one. The impact on the community it serves and the province as a whole is negative. While speculative, it is quite reasonable to suppose there is a correlation between the population implosion in this province and shortsighted government planning.
Finally, I am deeply offended by the reader’s assumption that because rural communities are sparsely populated, their children are somehow less deserving of a basic education. Maybe the reader arrogantly believes that people who choose to live in rural communities must live with the consequences of that decision.
How ironic, then, that he is angered by the federal government’s treatment of Saskatchewan. After all, if the reader is unhappy with the equalization formula, then perhaps he should move to Montreal.
– Elaine Anderson,
Frontier, Sask.
Suits himself
The recent plebiscite results show 62 percent of farmers voted in favour of marketing choice.
Chuck Strahl, the federal agriculture minister, is quoted as saying that “it’s pretty difficult to misinterpret this: clearly farmers are on side” and with this as justification, now wants to remove barley marketing from the Canadian Wheat Board.
Upon closer examination of the data, less than 14 percent voted that the CWB should have no role in marketing barley. This means that over 86 percent of the farmers surveyed want the CWB in some role of marketing barley and surprisingly almost 85 percent in Alberta.
The minister certainly appears to be misinterpreting or misrepresenting the facts to suit his own political agenda.
It seems rather odd that Canada sends representatives to foreign countries to monitor elections in the name of democracy, when our government’s own survey design and interpretation are questionable here at home.
– Bob Niemi,
Okotoks, Alta.
Gopher problem
Although this letter is being written on April Fool’s Day, what I have to relate is no joke.
Being raised in southern Saskatchewan, gophers abounded only on pasture land and not on crop land, which was cultivated.
In the early 1950s, we bought a holding in the boundary country where I still reside. The first April morning the whole field seemed to be moving. The main gopher colonies had about 15 holes around some.
Trapping and vehicle exhaust did not prove effective enough so the department of agriculture submitted a recipe for gopher poison using alkaloid strychnine, which was somewhat effective but had to be applied every year. Miss a year and you’re back to square one.
Never having been on a hay ranch before, we finally realized that the hay fields had to be plowed, cultivated, reseeded, etc. The result: no gophers or pocket gophers. When the fields are plowed in the fall, all the habitat and feed source is eradicated and the vermin starves.
It is my contention that it is the pesticide, herbicide and no till drill practices on the Prairies where the entire problem lies.
In the last issue of your paper (March 29) a gopher surfaced through a foot of snow – probably such a population explosion in his burrow that he is looking for food.
– Stephania Bosovich,
Westbridge, B.C.
CWB skim
It amazes me how prairie farmers are so adept at self-destruction. Even more so, the cunning ways the lackeys of the Harper “steamroller” agenda managed to hoodwink intelligent people into believing that the Canadian Wheat Board was some sort of an evil empire, to be cut up into pieces and thrown to the Yankee wolves that have been waiting at our doorstep for years already.
It reminds me of an orphan calf I once had. I milked a cow and pail-fed the calf. It did fine.
Then I thought I’d run the milk through a separator and take the cream for myself. After all, the stuff in the pail still looked the same; still white.
I kept saying to myself and also to the calf, “look, this milk is still strong and viable, it’s still good for you.” But the calf fared poorly, with ribs showing from only the diet of the skim milk.
Pretty soon, it died.
In the end, my indulgence in the cream gave me high cholesterol and I also died prematurely. Perhaps there is an interesting analogy to the story.
– Harry Beskorovayny,
Gronlid, Sask.
Seeking truth
Re: Lee Morrison’s article (WP, Feb. 22) on what he thinks about the global warming issue.
After reading Lee Morrison’s article, “Repent, all ye energy pigs,” I was motivated to respond. I can agree with him on many terms, but I do have some comments that I feel I need to make.
I am a teenager, and I hear so many opinions floating around. I hear people saying that the earth will grow colder and others saying it will grow warmer. I hear people like Lee saying carbon dioxide is having little or no effect on the atmosphere. …
I could research global warming and find out what it is doing to our world, but how do I know if it is really true? Maybe some fanatics are just making it up to scare me into reducing carbon dioxide emissions. I could listen to what the scientists have to say, but maybe they are just announcing disasters so someone will listen.
I think I’ll just have to go with what is in my gut. So, for those like me that can’t form an opinion on this issue, we should just wait and see what the future brings. But for those that believe global warming is happening, it might be too late.
One more thing that I wanted to comment on, from this article, was the Globe and Mail poll that Lee mentioned. Of the 20 percent that would consider taking public transit to work, I commend them. The other 32 percent will say that global warming is happening and will support any measures to stop it as long as they don’t have to sacrifice anything.
Global warming is an ongoing issue. There are many conflicts started and opinions are constantly being questioned. If only we had someone whose information could be trusted and respected. We could know for sure whether global warming is happening.
Those that say global warming is happening have to put their money where their mouth is.
– Amanda Hagel,
Estevan, Sask.
Assuming risk
Mr. von Tettenborn’s March 22 letter (“Pay the price”) is most curious to say the least. He suggests that Mr. Wagner has a poor grasp of business dealings and not a very astute businessman.
Well, if their letter to the editor were part of their resume for a grain marketing position, Mr. Wagner would have the job.
Mr. Wagner is correct. If you lock in a basis of say $15 per tonne and if a rail strike or some other event causes the basis to increase to $24 per tonne, you will only be responsible for the $15 per tonne. Yes, the final price may change, but a properly functioning futures market ensures competitive outcomes and transparency.
Mr. von Tettenborn seems to be critical of Mr. Wagner for suggesting that costs of strikes, demurrage, etc. are passed on to farmers by the CWB. The Board was clear that the strike was costing farmers $300,000 per day.
The other cost that is just as annoying is the huge CWB costs of storage. I note in 2006 the number for spring wheat was $28,811,000 plus country inventory financing of $1,365,000. Farmers pay twice, building on-farm storage at a cost of $2 per bushel plus, then $30 million storage to elevator companies.
Justice (Willard) Estey’s advice had merit: have the CWB take possession of the grain at port, then contract with the shippers for just-in-time delivery. Why are farmers willing to cover all of the marketing risks from the driveway to the customer?…
– Bill Cooper,
Foam Lake, Sask.
Fed up
I am one of those persons who is fed up of reading Canadian Wheat Board letters and other related articles, especially the negative rhetoric that predicts gloom and doom in every second sentence.
Socialists and other proponents of the CWB don’t know any more than we do as to what will happen in the future. If they did, they’d all have jobs at the Toronto or New York Stock exchanges; their expertise would be priceless.
Having lived in Saskatchewan for 57 years, I’ve witnessed the destruction of socialism first-hand. Kids can’t wait to graduate and head west to find jobs in the real world where they are paid according to what they can do, and not according to whom they vote for.ÂÂ
If we could get rid of the NDP, the Liberals and the wheat board, this country would flourish. On the 30th anniversary of the introduction of the metric system and the 25th anniversary of Pierre Trudeau’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, it might be a good time for farmers to contemplate the future of Western Canada, as they’re sitting in the tractor. Just keep an eye out for power poles.
– John Hamon,
Gravelbourg, Sask.
Use boards
To the Editor:
If wool producers were to unite and build a felt producing plant to make many products, they should make money, as it is in the processing of goods where the money is. There is much felt used in Russia as insulation against the cold. …
A must for farmers, their sons and daughters is to get into the processing and marketing of all forms of all farm products.
It is only this way by which farmers will get a rightful share of money.
Marketing boards need to be set up in order to have trade.
Never has there been a time when farmers need to be in solidarity as at present time, before the multinationals quash them.
Good luck to you farmers in your undertaking, as it will set you on a good road.
– Guy Talbourdet,
Saint Paul, Alta.
