Canadian Wheat Board to be axed under Harper.
I started putting down a few senetences but just don't have time to write an article this week, so if anyone can find the time to cover this story that'd be cool. You should probably start over since i'm not a journalist, but you're free to use any of what i jotted down so far. Solidarity, and keep up the great work Rabble!
Harper Sells The Farm: The end of the Canadian 'Family Farm' with the shutting of the Canadian Wheat Board.
Founded more than 75 years ago in the heart of the great deppression The Canadian Wheat Board will see it's historic (...) brought to a close under the current Harper governments tenure. Perhaps the objection from Conservatives is that the Wheat board is a Co-operative of sorts collective paying for marketing and operating costs then returning the rest of the profits to the producers. It is not the now more common model of the Corperation which empties the pockets on the bottom then funnels that money to a few pockets bursting at the seems at the top. While in the last few decades corperate farming has pushed out most nearly all small and medium size independant farmers, this is not how are great and for some of us great- great- grandperants saw or dealt with the world.
Reformed in 1935 on a similair model to the state led efforts at organizing the grain industry during the first world war that had so impressed farmers the Canadian wheat board....
Opposition to the Canadian Wheat board first began to appear in the late 1990's originating largely from Americas free trade position and big Agri business ......
Don't forget to mention that areas that consistently grow high protien #1 grade wheat are forced to pool their grain with lesser grade wheat and end up taking a BIG hit in the pocketbook. When I'm selling my wheat at $7.00/bushell through the wheat board, my Montanan freinds are getting $10.00. It's day is done.
Good piece on the Wheat Board issue from Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
First of all, Canadians in general seem to know squat about the Canadian Wheat Board. By and large, people are responding to the incessant use of the term monopoly.
It's sad that the electorate has paid no attention to this issue even though they have shown a distrust of industrial farming. The small, independent grain farms will be lost over time with this move, as has been the case in the agricultural sector in general. And what few people were ever told is that the CWB was on the forefront on stopping GMO technology taking over grain production.
har
Which sector of the population do you think solidy supported the Reform party, thus giving it a stable base from which to branch out and eventually win a majority?
Reminds me of that childrens book from last year: Flaherty and the Big Pot of Diminishing Gold RMR video
So we needed a phony-baloney majority government to calm the markets and put the economy on track. TSX just dropped another few hundred points, and the jobs report sounds like Orwellian double speak. Ya Canadians needed a phony majority dictatorship in Ottawa alright.
Not sure I agree with the thrust of this, but at least it's a show of resistance from the government of Manitoba website:
Farmers should decide the fate of the CWB
Good for Manitoba. I was happy to hear that they launched a campaign to protec the CWB.
The CWB protects small, inefficient farmers from having to compete with small efficient farmers by forcing the efficient farmer to pay for the inefficient farmer's lack of productivity.
The CWB forces the efficient farmer to sell his product at a lesser price while simultaniously taking a cut of the proceeds to pay for a burgeoning CWB bureaucracy that contributes nothing to productivity. Its day is done as a forced monopoly but it does have a mandate to prevent corporate ownership of seed stocks via GMO.
Without the CWB monopoly, efficient farmers will succeed and grow while inefficient farmers will not. The 'family farm' is a misnomer that includes many 'farms' that are more accurately described as a lifestyle, not a business. The farmers that chooses to invest funds and labour into land, equipment, crop insurance and supplies in order to succeed should not be forced to pay for those that, for whatever reason, choose not to.
The CWB forces the efficient farmer to sell his product at a lesser price while simultaniously taking a cut of the proceeds to pay for a burgeoning CWB bureaucracy that contributes nothing to productivity. Its day is done as a forced monopoly but it does have a mandate to prevent corporate ownership of seed stocks via GMO.
Without the CWB monopoly, efficient farmers will succeed and grow while inefficient farmers will not. The 'family farm' is a misnomer that includes many 'farms' that are more accurately described as a lifestyle, not a business. The farmers that chooses to invest funds and labour into land, equipment, crop insurance and supplies in order to succeed should not be forced to pay for those that, for whatever reason, choose not to.
Not quite. Much of the market for Canadian wheat is controlled by large agri-business corporations, who play indivdual farmers off against one another, thus driving down the prices farmers receive for their crops. That's why the number of farms has been declining for decades. The Wheat Board, by pooling the grain, helps to counteract this. You also mentioned the important role that the CWB plays in preventing the introduction of GMO wheat, which is important because several countries will not accept GMOs and for Canadian wheat to be contaminated would seriously cripple the market. The myth of efficiency is used as a wedge to divide farmers against one another for agribusiness profit, and if the CWB goes, so to will farmers, it will hurt the local economies in the small towns, and things will keep getting worse in rural areas. Granted, there are some grain farmers close enough to the US border who would like to be able to sell directly, but on the whole grain farmers through provincial plebicites and wheat board elections have consistently shown their preference to keep the single desk. That said, they also apparently voted for MPs who won't protect the single desk, so we will see how things go for them.
Yes!
Federal Court says Ritz broke law by tabling bill to dismantle Wheat Board
As far as I can tell the suit didn't seek any remedy from the court, only a declaration. So they got their declaration and no remedy. According to reports on Twitter from people covering Question Period, Ritz stood up in the Commons a few minutes ago and said they would appeal and in the meantime would continue implementing Bill C-18. It's not at all clear that plaintiffs actually won anything.
I believe you're quite right, pogge, and that as you say there was no prospect of any order beyond a declaration from the start. But as we've seen with other successful court challenges (Omar Khadr comes to mind), even court orders mean little to this dark regime. I'm going to read the federal court decision as soon as I find it and see how much more this discredits them than they already are.
You can view or download the full decision in pdf format here.
As you said, no actual order - but wow, strong language!
Excellent news.
"... the Minister will be held accountable for his disregard for the rule of law."
Would that it were so.
So the Cons are in contempt of farmers and the law. What's next?
The passage of the bill into law.
One T.Mulcair says that can be reversed by another government. One that would in fact canvass farmers - hold a plebiscite - to understand majority opinion.
That "another government" has to get elected first, Mr. Mulcair.
Attached to a workable plan,optimism wins hearts, minds and votes.
True, dat.
I don't think some of you understand the problem with the cwb.
Picture your city. Now picture your city if only let's say, "Safeway" could sell produce. No other grocery store could sell produce. If they did, they'd go to jail. You have a local farmers market for fresh locally grown produce? Nope, the vendors would be in jail. Only the one store can sell produce, period.
That's the situation, and that's why farmers overwelmingly support getting rid of it. Forget the crap you've been fed on the news. I'm a western farmer. Very few western farmers want it, or ever did. Whenever possible I've grown, "off board" grains just so I didn't have to be a part of it. Most of us have been trying to find ways to get out from under it's oppression for all of our lives.
The day the cwb loses it's monopoly is a good day. Besides, if the cwb is so, "loved" as they and the media are shovelling; well then they'll just do fine in a fair, open market, won't they?
I don't think some of you understand the problem with the cwb.
Picture your city. Now picture your city if only let's say, "Safeway" could sell produce. No other grocery store could sell produce. If they did, they'd go to jail. You have a local farmers market for fresh locally grown produce? Nope, the vendors would be in jail. Only the one store can sell produce, period.
Picture a US right to work state where there is but one major employer in town. No unions allowed because neither the company nor their politician friends who they buy their way into office believe in free labour markets. They want to be able to lord it over you and your family in addition to being the only game in town for work. You can sell your labour to the big mining or lumber company, or you and your's can starve on welfare or move to another right-to-werk town and try your luck there.
That's basically it with getting rid of the wheat board. They want to deal with farmers on an individual basis and have a free hand to be able to crook and rob them for their wheat and barley at rock bottom prices. Fascists and political conservatives alike tend to share a tendency to go after organized labour first and foremost.
You mean Farmers voted to keep their wheat board
It was our corrupt stooges in phony-majority Harper guvmint who voted to scrap it.
Shall we debate single-payer health care next? How about same-sex marriage?
How about that freedom of speech crap which has gone way too far, why, some folks are even making personal attacks against the Prime Minister! Seriously!
Look, folks voted for a majority govt, we better get with the action, go with the flow, and start dismantling the bullshit nanny state that the Liberals (with the NDP in tow) have built here. No time to lose.
Make hay while the sun shines.
Most of your friends and you are not in the majority who voted for the wheat board then. If you don't vote, then your opinion isn't counted. That's the way it works I'm afraid.
And you'll be sorry as the ideology has proven to be unkind to small farmers in North America over the last 30 years. With neoliberalism it's either grow larger and acquire other land and farms, or make way for unsustainable industrial farming and foreign-based agribusiness subsidized by US Government(socialism) while your family's life work perishes. You won't be able to compete with Uncle Sam's socialism for big agribusiness in the end.
Fascism and socialism, like liberalism and political conservatism were all born of the French Revolution, Hegelian philosophy etc. And fascism evolved in direct opposition to socialism. Fascism is the antithesis of socialism and communism. Your neoconservative friends are much more compatible with fascists than us on the left. Look it up.
Fidel. Please. Leave Albertaborn alone. He's MINE! I found him FIRST!! He's MY PRIVATE PROPERTY!!!
Having lived in Sask for over 20 years doesn't make me any particular authority on the CWB. Is it a good idea for groups of farmers to get together and market through a central desk, yes. Is it a good idea to "force" a group of farmers to get together and market through a central desk, not so much. I think a lot of people consider farmers and the CWB in the same light as employees and unions, I don't think they are comparable.
Selling Wheat through the CWB was made compulsory in 1943 in order to suppy Britian and the war effort with a dependable and CHEAP supply of food. Post war, the idea was similar but for Eastern Canada. I always laugh when Eastern politicians say they are concerned about western farmers. The CWB is all about control of food.
Does anyone remember a few yrs ago when protesting farmers hauled a few kgs of wheat to the States and were arrested, thrown into chains, and paraded into court? Rapists are treated less severely.
I have grown wheat.
The bills for the seed, fuel, and fertilizer are paid within a month of seeding. The wheat is harvested 3 months later. I had to store the wheat for free another 8 months. After delivery to the elevator I had to wait about a year for all the "payments" which added up to about $3.50/bushell or roughly the cost of production. Meanwhile feed wheat fetched $4.00/bushell straight off the field.
Way to go CWB.
By the way, you mention fascists? All fascist gov'ts grow out of socialist gov'ts. One could even argue that a fascist gov't is the natural progression of a socialist gov't. (Okay, the last bit was just to tick you off, haha)
Sent to the overlords. This is plain old dull. We've been here 10 years, dude, and have been baited by better.
I don't know which of my comrades sent AlbertaBorn to the gulags, but that's where he's a headed. до свидания!
I don't know which of my comrades sent AlbertaBorn to the gulags, but that's where he's a headed. до свидания!
I had that distinct pleasure.
The two of you won't be leaving any work for oldgoat, if you keep up this rate of banning.
I don't think some of you understand the problem with the cwb.
Picture your city. Now picture your city if only let's say, "Safeway" could sell produce. No other grocery store could sell produce. If they did, they'd go to jail. You have a local farmers market for fresh locally grown produce? Nope, the vendors would be in jail. Only the one store can sell produce, period.
That's the situation, and that's why farmers overwelmingly support getting rid of it. Forget the crap you've been fed on the news. I'm a western farmer. Very few western farmers want it, or ever did. Whenever possible I've grown, "off board" grains just so I didn't have to be a part of it. Most of us have been trying to find ways to get out from under it's oppression for all of our lives.
The day the cwb loses it's monopoly is a good day. Besides, if the cwb is so, "loved" as they and the media are shovelling; well then they'll just do fine in a fair, open market, won't they?
You believe that the "best" farmers will beat the worst farmers.
You don't yet realize that in the Holy Free Market, gullible farmers (even hard working ones) are turned into slaves to big Grain Corporations. Your fellow farmers voted to keep the wheat board because they took a peep over the border and discovered that most American Farmers have "turned the corner", and are now in debtors prison on the way to losing their farms completely. Now, picture your city, picture safeway selling bread and picture your choice, sell your wheat for almost nothing or turn your wheat into bread and sell the bread in the street market. Who is going to sell the most bread? When your kids are sick of bread and starving for meat, you will sell your wheat for almost nothing. Bye bye wheat board, and bye bye you.
The CWB has helped keep the family farm a viable option. Like Brian has pointed out, that has become less of an option in the US. Instead you have employees (glorified serfs) for huge multinational conglomorates or independent plantation owners with access to cheap labour.
I don't think some of you understand the problem with the cwb.
Picture your city. Now picture your city if only let's say, "Safeway" could sell produce. No other grocery store could sell produce. If they did, they'd go to jail. You have a local farmers market for fresh locally grown produce? Nope, the vendors would be in jail. Only the one store can sell produce, period.
That's the situation, and that's why farmers overwelmingly support getting rid of it. Forget the crap you've been fed on the news. I'm a western farmer. Very few western farmers want it, or ever did. Whenever possible I've grown, "off board" grains just so I didn't have to be a part of it. Most of us have been trying to find ways to get out from under it's oppression for all of our lives.
The day the cwb loses it's monopoly is a good day. Besides, if the cwb is so, "loved" as they and the media are shovelling; well then they'll just do fine in a fair, open market, won't they?
You believe that the "best" farmers will beat the worst farmers.
You don't yet realize that in the Holy Free Market, gullible farmers (even hard working ones) are turned into slaves to big Grain Corporations. Your fellow farmers voted to keep the wheat board because they took a peep over the border and discovered that most American Farmers have "turned the corner", and are now in debtors prison on the way to losing their farms completely. Now, picture your city, picture safeway selling bread and picture your choice, sell your wheat for almost nothing or turn your wheat into bread and sell the bread in the street market. Who is going to sell the most bread? When your kids are sick of bread and starving for meat, you will sell your wheat for almost nothing. Bye bye wheat board, and bye bye you.
I find the reasoning a bit hard to follow here. The big grain companies (bad) will pay almost nothing and will force farmers to sell wheat to them ???
Possibly in the 1920 and 1930s but communication is far better today. Anyone can access the internet today and see what grain prices are anywhere in the world. Haha - Reminds me of only 6 years ago when price of wheat peaked globally to $20/bushell yet CWB paid only about $12/bushell. Whom is the big, bad bully in that case?
I find argument that farmers vote to support the CWB disturbing... I have spoken to scores that dont support it but rarely find people that do. Whats that all about? Who controls the voters list and ballot counting ;)
I went and looked at some old pricing. Funny how you left out that in previous and succeeding years the CWB out performed the market, some years dramatically. Independent study after independent study has shown that farmers do much better over the long term through the single desk. High prices come and go, but our costs will always be on an increased plane. By working together farmers can do better at those times when prices crash, and they always do even if we have to put a little water in our wine when prices climb some.
I find it saddly funny that people think that the big companies interests here at to make sure farmers make more money over the long term. People who claim to have enough business savy to compete with wealthy mulit-national conglomerates that then don't understand that the long term outcome will be lower prices makes me look forward to the day they fail, except they will take everyone else with them.
As for your insinuations about voting. You know the answer already, it is your government that controls that process. The fact that with all the malice and manipulation that they have used against farmers, and they still keep voting for the single desk in director's elections should tell us all we need to know how full of shit your claims are.
In those old pricings you speak of: dont forget to deduct the fixed rail expenses to the coast. It comes off the top first.
Just one of the ways to pad the statistics.....speaking of being full of crap
Go do the math. In the preceeding and succeeding years farmers did better under the the CWB. I understand math and finances do you?
Communication is far better today?? It has nothing to do with communication. If your local "big company" has a home range 300 km wide, and the next "big company" has a home range 500 km wide and you are 100 km from the middle of your big company you have a choice, haul it 100 km or 300 km. They might compete a bit (in a lean year), but in a glut, their price will be exactly the same and you will haul your very cheap grain at your expense and at their convenience. And they might just turn you away if they have too much. So many farmers thing that they are a nobel david and they will out-compete the other shitty farmers, buy them out and keep selling to goliath. It is a fools erand. Goliath will kill you all dozens per season, year by year and then employ whoever is left on their terms. You will not even be serfs.
I find the reasoning a bit hard to follow here. The big grain companies (bad) will pay almost nothing and will force farmers to sell wheat to them ???
Possibly in the 1920 and 1930s but communication is far better today. Anyone can access the internet today and see what grain prices are anywhere in the world. Haha - Reminds me of only 6 years ago when price of wheat peaked globally to $20/bushell yet CWB paid only about $12/bushell. Whom is the big, bad bully in that case?
I find argument that farmers vote to support the CWB disturbing... I have spoken to scores that dont support it but rarely find people that do. Whats that all about? Who controls the voters list and ballot counting ;)
Go do the math. In the preceeding and succeeding years farmers did better under the the CWB. I understand math and finances do you?
A trifle condescending - aren't you.
Check out the math in post 28 - I give a specific example that I experienced myself. Not some BS generalization.
You sound like a man with something to hide.
You sound like a man with selective reading skills.
I don't know anything about the CWB, but I can tell you're dodging his question. You gave an example of one instance where you would have been better on your own. BA doesn't dispute this, but claims that over the long haul, through the ups and downs of grain prices, the CWB has given farmers a better deal on their grain (sort of like how the stock market might outperform bonds in a particular month, but the bonds will do better over a period of years). He challenges you to go work this out for yourself and come back with the numbers. Will you do this? If not, I'm inclined to believe BA as a poster with a long history on this board of intelligent and reliable commentary. Don't just keep repeating yourself. Go do the math like he asks and see if it backs up your argument.
I challenge you guys to start farming if you dont already.
I liked growing wheat. Its what my land grows best. However I learned first hand that it is a fools program with the CWB.
Should be able to try again this year thankfully.
I am the son of a farmer from Ireland in the european community. And I have also worked for Dutch and German farmers. Any crop with a "free market" was called a "speculation crop" in Holland. At the time the main one was potatoes. If the price was high the previous year, farmers all over jumped in and grew an extra 10 hectares of the things. And ended up selling it as animal feed or keeping it in their cold stores as long as they possible could waiting for the "market" to improve. In the "free" market, if there is a surplus of 1 the price heads to zero. They will be good and pay you for the cost of the oil to transport it to their stores but your time and effort to grow the stuff is your problem. There is up to 5 companies buying you stuff (usually just 1 or 2) and their group inteligence and group intelligence gathering is far more than a couple of thousand farmers (who are competing with each other AND with the 5 companies. The companies know how much seed they have sold all the farmers, they know how much fertilizer, and they know the weather reports over their entire area and over competing areas in the world. The farmers on the other hand don't know shit. So when farmer joe or farmer pt comes in with loads of wet (or dry) grain, they know EXACTLY how little they can get away with offering for his grain. But the farmer doesn't. They can bluff him any way they choose. In a glut, or wet harvest, other farmers will be making deals to get their grain sold first, (or way too cheap), behind everyone elses back.
I have seen cases where people were turned away with full trailers of high moisture grain in a wet year. Bring it home, it heats up, steams and goes rotten. Your selfishness, your secrecy and your "I am the best" attitude and your belief in the "holy free market" religion is the reason farmers are losing their farms. The company owners will put on their funny hats, and go to meetings with their grain buying "competitors". They will make some deal with funny handshakes and have a good laugh at you. Then at harvest time, they will stick to their deal and screw you over as much as they possibly can.
Probably you should get out more and see the world. Might just change your perspective.
Go do the math. In the preceeding and succeeding years farmers did better under the the CWB. I understand math and finances do you?
A trifle condescending - aren't you.
Check out the math in post 28 - I give a specific example that I experienced myself. Not some BS generalization.
You sound like a man with something to hide.
I challenge you guys to start farming if you dont already.
I liked growing wheat. Its what my land grows best. However I learned first hand that it is a fools program with the CWB.
Should be able to try again this year thankfully.
I run one of those disappearing entities- the middle sized farm. We in the middle class are all but disappearing in the farm community, unless you are in supply management (but only slightly less so). I'm a 7th generation farmer in Canada. I understand the history of farming in this country and know that the only time we have been successful over the long term was when we worked together to balance the power of the land barons and their modern equivilent the multi-national corporation.
Losing the CWB will only accelerate the loss of middle class farmers in the west. In the end we will see only tiny farms and huge, almost totally corporate owned or backed and nothing in between. That may be what you want for your kids future in agriculture but it sure as heck isn't mine.
By the way your instance that you couldn't grow wheat and make a living under the CWB, despite all evidence to the contrary and your excluding what happened in global markets through the last decade and half or more makes me wonder whether you ever farmed a day in your life.
In other words, PT, you refuse to look back and see if the CWB has given farmers a better deal over the long term, and are sticking with your one little anecdote as the sole conclusive evidence for whether it works or not. If this is how you make all your decisions, I doubt you're going to be successful at anything you do.
PT seems very interested in debating the value of the CWB here. The fact is that the CWB has had its monopoly eradicated by dictatorship - by a minister who violated the law in even tabling the legislation without consulting all farmers and proceeding to a vote (and undermining the work of the Board etc. etc.). PT should join other farmers in condemning that dictatorial act. That's the first step. Then, if and when a consultation and vote are conducted, PT will be free to bring forward his arguments and persuade farmers how well they will fare by individually dealing with the agri-billionaires. That way, the BS about "what farmers want" can be put to rest, by the farmers themselves.
By the way your instance that you couldn't grow wheat and make a living under the CWB, despite all evidence to the contrary and your excluding what happened in global markets through the last decade and half or more makes me wonder whether you ever farmed a day in your life.
Sonny - are you ever right?
As a child I fed cows after school, milked cows before school, spent entire summers picking roots, then grew up on a JD 5020 during the 70s.