Recycling query; Too kind; Smart farmers; World prices; Prison farms; Gun registry
Recycling query
As a paper with emphasis in agriculture and environmental practices, I wonder why you accept the inserts of machine, seed, fertilizer companies which use heavy, glossy paper, bright inks, very wasteful spaces and such, which are all more difficult to recycle because of the materials used.
With your influence, you could request them to use newsprint or regular bond, uses of space which are more environmental friendly.
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?
These companies need to be more responsible about waste and pollution in regard to advertising.
– Fern E. Gudlaugson,
Beaverlodge, Alta.
Too kind
Barry Wilson’s column (WP, April 9) about how a Canadian citizen has been stranded in an Orwellian no man’s land by the Harper Conservatives simply because his name was mistakenly put on the wrong list is chilling but hardly surprising to this Albertan.
Last year Harper’s Alberta cronies passed a victims of crime law that allows the Alberta Conservatives to seize and sell the property of those charged with a crime but not yet convicted.
This violates rights and freedoms that go back to the Magna Carta of 1215. Already they have seized and sold land and houses.
The beauty of this law is that once the victim is stripped of his assets, he has no resources left to launch any legal defence or appeals.
In the same vein, Harper’s Alberta cronies introduced Bill 19, now in second reading in the Alberta legislature. Under that law, if a cabinet member has the opinion that anyone is even thinking of opposing a pet project of the Alberta Conservatives, or one of their favoured corporate donors, the minister has the power to send them directly to jail for two years, fine them several hundred thousand dollars, or both, again with no realistic legal appeals possible.
Bill 19 also allows for the seizure of farmland by favoured corporate donors to the Alberta Progressive Conservatives.
I wonder if our Alberta attorney general is eager to direct the new Alberta sheriffs, decked out in their black shirt uniforms and shiny boots, to implement this part of the legislation?
Barry Wilson describes this sort of thing as a rigid ideology. I think that is rather kind.
These people have gone off the deep end in their frenzy to enhance the welfare of their corporate friends. That is more than just a rigid ideology.
– Ken Larsen,
Benalto, Alta.
Smart farmers
Why did The Western Producer feel inclined to publish a story based on a review of biotech crop yields by a known anti-biotech activist group (“Higher crop yields not all GM linked: study” WP, April 23).
Even if one were to suppose the report written by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) has its facts right – which it doesn’t – then it is a slap in the face of farmers around the globe who have adopted these technologies.
The headline and article assumes that farmers who have embraced biotech crops make poor judgments and don’t know what they are doing, i.e. paying top dollar to adopt the latest technologies even if they provide no yield benefit.
Give me a break. The farmers I know are way too smart for that.
If biotech crops provide them with an economic, environmental or lifestyle benefit, they adopt. If they don’t, then they simply won’t pay the extra dollar to utilize such technologies on their farm.
Farmers pay for performance because that is how they run a profitable business, feed their families and continue to enjoy the farming lifestyle.
Are there other ways to farm that are equally as profitable? Of course. But the large majority of farmers have chosen to adopt biotech crop innovations because of the benefits they provide. Increased yield is certainly one of the more obvious benefits of GM crops.
As the story points out, the UCS report is based on an isolated set of studies, so its conclusions are not indicative of the larger body of research on GM crops and yield increases.
That said, it does make one comment I agree with: it is the combination of breeding (germplasm; molecular screening; crop analytics; genomics; etc.) and biotechnology that produces increased yields.
Monsanto has been employing and advocating that strategy for years and that’s why farmers have access to a rich pipeline of biotech crop innovations in corn, soybeans and canola.
– Trish Jordan,
Monsanto Canada
Winnipeg, Man.
World prices
National Farmers Union president Stewart Wells in (a letter in) the March 26 edition of The Western Producer shows confusion in his praise of the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly.
Wells complains about the CWB monopoly being forced into marketing options that carry higher risks, many resulting in a contingency fund deficit.
This is exactly what happens when farmers are forced to sell to the monopoly. Monopoly grains equals deficit.
First of all, it is a buying monopoly, not a selling monopoly. The CWB monopoly forces all producers of durum, wheat and barley to sell to the monopoly. There is no democracy in a monopoly.
When you promote a monopoly, you don’t believe in freedom, democracy or competition. In fact, you are promoting extortion, confiscation and discrimination …
If the monopoly is so outstanding, why don’t they get into the open market grains like flax, canola, peas, lentils and oats and see how long they would survive? Because they can’t compete, you will never see it.
If the monopoly prices had been at least as good as world prices, there would be room for praise. With a buying monopoly, the CWB should have beat world prices …
All producers in Western Canada want is the same freedom as farmers in Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes have – freedom to market to any buyer or market of choice. …
– Darroll Wallin,
Margo, Sask.
Prison farms
It is regrettable that the federal government has decided to close the Canada-wide system of prison farms, including the one located at Prince Albert.
For many years I worked with the staff at the prison farm on various ventures. I was always impressed with the opportunity for inmates to do productive work outside the walls of the main institution. It seemed to work well.
The work was productive and also provided inmates with the opportunity of interacting with people and animals. I recall the dairy herd winning praise for high milk productivity.
The Prince Albert prison farm had a tremendous land base for growing vegetables and grain crops. At one time the huge underground root cellars were heaped with potatoes, carrots, cabbage and more. No more.
Now they sit empty or converted to storage for various items from the institution.
Food grown by inmates for consumption by inmates? No more. Provide inmates with something productive to occupy their time? No more.
Allow inmates the therapeutic opportunity to work with animals? No more. Learn the much needed social skills of working on the farm as a team? No more.
What are the true cost savings? What are the lost benefits?
– Barry Swanson,
Prince Albert, Sask
Gun registry
When is common sense going to prevail? The gun registry is truly an expensive farce when it comes to fighting crime.
In the first place, criminals do not play by the rules. In fact, the more rules, the less effective crime fighting becomes, … as evidenced by the increase in the use of illegal handguns throughout Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia….
Stephen Harper has it right. Quit wasting our tax dollars enforcing rules that are directed at law-abiding citizens. The only reason this registry was created was to appease a minority group that likes to be in the headlines.
It has, of course, turned into a great employment centre within the federal government. If … the gun registry prevents crime, then produce statistics to prove that fact.
How many people have been killed by long guns across Canada since the registry was brought in, and of that number, what percentage was by registered vs. non-registered guns?
How many people have been killed by illegal handguns by criminals or others and what percentage of those are by law-abiding citizens?
Break those stats into provincial stats and if Quebec and Ontario are so sure that the registry works, then they can fund their own provincial registry.
Michael Ignatieff … will reject anything and everything Stephen Harper and the Conservatives put forth…
Ignatieff’s IQ or intelligence quotient is dwarfed by his lack of CSQ, common sense quotient. Otherwise he would support the demise of a long overdue waste of our tax dollars. …
– Lorne Neyedly,
Lockport, Man.
