Why are the Conservatives Killing the Wheat Board?

jdobbin · December 8, 2006

My two favorites. Link 1
Link 2

Enjoy

Subsidies for farmers to continue to supply profitable corporations is what is keeping farmers poor and corporations rich.

blueblood · December 8, 2006

My two favorites. Link 1

Link 2

Enjoy

Subsidies for farmers to continue to supply profitable corporations is what is keeping farmers poor and corporations rich.

Thats true on the input side, but what about the other side...

jdobbin · December 8, 2006

Thats true on the input side, but what about the other side...

I agree on The National Farmers Union site that government help for farmers to get into more diversified areas might be a solution. It seems though for every area that farmer might find profitable that some government tries to subsidize it and floods the market with supply. It seems to only help corporations though as they have guaranteed cheap supplies.

jbg · December 8, 2006

Canola is a Canadian invention. Canadian Oil Low Acid.

Fascinating. I never knew that.

Sometimes you learn something other than new insult techniques on the threads.

blueblood · December 8, 2006

Thats true on the input side, but what about the other side...

I agree on The National Farmers Union site that government help for farmers to get into more diversified areas might be a solution. It seems though for every area that farmer might find profitable that some government tries to subsidize it and floods the market with supply. It seems to only help corporations though as they have guaranteed cheap supplies.

Which is why I believe that there needs to be a program which gives farmers royalties like the recording/entertainment industry and with Monsanto on GM canola, with that given income (which in my opinion is deserved) they can afford to shut down and help put the industry back into synch (which would require CPC/NDP party type discipline)

jdobbin · December 8, 2006

Fascinating. I never knew that.
Sometimes you learn something other than new insult techniques on the threads.

Few countries produce it but because other oils like corn get subsidies, it gets squeezed. It hurts western farmers and it hurts North Dakota.

CoachCartman · December 8, 2006

There is no doubt in my mind that I could survive without a CWB. In fact, I'm sure my bottom line would improve. Right now I could truck grain (wheat, barley or durum) to the USA and make more then the CWB is paying me and that includes all the trucking expenses.

As for canola, you get more oil per bushel then soybean oil and it is the choice for bio-diesel. It is now being exported to the EU for that purpose...no human consumption. Corn oil has little, if any, effect on canola price. Its main competition is soybean oil and palm oil.

I keep reading about the CWB being formed in 1935 here and being so good for the farmers ever since. It is wrong.

The CWB was formed in the 30's to help protect farmers from elevator companies that were preying on them. It was voluntary. It was disbanded a few years later. During WW2 it was started again, to provide Britain with a CHEAP food source. Why only western Canada? Why not voluntary? There was never a farmer vote to bring it in.....

In other words, the CWB undersold everyone to provide Britain cheap food. I have no problem with that during a time of war. The problem is, I believe they are still doing it!

jdobbin · December 8, 2006

There is no doubt in my mind that I could survive without a CWB. In fact, I'm sure my bottom line would improve. Right now I could truck grain (wheat, barley or durum) to the USA and make more then the CWB is paying me and that includes all the trucking expenses.
As for canola, you get more oil per bushel then soybean oil and it is the choice for bio-diesel. It is now being exported to the EU for that purpose...no human consumption. Corn oil has little, if any, effect on canola price. Its main competition is soybean oil and palm oil.

I keep reading about the CWB being formed in 1935 here and being so good for the farmers ever since. It is wrong.

The CWB was formed in the 30's to help protect farmers from elevator companies that were preying on them. It was voluntary. It was disbanded a few years later. During WW2 it was started again, to provide Britain with a CHEAP food source. Why only western Canada? Why not voluntary? There was never a farmer vote to bring it in.....

In other words, the CWB undersold everyone to provide Britain cheap food. I have no problem with that during a time of war. The problem is, I believe they are still doing it!

Corn is being used by the States for bio-diesel and according to market experts depresses prices for other oils.

It was the farmer's who lobbied for the Wheat Board and made it into the company it is today. It is also farmer who can disband it. When the time comes just vote against it.

CoachCartman · December 8, 2006

Corn is not used in bio-diesel, it is used in ethanol.

The original wheat board was voluntary, in case you forgot......this is anything but!

blueblood · December 8, 2006

Corn is not used in bio-diesel, it is used in ethanol.
The original wheat board was voluntary, in case you forgot......this is anything but!

Yah but the soybeans are used for that and due to subsidies it is cheap cheap cheap

jdobbin · December 9, 2006

Corn is not used in bio-diesel, it is used in ethanol.
The original wheat board was voluntary, in case you forgot......this is anything but!

Quite correct on corn. However, as a fuel oil, it keeps prices down for other oils that might be used for fuel like canola.

And after war, farmers asked that it remain a single desk. This wasn't done against farmers' wishes.

hiti · December 11, 2006

For Jan Slomp a future without the CWB is a grim prospect. “Many farmers have indicated to quit producing after the single-desk is gone,” she said. “It does not make sense to keep trying if all the farmer market power is gone.” http://dominionpaper.ca/agriculture/2006/1...the_canadi.html
In 1997, a referendum of barley producers found that nearly 63 per cent of the farmers support retaining the CWB's monopoly. Critics of the referendum, however, pointed out that the dual market system wasn't an option on the referendum. http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/agriculture/cwb.html

The CWB is not a crown corporation but is a farmer's organizations that is controlled by farmers. So why does Steve and Chuckie think they can destroy the selling desk of the western canadian grain farmer where the farmer gets the benefits and not the big companies?

blueblood · December 11, 2006

For Jan Slomp a future without the CWB is a grim prospect. “Many farmers have indicated to quit producing after the single-desk is gone,” she said. “It does not make sense to keep trying if all the farmer market power is gone.” http://dominionpaper.ca/agriculture/2006/1...the_canadi.html
In 1997, a referendum of barley producers found that nearly 63 per cent of the farmers support retaining the CWB's monopoly. Critics of the referendum, however, pointed out that the dual market system wasn't an option on the referendum. http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/agriculture/cwb.html

The CWB is not a crown corporation but is a farmer's organizations that is controlled by farmers. So why does Steve and Chuckie think they can destroy the selling desk of the western canadian grain farmer where the farmer gets the benefits and not the big companies?

Uh big companies get big enough benefits as it is, they could care less if the wheat board stayed or not, those big companies got me and other ag producers hooped proof

rbacon · December 11, 2006

The majority of farmers in Alberta want choice or dual marketing.....The CWB spends farmers money lobbying for their own interests, and not doing their job.....The CWB is doomed by the WTO anyway....Why does the CWB not apply in Quebec and TROC......It is time for change.....Dump the CWB

jdobbin · December 11, 2006

The majority of farmers in Alberta want choice or dual marketing.....The CWB spends farmers money lobbying for their own interests, and not doing their job.....The CWB is doomed by the WTO anyway....Why does the CWB not apply in Quebec and TROC......It is time for change.....Dump the CWB

The majority of farmers in Alberta just voted yesterday today retain the single desk.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/061210/...d_elections_col

It is not doomed by the WTO. They have already looked at it and rejected claims that it is a subsidized business.

Canadian Blue · December 11, 2006

Well it looks like it'll be harder for the Conservatives to get rid of it if so many farmers are in support of keeping the CWB.

blueblood · December 11, 2006

Well it looks like it'll be harder for the Conservatives to get rid of it if so many farmers are in support of keeping the CWB.

Theres more to western canada than farms, In western Canada especially in the non-city ridings the tories won be huge landslides, they can write off the farmer vote and still win (smells like Liberal tactics to me) so it looks like the wheat board might be history...

jdobbin · December 15, 2006

Measner out by tonight?

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/20.../cwb-rally.html

A rally was held in Winnipeg in support of the Wheat Board. Strahl will see Measner gone by tomorrow. I wonder who he will get to replace him and whether that person will have support from the newly elected directors.

rbacon · December 15, 2006

Because 70% of farmers in the west don't want it, we want dual marketing, not Marxist Marketing.....

rbacon · December 15, 2006

It is good to see the Marxist Measner gone.....The Lefties are lying when they say most Western farmers want the CWB...That is a lie......Most farmers in Alberta quit growing wheat just to escape the Marxist Marketing Board that spends farmers funds on their own Leftwing agenda rather than taking care of the farmers interest......Goodbye Old Commie Measner....And Good Riddenance.....

jdobbin · December 15, 2006

Because 70% of farmers in the west don't want it, we want dual marketing, not Marxist Marketing.....

You have absolutely no facts to base that statement on.

jdobbin · December 15, 2006

It is good to see the Marxist Measner gone.....The Lefties are lying when they say most Western farmers want the CWB...That is a lie......Most farmers in Alberta quit growing wheat just to escape the Marxist Marketing Board that spends farmers funds on their own Leftwing agenda rather than taking care of the farmers interest......Goodbye Old Commie Measner....And Good Riddenance.....

Do you even know what Marxist is? Your idea of right and left is pretty bizarre. How old are you anyway?

blueblood · December 15, 2006

It is good to see the Marxist Measner gone.....The Lefties are lying when they say most Western farmers want the CWB...That is a lie......Most farmers in Alberta quit growing wheat just to escape the Marxist Marketing Board that spends farmers funds on their own Leftwing agenda rather than taking care of the farmers interest......Goodbye Old Commie Measner....And Good Riddenance.....

Wow, as a farmer, we like the wheatboard, of course the Albertan ones don't care, those guys are getting almost 12 grand a quarter from oil companies just for owning land where oil happens to be. My interest is in getting a fair price, the CWB will get that, by dividing us we are gonna have to be forced to take the price given to us by companies which will get smaller and smaller. You bitch about marxism, I bitch about the impending feudalism that would come in.

Saturn · December 15, 2006

http://www.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/new...78-43fc00626e51
The Conservatives seem adamant about dismantling the Wheat Board. Most of the annual polling shows that famers support the board but the Conservatives will probably try to kill it this year.

Getting rid of the wheat board will benefit the big players in the industry at the expense of the small guys. As usual, the conservatives support the big players, not the small guys. Killing the wheat board won't affect the conservatives because the small guys will vote for them anyway (that's rural western Canada we are talking about). So the big players will be happy, the conservatives will be happy, and the farmers should be happy (because they'll get what they vote for). Pretty simple.

blueblood · December 15, 2006

http://www.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/new...78-43fc00626e51

The Conservatives seem adamant about dismantling the Wheat Board. Most of the annual polling shows that famers support the board but the Conservatives will probably try to kill it this year.

Getting rid of the wheat board will benefit the big players in the industry at the expense of the small guys. As usual, the conservatives support the big players, not the small guys. Killing the wheat board won't affect the conservatives because the small guys will vote for them anyway (that's rural western Canada we are talking about). So the big players will be happy, the conservatives will be happy, and the farmers should be happy (because they'll get what they vote for). Pretty simple.

And if the Liberal party didn't treat us like second class citizens we'd be able to vote for them and we wouldn't be in this mess.