Seed patents
We as grain farmers do not need the tougher patent on seed that the powerful seed companies’ lobbies are pushing for.
More stringent plant breeders rights would be highly detrimental to the survival of family farms, which have on average become very productive units. It is imperative we question where the food production system in this country is going and what is ultimately in the best interest of our farmers, ag business and the consumer.
It is socially and fiscally healthy to have numerous entrepreneurial building, family farm businesses. The loss of farm communities would be devastating to Canadian culture….
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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?
There are many factors contributing to the demise of the family farm. Our seed costs are one. They continue to increase yearly. Canola has increased as much as seven times the price it was 15 years ago. We now have the absurd situation where one pound of certified canola seed is worth more than a bushel (50 lb.) of commercial grain.
On top of this, we also have expensive technology fees and legal contracts preventing us from saving seed we grow. No I’m not against seed or biotech development but plant breeders rights have been a sweetheart deal, giving biotech and seed companies a great advantage and changing the playing field for farmers.
Please don’t feed me the nonsense that farmers have choice. The choices have become a lot fewer because the playing field has changed. It’s like this: it has become easier to grow canola because of this wonderful biotechnology. We now grow it from the north to the south of our provinces thus overproducing and keeping grain prices low.
We pay dearly for this technology. It becomes formidable to go back to any other system. Our main problem is that we cannot demand a price and everyone else can. We are on a treadmill….
Plant breeders rights need to be weakened, not strengthened. Increasing seed patents would only increase the profits of the large seed and biotech companies. Farmers would have less control, less profit and continue to be divided and conquered and driven off their land.
Ñ Reg Hoegl,
Lloydminster Sask.
SOD way
Let me run a theory past you. It’s a farm person’s way of looking at things; what I call the SOD way. You know: simple, obvious and direct.
When the first BSE case was discovered in Canada the case was traced back to a good Saskatchewan herd. The owners were given no time to collect embryos or semen, neither of which, I understand, can transmit BSE.
The government said they’d “done the science.” I said they’d done the panic on that BSE free herd.
Why could that herd not have been treated in the following way: young animals, we are told, are not BSE candidates, therefore, they could have been marketed. Older cattle could have been culled when necessary and each one tested at the time.
BSE is not passed from animal to animal and eventually the herd would have been declared disease free, with absolutely no danger to anyone in the duration.
Here’s another way of looking at things: pray that the U.S. border will stay closed, or perhaps we could close our border. This will give us time to build enough processing plants and find markets. Meanwhile, different facets of the U.S. livestock business will be pre-occupied with suing one another.
What lessons we have learned?
Don’t hitch your wagon to one star and Canadians won’t act unless their backs are to the wall, and so on.
And it would be wise to remember that all our adversaries are not south of the border. Look at Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, which should actually drop “pool” from its name.
Ñ C. Pike,
Waseca, Sask.
Fog lights
Most vehicles with recreational fog lights located in the bumper or lower extremities of the car are connected to the lighting system. These lights are not on when your vehicle lights are on high beam or brights. They do come on when one dims their lights.
I feel that the reverse should be more acceptable. These lights should be used only under conditions they were intended for Ñ fog or blowing snow.
When lit these lights are devastating to most oncoming traffic, even on divided highways. Can we imagine the effect of these lights to wildlife crossing the road?
We are ready and willing to ban driving distractions, cell phones, coffee, reading, TV in vehicles in the cause of road safety. Should we be another first and ban the abuse of this death-threatening commodity?
Ñ Emmanuel Oystreck,
Yorkton, Sask.
What progress?
In your March 10 paper there is an article, “Farm group irked by progress on CAIS” (Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization.)
Manitoba minister Rosann Wowchuk states, “I think farmers will be pleased that we made progress on dealing with the deposit issue.” The progress they are speaking of? They’re going to get together again, and remember at our expense, to think about it some more.
I think it’s time us farmers gave these guys some slack. They must be forgiven for not realizing that an empty bank account means there’s no money in it. They go to sleep at night busting at the seams with cash. If your foot isn’t caught in the trap, it isn’t going to hurt, is it?
And therein lies the big problem with people who have a lot of money deciding the fate of people who have none. They don’t seem to grasp the concept. If you’re begging them for money, that means you don’t have any. …
There will never be any urgency in Ottawa as long as none of them are as broke as we are. It’s just that simple.
Ñ Kathy Quiring,
Dalmeny, Sask.
The real problem
I wonder what rural voters think of spending tax dollars without any return on investment. I understand the need for cattle industry welfare, but the government is not addressing the problem. …
It is unfortunate our most public official recommendation is “shoot, shovel and shut up” and then tries to woo the market back with a “there is no BSE problem” attitude followed by a “trust me.”
The export market has communicated through its product rejection that, without BSE testing, rural Albertans shall continue to suffer though a prolonged crises. “Trust me” just ain’t gonna cut it.
The need to reacquire the confidence of our foreign consumer should be the primary goal for the authorities. The answer to this dilemma is to recognize the market has legitimate concerns and the only way to minimize these concerns is through testing.
The $800 million should have paid for many of the 14.7 million cattle to be cleared of the contamination issue and would have stood as a current statistical argument against the ongoing need for testing.
So who will rural voters blame for this economic catastrophe? And what have we received for our … dollars, except for a new patronage office in the United States and smiles, nods and winks from our two federally inspected packing plants?
How much longer must we watch our ranchers sitting by the roadside before this government admits it made an error and begins to address the problem?
One half of $1 billion is more expensive per provincial taxpayer than the $1 billion plus spent on the federal gun registry spread across the entire tax paying population of Canada.
Ñ Don McGregor,
Edmonton, Alta.
Scrap registry
What has firearm registration done for us in Canada?
In the push for gun registration, the advocates repeatedly said that one of the great benefits was going to be for the police. Whenever the police were to go into a dangerous situation, they would know where the firearms are because of the gun registry.
How well did this work for the four mounties that were slain at Mayerthorpe, Alta.? It did not do a thing for them. The killer was prohibited from owning firearms, yet he had at least one, and it appears that it could have possibly been a prohibited type that could not be registered.
What has the registry done for the citizens of Canada? Well, for one thing, the law abiding gun owners duly registered their guns, and now their names are in a data bank, along with all the information as to how many and what type of firearms they have.
Should someone with criminal intent ever gain access to all that information, which is not impossible, that someone would know where the firearms are. There are other side effects as well.
What has firearm registration accomplished in other countries? In Australia, after the law abiding gun owners registered their guns, pump action and self-loading rifles and shotguns were declared illegal.
The authorities had no problem confiscating the 640,000 guns that were suddenly illegal because the registry allowed them to know who had the guns and where they were.
The law abiding lost their guns, the non-law abiding got to keep theirs.
The same thing occurred in Britain, except it went further, bit by bit to the point where virtually no one in the law-abiding population owns a firearm of any kind. Now that the population has been disarmed, violent crime has soared.
Fifty-three percent of home burglaries in Britain now occur while the homeowner is at home. The owners spend thousands on home security, making their homes difficult to break into so the burglars now simply ring the doorbell and force their way in when the door is opened.
If the owner resists, he or she gets stabbed or shot, with an unregistered gun, of course, and it is called a burglary gone wrong.
I wonder what would constitute a burglary gone right? Tea and crumpets served to the burglar maybe?
Of course, the burglar does not worry about the homeowner having a firearm, because the law does not allow the owner to have one. To top that off, the courts come down hard on anyone that harms an intruder breaking into their home.
Could Canada’s gun registry lead to this sort of thing? The people of Australia and Britain were led to believe that it would not, but it did.
The recent events at Mayerthorpe are a wake-up call for Canada to scrap the gun registry and use the billion dollars on resources for the police and the courts to deal with the violent criminals in a much more effective manner.
Ñ Don Budesheim,
Grande Prairie, Alta.
More ducks
Keith Yoder (Open Forum, March 3) was justifiably elated that the wild duck population is half the 1970 level. …
Duck population reduction in my farming area is of no comfort considering goose and deer populations have soared. The net result is crops now are threatened to a much greater extent than in 1970.
Having discussed this matter with some wildlife advocates, they responded by saying wildlife is part of nature; therefore I am at fault because I didn’t appropriately protect my crops.
During summer I use baits, insecticides, traps and herbicides against pestilent wildlife while government law forbids effectively protecting field crops against the worst pests.
In common warfare, bullets and bombs are used by aggressors and the defenders. Wildlife groups use ducks, geese and deer as warfare against farmers, yet farmers by law are prevented from defending their crops.
Crop insurance inspectors evaluate wildlife crop damage but whose money pays the insufficient compensation?
If justice is to prevail, farmers will be allowed to hunt or have others hunt deer, ducks and geese throughout the year. In addition, if wildlife crop damage still occurs, farmers must be adequately compensated for crop losses….
Wildlife advocates and the deceived insist everyone benefits from wildlife. If that were true, crop producers would be compensated accordingly. Refusing that means food producers are nobodies.
Ñ Stuart Makaroff,
Saskatoon, Sask.
CSI comment
The article, “Build better antenna and customers will come,” in the Western Producer March 10 edition contained several errors, most of them in statements by Greg Setter, that do a disservice to your readers and misrepresent CSI Wireless and our products.
The most alarming comment made by Mr. Setter is: “We went to CSI (Wireless) and told them we want to brand our own antenna and here’s the specifications we want (Setter said).
“It wasn’t complicated. Our antennas are basically no different from other antennas on the market. They just have better components. It’s not a new design. We asked CSI (Wireless) for more than any of their other clients asked for. I guess we’re just more demanding.”
Mr. Setter is implying that the CSI Wireless products supplied to him were/are somehow superior to the CSI Wireless products supplied to our company’s many other partners in the agricultural industry. This is simply not true.
Mr. Setter’s products, the SetterIQ and SetterMAX that he has rebranded, are identical versions of our AgIQ and DGPS MAX that are sold worldwide. They utilize the same high quality CSI Wireless components as those supplied to all of our other partners in the agricultural sector.
CSI Wireless is committed to providing every customer with the highest quality, lowest cost Differential GPS (DGPS) receivers and accessories. …
These receiver systems contain various hardware features that set them apart from each other, and offer the customer maximum performance for their needs.
In future, we strongly encourage the Western Producer to contact manufacturers and service providers in advance of publishing articles in which they are mentioned, to confirm that what is said about them and their products is true.
Ñ Jeff Adams,
CSI Wireless Inc.,
Calgary, Alta.
Pool musings
Saskatchewan Wheat Pool has again occupied the news of late. Much to the chagrin of some of the old-time supporters, it has changed the structure of the share capital. Perhaps in fairness to all, it was the way to go to ensure a true democratic process for all investor shareholders. We must also realize that a lot of farmers still retained their original shares with the company as Class B shares, so will gain added voting power.
I know those who sold all their Pool shares the day after it went public look upon us with gleeful disdain; admittedly, they made the right investment move, sensing the ineptitude of the, then, board of directors and the CEO. …
There is a basic element that the outfit minimizes: that the key to success of the business is the farmer that will patronize its doors at all times. Obviously, there is something wrong when our market share has dropped considerably. The notion that, by building these concrete behemoths, the horse just has to come to the trough, makes no sense when there are troughs along the way that serve the same water.
It may be fair to say that the directorship and management failed to gauge the ill winds of the grassroots….
I muse a bit at the malt industry article (WP Feb. 24), where the statement of obtaining high quality malt barley has been considerably compromised by the disappearance of these wooden facilities that once dotted our prairie landscape. It might do the Pool a bit of good to reflect on what they wreaked upon their own members.
Surely, as a strong farmer-owned organization, their voice at the doorsteps of government could have had a stronger impact than what is generated today.
Some writers have correctly stated that the Pool has become as any other company. While it is true, we, as farmers whose fathers started it back in 1924, cannot just sit there and throw away the baby with the bath water.
What happened is history and done with. What is important here is that we are still a Canadian enterprise. In a climate where the Yankees are in our grain industry with both feet and incessantly waging a war against the CWB and single-desk concept, aided in great measure by individuals that are ruggedly free-wheeling, it may be in our best interest to put some investment into the new Pool structure and have a say in its future direction.
It would be a travesty indeed if the company was to be swallowed up by a multinational for 10 cents on the dollar. It could very easily happen. …
The Pool abandoned us. Today, the huge landowners with colossal holdings in their own right are the ace cardholders in the game. Their entrepreneurial spirit, along with their conscience, steering that 32 wheeler down the road, will dictate the success or demise of our beloved organization.
Ñ Harry Beskorovayny,
Gronlid, Sask.
Phosphorus low
The article “Research targets trouble with organic phosphorus” (WP, Feb. 17) is disheartening.
The authors give the impression that they do not know two fundamental facts of nature. Phosphorus is an essential component of every living cell in plants and animals. And every removal of any plants or animals takes away some phosphorus from the soil.
Additionally, averages for all soil test data for the United States and Canada has repeatedly found that soil of the prairie provinces has generally lower available phosphorus content than any other substantial region in Canada or the United States.
A few decades ago the amount of phosphorus contained in exported Canadian cereals was greater than the sale of all fertilizer phosphorus per year in Canada.
Currently the annual amount of phosphorus exported from Canada in plant and animal exports probably exceeds the total annual sales of phosphate fertilizers here.
Vast areas of Canada’ agricultural lands are having the phosphorus contents of soil reduced because removals of phosphorus exceed returns of that essential nutrient.
Ñ C. F. Bentley,
Edmonton, Alta.
Seed sector
Re: English baker urges registration of new wheat (WP, March 3). There is good news on the horizon for Canadians directly or indirectly affected by seed variety registrations. Now in Phase II of its activities, the Seed Sector Review has earmarked regulatory flexibility and timeliness for reform. Enhancing competitiveness, innovation and responsiveness to market opportunities are a top priority for all stakeholders in the seed sector.
A case in point that clearly illustrates why the Seed Sector Review is putting such emphasis on modernizing the varietal registration process is the demand for the registration of wheat line BW295 by Warburton Bakery from the United Kingdom.
According to the March 3 story by Ian Bell, at a recent meeting of a subcommittee of the Prairie Registration Recommending Committee for Grain in Winnipeg, the arguments were presented for contract registration of the wheat line BW 295.
BW 295’s market is assured by Warburtons, the U.K.’s largest independent bakery, (which) claims that this line produces a flour that would support its efforts to maintain its competitive leadership in baked goods in England.
The 180,000 acres of wheat grown under contract for Warburtons in Saskatchewan and Manitoba annually is significant to all concerned, yet this end-use customer has had to deal with an exasperating lack of new wheat varieties to substitute for AC Barrie and CDC Teal.
Warburtons’ impression of the Canadian varietal registration process is that it is onerous and slow to change, seriously delaying the development of new and improved varieties they need now.
Precisely to respond rapidly to end user requirements such as those from Warburton Bakery, which will directly benefit Canadian wheat farmers with premium opportunities, the report of the Seed Sector Review tabled last year identified the restructuring of variety registration for immediate action Ñ to create a more flexible system of registration information requirements based on crop kind, and to remove impediments to the introduction of innovation….
Ñ Monty Doyle,
Project Manager,
Seed Sector Review,
Ottawa, Ont.
Priority question
Canadians have a right to expect that their members of Parliament show up for work. At a minimum, that work is to represent the views of their constituents by showing up to cast votes on important issues. In my view, the federal government’s annual budget is the most important vote on the parliamentary calendar.
But, apparently, Stephen Harper and the 99 Conservative members of Parliament don’t agree. On March 9, they abandoned their responsibility to their constituents and the Canadian public by abstaining from voting on the federal budget.
They claimed that it was to avoid an election. But, by guaranteeing the Liberals from the beginning that the budget would pass, they failed the people who elected them. By throwing the Liberals a lifeline prematurely, they passed up an important opportunity to demand changes to the federal budget on issues important to Saskatchewan people.
Let me offer one example. A major part of this budget was the Liberals’ decision to reallocate money from less important priorities to ensure that money could be found for more important priorities. As a general principle, I think that government should regularly review its spending priorities and reallocate funding to higher priority areas.
However, many of the “less important priorities” appear to have been in areas of importance to Saskatchewan farmers.
The Liberal budget included cuts in federal support for community pastures and the elimination of the farm improvement and marketing co-operatives program. At the same time, the Liberals found money for big tax cuts for big companies like the banks and manufacturers of farm inputs, both of which make big profits off farmers.
If the Conservatives hadn’t offered the Liberals a guarantee that their budget would be passed, they could have used their leverage in a minority Parliament to make changes to the budget that would benefit Saskatchewan producers. They could have used the threat of a non-confidence vote to demand changes to the Liberal’s misplaced priorities.
The fact that they did not use the fact of a minority Parliament to make a difference for Saskatchewan farmers has a lot of people wondering where the Conservatives’ priorities really lie.
Ñ Lorne Nystrom,
Regina, Sask.
Power struggle
To the privatized Great Energy Company: you want your payment immediately? Well, I sent the $170.84 on Jan. 18. It seems that all you companies do is brag about your profits, usually in the millions.
One thing none of you can realize is common sense and what it is like in the real world out here. The NHL is a typical example of this. The players got more and more and in order for the owners to get their profits the season tickets and everything else went up. Only half of the so-called fans came out and revenue went down.
We in rural Canada producing the mainstays of life, namely food, shelter and clothing, are being forced to pay extreme input costs with no recourse to get this adjusted. Fuel, natural gas, fertilizer, chemicals, repairs, machinery and electricity costs have gone up 100 to 200 percent. At the same time in all segments of agriculture, what we produce has steadily declined in value and is next to worthless.
The prices we have to accept for our products have dropped at least 50 percent and our government controls all of this. Little good is it when all revenue is in the hands of governments and big corporations when the working people are being bled of their incomes through taxes and rip-off energy corporations.
Many farms and ranches have already shut down due to worthless grain and oilseeds, mad cows, PMU shutdown, drought and chicken flu, and you are going to see more operations collapsing as input costs continue to rise. Don’t forget privatized insurance costs.
It was a sad day when the people who paid and put in these rural electric lines in the 1950s sold this out to the Alberta government in the 1980s. Looks like another plot that people got sucked into so we could be ripped off again….
I hope someone reads this and maybe a light goes on. You can threaten to turn my power off and maybe even do it, like you have done to other people, but please remember that my ranch is finished then….
I will continue to meet my commitments. I can’t cut back any more. Payments may be late but hopefully can be made. Agriculture is in the toilet, let’s hope that the big flush isn’t just around the corner.
Ñ Arnold McKee,
Oyen, Alta.
