Readers share their opinions on issues in the news.
KVD issue
Not only has the (federal) minister of agriculture signalled to the world that Canadian food is unsafe because he has cut funds and inspectors in meat processing plants resulting in the recent listeriosis outbreak, he has also cancelled Kernel Visual Distinguishability.
The simple method is known the world over to assure buyers they are getting the exact Canadian grain they ordered. This will put our whole Canadian quality control system in jeopardy.
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Every grain company was opposed to cancelling KVD before we had another effective means of identifying Canadian grains but the Conservatives cancelled it anyway.
If our customers find that because of the cancellation of KVD they haven’t received the grain they ordered and proceed with litigation, it should be directed to the minister of agriculture and the Harper government, not to the grain companies and producers.
– Avery Sahl,
Mossbank, Sask.
Dysfunctional
Prime minister Stephen Harper has called a federal election a year in advance of the set election date established in law by his own government. The reason he’s given for breaking his own law is that Parliament is dysfunctional.
So to try and fix a dysfunctional Parliament, we will be having a possibly illegal early election that will cost Canadian taxpayers a reported $300 million.
The governing party sets the tone for conduct and co-operation in Parliament and nothing has been done to promote decorum or co-operation by this Conservative government since it was elected.
We’ve seen the Conservative government develop a manual for its members on how to delay and disrupt parliamentary committees, Conservative members ignoring their responsibility to appear at committee hearings and repeated attempts to control and dictate to arm’s length public boards and commissions their will and philosophy.
This is what goes on publicly; I shudder to think what goes on behind the scenes.
Maybe it’s not Parliament at all that’s dysfunctional but the governing Conservative party.
– Bruce Weighill,
Moose Jaw, Sask.
CWB is good
The letter in the (Sept. 11) edition of The Western Producer by Mr. Horst Schreiber in regard to the Canadian Wheat Board sure hits the nail on the head.
That is what I have been saying too, that there are so many other crops now grown that wheat is no longer the king it used to be. In our area canola, sunflowers and beans are the main crops this year.
I farmed with my father before the CWB and when the board was brought in it was certainly quite an improvement. I farmed for over 50 years and I think the wheat board was very good for the farmers and now they are offering different options it has improved.
For quite a number of years all we grew was wheat, oats and barley and they were all handled by the board and I never heard anyone complain.
There’s a lot more problems with agriculture than the wheat board. Rail lines are being torn up, making farmers haul their grain farther, which is ruining our roads. We should never have lost the Crow rate.
I don’t think the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association ever did much for agriculture. All I ever heard of them doing is complain about the CWB.
Mr. Harper will try anything to get rid of the board but I hope he doesn’t succeed.
– Arthur Wheeler,
Treherne, Man.
Dave & Steve
I find it interesting that in David Anderson’s election advertisement he makes reference to the downside of not voting Conservative, but makes no reference as to how he (David Anderson) and “director” Steve (Harper) will destroy the Canadian Wheat Board if given a majority government.
The issue is about economics on your farm. Can your farm survive with no CWB?
The CWB is farmers’ last remaining power in the marketplace. Be careful what you vote for, you may just get it.
We know what Dave and Steve are up to. I’m with Newfoundland premier Danny Williams. Vote ABC – Anybody But Conservative.
– Dave Brown,
Kyle, Sask.
Ritz record
To the Liberal and NDP parties of Canada, just to show you how ignorant and backwards you are: why would you wait for some offhand small joke to ask for (federal agriculture minister) Gerry Ritz’s resignation? He should have been fired a long time ago.
Why do we have an opposition party complete with ag critics if you do not address issues that actually matter? Why wasn’t our prime minister asked to fire his ag minister a long time before this? If you don’t know what I am talking about, let me refresh your memory.
Trying to dismantle the wheat board: Gerry has no right to single handedly try to dismantle the wheat board. His gag orders and numbered ballots are not democratic. Last time I checked, this was not a communist country. He should have been fired for that.
Failure to fix our ag policy: what a joke to have CAIS (Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization) renamed AgriStability. Also announcing help for cattle producers just before Christmas only to find out later that it was a false statement. He should have been fired for that.
His failure to look into price fixing, eg. fertilizer, fuel, chemical: if we have to pay world prices for our inputs, we cannot compete against international competitors who are subsidized heavily for their products. He should have been fired for this.
Now when he has committed a small indiscretion of a bad taste joke, you stand up and cry foul and scream for his removal from office. You are just as much to blame for the terrible job our ag minister has done, even more so when you try to slam the job he has done for your own political gain.
– Herman Boll,
St. Domatas, Sask.
Easter stand
Re: “Easter says Tories out to get him,” (WP, Sept. 11.)
I can readily believe that the Conservatives would not like Wayne Easter. Mr. Easter has spent a lot of time involved in agricultural politics, not only in his home province, but also in Western Canada.
Mr. Easter knows a lot about Western Canada, having spent 10 years as president of the National Farmers Union, so he does not put up with Conservative nonsense.
Typical of this nonsense is the quote from the campaign manager for Wayne’s Conservative opponent in this election, who claims Easter has “a poor agricultural record when in government.”
Mr. Easter’s record is much better than that of his Conservative foes. Consider the illegal and undemocratic acts the Conservatives have pulled in trying to destroy the Canadian Wheat Board.
Three times the courts have ruled Conservative actions on the CWB are illegal. One judge even compared the actions of the Conservatives to the dictator in Zimbabwe. The Conservative record is one of deregulation, illegality and now the death of more than a dozen people from food poisoning under their watch.
In contrast, Mr. Easter has stood up for farmers and those we feed throughout his political career, something the Conservatives certainly cannot claim.
– George A. Calvin,
New Norway, Alta.
GM safety
Regarding your editorial of Sept. 18, “GM one answer to food demand,” I hope we are all able to agree that the stresses we are imposing on the planet are severe and potentially life threatening, with our ability to feed ourselves of paramount concern – a concern that should be faced by all of humanity, and not just agriculture alone.
The fact that our capitalistic system of enterprise demands a continually expanding economic bases, on a planet of finite resources, should be a debate engaged by all.
That having been said, I question your assumption that GM technology is a safe and understood craft.
My first point would be that it is technology we are talking about, and not science. Science by definition is the understanding of a process, a step-by-step sequence of actions which follow a predictable path to a predictable conclusion. GM technology does not meet these criteria.
We are talking about life, and not a mechanical process. Science does know that reaction follows action, that there are consequences, that nothing happens in isolation, that an application of force produces a reaction.
Science at this time is not able to predict what the action of changing the basic building blocks of life are to be, only that there will be a reaction.
Guarantees we were given when GMOs first appeared have not been meet. We were told that the technology would be contained.
This has proven to be untrue. Glyphosate resistant wild plants such as mustard are now with us. Seeds that were to kept in isolation have entered the food chain.
I have had the opportunity to talk to academics about this and they have all agreed that science cannot say that GM technology is safe because science does not know what the reaction will be; only that there will be a reaction.
It should also be noted that powerful corporations such as Monsanto have bought their way into our universities, giving them a vested interest, which all too often is the corporate bottom line and not food safety.
I would invite the editorial staff to take up this challenge of GM safety and talk to some theoretical scientist about this, remembering that the science of life is not completely understood and is more than just a mechanical action/reaction scenario….
– Wayne James,
Beausejour, Man.
Party first
Gerry Ritz’s comments about cold cuts and Wayne Easter were tasteless and inappropriate. But jokes and insults are not life threatening to the country.
The larger context of the remarks is far more serious. Regardless of the party, when Canadians are in jeopardy I do not want politicians sitting around the table worrying about their party first.
Putting one’s political party ahead of the interests of Canadians is the cardinal sin for those wanting to hold office, and Gerry Ritz has failed this test on behalf of the Harper party.
The lack of action from prime minister Harper makes the situation worse, not better.
– Stewart Wells,
President,National Farmers Union,
Swift Current, Sask.
No debate
After reading Larry Hill’s critique of Alberta’s Informa Report, I can see why the likes of MPs David Anderson, Chuck Strahl and Gerry Ritz do not want to debate the grain marketing issues with the CWB.
It is so good to hear the rest of the story now that the gag order has been legally removed.
– Don Bamber,
Oyen, Alta.
Hog payouts
I have a wish list on behalf of my fellow hog producers for the various political parties.
First, I’d like politicians to take a moment and imagine what it must be like to experience 13 months of sustained financial losses to the tune of $100 million in just one year. I doubt they could.
The government it seems has found a new blonde in the energy and resource sector and has been lulled into a false sense of well being in the agriculture sector with the high grain prices. Meanwhile, the core infrastructure of the pork industry, and to some extent the beef sector, are crumbling because of unprecedented equity losses caused by high feed prices, low pork prices and the Canadian dollar hovering at levels not seen since the early 1970s.
Provincial and national producer organizations have lobbied all levels of government for more than a year to implement desperately needed changes to farm safety net programs. This includes removing the caps on the AgriStability programs to provide assistance to the most efficient producers who can’t access support payments due to their corporate structures.
How about complete transparency in the program calculations instead of the arbitrary process that seems to be in place now?
Can we not ensure timely payouts on support programs so producers don’t have to wait in some instances up to three years after incurring losses before they receive a payment? …
When will the federal and provincial governments acknowledge the fact that the current situation facing the hog industry is an anomaly and as such requires a one-of-a-kind solution? The government of Alberta recognized the need and went to bat for its producers. …
When politicians boast of economic prosperity in Saskatchewan and the golden future that lies ahead, why then are there seemingly no financial resources to support the pillars of the economic engine that played such a large part in building this province and country? It seems the fragile infrastructure of the Saskatchewan hog industry is being further jeopardized by political indifference.
– Joe Kleinsasser,
Rosetown, Sask.
