Right to food
The current world food crisis has a clear cause.
During the 1980s, the cereal markets were deregulated under the supervision of the World Bank, and the United States and European Union cereal surpluses systematically destroyed the farming community and destabilized the national food agriculture of several developing countries.
The World Bank loans required the levying of the commercial barriers on the imports of basic farm products. This led to the dumping of American and EU cereal surpluses on Third World local markets. It is these measures and other similar ones which led the agricultural producers of these countries to bankruptcy.
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For example, Malawi and Zimbabwe were previously countries with cereal surpluses, and Rwanda was practically self-sufficient in food until 1990, the year that the International Monetary Fund ordered the dumping of the U.S. and EU cereal surpluses on their internal market, therefore steering their small local farmers into bankruptcy.
In all Africa, but also in Southeast Asia and Latin America, the agricultural structural adjustments made under the supervision of the Bretton Woods institutions, the World Bank and the IMF, clearly led the way to the disappearance of food security.
These countries then became dependent on the world market, what entailed an increase of the imports of commercial cereals as well as what we call, boldly, food aid.
The world food crisis does not ensue from a natural disaster or from unpredictable events. It is the result of an inequitable economic system which considers the private interest of the companies before the public interest of the populations.
It is also the result of powerful countries which continue to dominate other countries with tools like the World Bank, the IMF and, worse still, the World Trade Organization.
If we should strongly encourage Canadian food aid steered toward populations in need, we must also fight the unbridled capitalism which leads to such crisis.
Before the freedom of companies, there is the freedom of all men and women in the world, and this freedom is set in fundamental rights such as the right for food.
– Bruno Marquis,
Gatineau, Que.
Perplexed at issues
I usually mind my own affairs but occasionally the news is so perplexing to me that I need help comprehending.
I consider myself literate. The 13th prime minister of Canada conferred a Bachelor of Arts degree on me in 1972.
The issue I am struggling with currently is the ongoing debate about horse slaughter plants. Simultaneously in this country someone receives the Order of Canada for their efforts to kill Canadian babies. What am I missing? Can anyone make this issue logical?
Our children are very perceptive from a very young age. I see it in my grandson, who is not yet two. What must their young minds make of this discrepancy?
I compare this to training a dog and rewarding him with a tasty treat one time and a whipping the next for the same behaviour. Only thing is, this issue is a lot more serious and we are dealing with humans, not animals.
I have always been thankful that our grandparents left Poland to make a home in Canada. After our visit there this summer, I am not so sure about my feelings.
It is a beautiful country and I could see myself moving back there when I retire.
In the back of my mind are thoughts of euthanasia, the natural progression from abortion.
– Lawrence Gutek,
Hendon, Sask.
Getting results
Re: “Liberal MPs defend ag record,” (WP, Aug. 14.)
Liberal agriculture critic Wayne Easter’s attempts to defend 13 years of Liberals failing farmers serves only to demonstrate how desperate he is to distract farmers from Stephane Dion’s crushing tax-grab plan for their industry.
The proposed Liberal tax will increase farmers’ costs for diesel fuel, chemicals and fertilizers.
The Stephen Harper government is giving farmers the tools they need to succeed, and it is working. Our assistance to farmers – $4.1 billion in 2007 – is at near record levels, at a time when farm cash receipts increased by 12.7 percent and agricultural trade generated a record $31.6 billion.
We know farmers don’t want to farm the mailbox. That’s why we are working with them to deliver strategic investments that make the farmgate stronger, such as replacing the failure of the Liberal-designed Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization with a new suite of farm support programs and signing the historic Growing Forward agreement to deliver $330 million more in programs over five years than under the Liberals.
I can’t let Mr. Easter get away with his inaccurate statements about our Conservative government. We have not changed our position on supply management. We fully support the supply managed sector, and at no point did we ever change or agree to any movement from our negotiating stance at the World Trade Organization talks.
We have no “secret” plan to impose additional taxes on farmers. The only plan to impose a tax on farmers comes from his leader, Stephane Dion, and Mr. Easter himself has frequently admitted it hurts farmers.
He misses the point when he says Dion will take his lumps for it. It is farmers who will be taking the lumps should Canadians be misled by his tax trick.
The Harper government’s formula is simple and it works: we listen to farmers, we work with farmers, and then we deliver the results farmers want.
The Liberal record speaks for itself, in Mr. Easter’s own words: “Could we have done better? No question about it.”
– Gerry Ritz,
Minister of Agriculture and
Minister for the Canadian Wheat Board,
Ottawa, Ont.
Nuclear worry
Thousands of people in the Peace (River) country say their democratic right has been violated. They complain that they had no input in the decision to invite the nuclear power company into the Peace country.
The decision had been made by few councillors after the nuclear industry promised them pie in the sky, so to speak.
After some time and after many complaint letters to the governments in Edmonton and Ottawa, the provincial government chose a panel to decide the issue. However, many people are afraid and worry about the outcome.
Even though the issue has not been decided on, the nuclear industry is already spending thousands of dollars trying to paint a rosy picture of a nuclear future.
They keep the radio waves hot in pushing their one-sided message: “nuclear energy is clean, it is safe, it is reliable, it is affordable.”
However, the picture in the world is different.
Many accidents after Chernobyl, Japan, Canada, Hungary, Germany and others could have ended up in catastrophe. Germany and Sweden are phasing out. Austria and others say no to nuclear.
In the U.S. more than 20 states, among them California, Kentucky and Wisconsin, have a moratorium on nuclear power plant construction. Should one have to say any more?…
The issue is far too serious for Alberta and the rest of the Prairies. One nuclear accident could have catastrophic results for the Prairies. However, the Prairies do not need nuclear power.
– John Plett,
Dixonville, Alta.
Buy Western
Bad restrictive laws, created by left-wing Liberals in Ontario, are very annoying to many western Canadians. The National Energy (Program), created during the Pierre Trudeau era, to pay for PetroCanada, still exists.
Bill C68, firearms confiscation laws, by Allan Rock, hasn’t been abolished. Bilingualism continues.
There are many, many more. However, there is a way to fight the Easterners.
Some of us in Manitoba now boycott Ontario products. A large percentage of my purchases are from Western Canada, whether it’s beer, sugar, machinery, tractors, bread or potatoes, you name it.
Perhaps if some of their companies close down, they may think twice and legislate better laws and learn their lesson at the same time. We are not their slaves.
– E. Sterzuk,
St. George, Man.
