FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Re: Kevin Hursh’s column “Diversification requires labour, capital, marketing” (WP Mar. 26).
Thanks, Kevin, for telling it the way it is. There is finally a bit of money in some areas of agriculture, products such as lamb, goat, beef, etc. Yes, they are a lot of work.
I have been diversified for 38 years. I’m looking back and there has been only a few good years in the livestock business. We have raised sheep and cattle all this time. BSE and drought up here and other areas put a lot of people out of business for good.
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The Pan-Canadian Action Plan on African swine fever has been developed to avoid the worst case scenario — a total loss ofmarket access.
Plus, we almost lost a whole generation of our young people. They saw what was happening and what a struggle we were having and wanted no part of it. I worked in the oilfield 10 years to pay off old debt, plus seeded canola for cash crop to survive. I met a lot of people in the oil field that had quit livestock in this time, plus their children gone also.
It looks good right now. Hopefully it stays good for a while. Some are already thinking it can’t end. Good times. Bred cows are selling high. If you can afford to buy, do the math first. Two years of good does not make up for many break-even or negative ones.
Rene Cadrain,
Glaslyn, Sask.
NOT MY VOTE
I found myself puzzled to read the opinion of Kevin Hursh (WP column Apr. 2), who writes, “Most prairie farmers could not envision ever voting for anyone other than the Conservatives.”
How does he know that? Will they really vote for the bunch that has sliced, diced and mutilated the West?
I gave up on the pork-barreling, you scratch my back I’ll scratch yours, party system. I vote for the person — and that person will not be the MP in my riding, who can always get his letters published in the Western Producer, even though they are re-cycled form letters.
It’s fortunate there are educated writers who can shoot holes in those letters. Thank you.
C. D. Pike,
Waseca, Sask.
AG DICTATORSHIP
Re: Front page article “Have farm groups become federal cheerleaders?” (WP Mar. 26)
We, I have been told over the decades, live in a democracy and when we have as many farm groups as we do there should always be a number that have different opinions.
I can understand if we resided in a communist dictatorship that there would be the exact situation we have with our somehow neutered organizations.
Over the past decades, no matter what the agriculture issues were there would always be for and against organizations plus a number scattered between the two extremes.
In our society today, if you want to stifle opposition, throw a huge sum of money directly or indirectly at it. If we have farm organizations, where do they get their funding? How much and from where — totally from the farmers, or what percentage comes directly from the government or big business?
If funding is 51 percent or greater from farmers, then that organization is truly a farmer organization. If the funding is 51 percent from government(s) or big business, then that organization is not a farmer organization.
I suggest that funding amounts for our so-called farmer organizations be researched. Are they actual farmer organizations or are they puppets, and to who?
This whole agriculture industry has somehow gone from democratic to dictatorship in the past decade.
Delwyn Jansen,
Humboldt, Sask.
BE PREPARED
It seems to me that Kevin Hursh’s anti-climate change views (WP April 16) are doing farmers a disfavour.
Contrary to Kevin, climate scientists do not blame every epic winter or flood on climate change. What they do say is that the trends are towards more severity and more frequency of such events.
For example, when you have once-in-a-100 year weather event now happening every few years, doesn’t that change how we have to respond to weather events?
Once upon a time, farmers would save money and time by ignoring once-in-a-100 year events, because they were unlikely to happen in their lifetime. Now that has changed.
It is now prudent for farmers to look at increased measures to improve the weather-proofing of their operations.
For example, with increased rains and the likelihood of more severe rains, how is the drainage of your fields? What reasonable steps should you undertake now? Do you have buildings in low lying locations that could be moved to higher ground?
With the increased probability of more severe droughts, perhaps now is a good time to upgrade your dug-outs to greater capacity. And so on.
Kevin tells us that climate scientists can’t tell us what the weather will be next month or next year. From what I have seen from weather forecasts in my lifetime, is that nobody can with any certainty. But we can predict trends and probabilities (that which is most likely to happen).
Take the example of here in southwestern Saskatchewan, a region known for its dryness, since 1990, we have had more years of above normal and way above normal rainfall than not. And this was predicted by climate change models.
Around the world, there have been winners and losers as the climate has shifted.
Are you prepared?
Tom Shelstad
Swift Current, Sask.
HOGS APLENTY
The head of Maple Leaf Foods, Michael McCain, is asking for more hogs and workers to sustain the second shift at Brandon’s slaughter plant (Slaughterhouse drive, Winnipeg Free Press April 16).
He refers to raising pigs as an industry and claims there is a need for another 175 hog barns in Manitoba.
Hog farming has become an industry. Why then is it not regulated as an industry and subject to environmental assessment?
A barn is defined as a farm building used for housing and sheltering animals. The hog complexes referred to as “barns” are factories designed to manufacture animals for meat processing for export.
In 2007, there were 1,400 hog producers. Now there are 575. Why are 175 new barns needed when so many are sitting empty?
Most empty barns are in eastern Manitoba where land is overloaded with nutrients from hog factories. New factories should not be allowed in western Manitoba, relocating environmental problems there.
Hog industry reports show that enough Manitoba pigs are raised now to fill a second shift. McCain could buy them and no new barns are needed if he was willing to pay producers selling pigs elsewhere, enough to induce them to sell to his company instead.
Temporary foreign workers are relied upon, as few domestic workers will work there. Improving working conditions is the realistic solution.
A second shift can operate under existing conditions with a few changes, without further environmental, public and worker subsidies. That’s the cost of doing business.
John Fefchak,
Virden, Man.
