The good news last week was that Alberta agriculture minister Walter Paszkowski has apparently rediscovered the benefits of agricultural co-operatives.
A news release from the minister described seven “robust, dynamic” co-operatives “that provide significant value to their owners and members.”
To provide the minister with details on these seven co-ops (two in Australia, five in the U.S.), Alberta taxpayers graciously hired a Massachusetts consulting firm.
The same information might well have been obtained through the world co-operative network, but presumably the minister felt it would be more credible if his department paid for it. In any case, the Massachusetts consultants succeeded in finding seven co-operative success stories.
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The co-ops included Minn-Dak Farmers Cooperative, which has 481 farmer-members in Minnesota, South Dakota and North Dakota. According to the study, it processes almost 1.5 million tons of sugar beets a year.
There’s also the 637-member Pro-Fac Cooperative in Rochester, N.Y., which “processes a diverse array of vegetables, condiments, snack foods, fruits, entrees, etc., including canned and frozen products, chilis, sauces, salsas, fruit fillings, pickles, salad dressings, toppings, etc.”
The bad news, unfortunately, is that the minister chose to interpret such co-operative successes as evidence that the Canadian Wheat Board “can operate and flourish” as a voluntary marketing and price-pooling organization.
Amazingly, the minister’s news release almost sounded plausible. Just as in the television show “X-files,” talented scriptwriters can make the strangest things seem credible.
For a dose of reality, he might consider that the seven co-ops generally own their own facilities. Is he suggesting that the board should build its own elevator system? Perhaps this hypothetical CWB co-op could also own flour mills, bakeries and feedlots.
The minister could also think about the benefit that Canadian farmers get in the form of government-guaranteed initial payments. With all respect to the 481 beet producers and members of the other six co-ops, their commercial activities are a far cry from those of an organization that provides $4 billion or so a year in initial payments.
Or is the minister suggesting a CWB co-op that would give farmers a much smaller first payment and make them wait a year for most of their money?
Perhaps we should hope that all this was just an expensive April Fool’s joke that was accidentally released early. But that hope would be as unreal as last week’s ministerial news release.
