What.....they have those fancy mechanical potato harvester's now in Canada?? If the Canadian farmers get the idea to replace their horses with tractors the family farm is doomed.
The end of the Canadian Wheat Board
- Thread starter Relic
- Start date
We shall see what we shall see, but this may be a case of be careful what you wish for, you may get it. It depends upon how prices go over the next few years.
A lot of schools in that area still have a potato harvest vacation of a week or two.
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The decline of the family farm is an important social issue that really shouldn't be dismissed so cavalierly.
At least in the case of Fredericton it has more to do with Provincial Offices and official bilingualism than anything else.
fuck the farmers..they voted for Harpo, let them suffer for it...i think farming people really need to know what the Cons agenda really is...Making money for corporations and big business...
well at least they can play with their unregistered guns...
Well they also—the wheat farmers—voted to keep the Wheat Board, and as we all know more people voted for 'anyone but the Cons' than for them. Two examples of how tweaking franchise-definitions can make any vote mean anything.
Undeniably killing the Wheat Board has long been a Con goal, but don't blame the farmers for it. Our country, our system, our vote.
Lotta broken stuff on the TDL.
You're an idiot if you think the CWB doesn't sell to the USA...
First you made up some claim about what experts think, failed to comprehend that the CWB was not government run, and now this. It's obvious you speak from sheer ignorance.
As any entrepreneur will tell you a monopoly is the most desirable position. All that getting rid of the CWB does is reserve monopolies for business-owners, most likely not Canadian ones at that.
As in the US where agri-business steadily bulldozes small holders out of business and forces ever larger farms and ever more dubious crop-varieties and GMOs on the survivors, it'll be the Wall St. suits and not the "…strawhat and old dirty hanky" you'll be thanking for your meals. Assuming you still have an income to buy any.
It isn't just small farmers being squeezed out. If there was any evidence the suits were as competent as the farmers it might be a different story, but I can spell GM, Chrysler, AIG …
As in the US where agri-business steadily bulldozes small holders out of business and forces ever larger farms and ever more dubious crop-varieties and GMOs on the survivors, it'll be the Wall St. suits and not the "…strawhat and old dirty hanky" you'll be thanking for your meals. Assuming you still have an income to buy any.
It isn't just small farmers being squeezed out. If there was any evidence the suits were as competent as the farmers it might be a different story, but I can spell GM, Chrysler, AIG …
Canadian Wheat Board and Ontario Wheat Producers Marketing Board
Two very different situations
Why are western farmers deeply concerned about losing the Canadian Wheat Board, their single desk
marketing agent, when Ontario farmers recently chose to end theirs? The two situations are completely
different. Anyone who attempts to say they are the same is simply ignoring the facts.
1. Ontario Farmers decided on changes their marketing system, not the federal government. The
Ontario Wheat Producers Marketing Board was started by farmers in 1958 to obtain better prices when
they sold their crops to flour mills each fall. In a 1973 two-thirds majority vote they decided make their
board into a single desk selling agency. In a process starting in the late 1990s, their farmer-elected board
of directors began a transition towards an open market, which was completed in 2003. The OWPMB
merged with the corn and soy producers association in 2010, and now operates a marketing pool through
the Grain Farmers of Ontario.
2. Western wheat production is ten times that of Eastern Canada (Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes
combined). The graph below illustrates the difference in total amount produced in the two areas. In
addition, wheat is a smaller crop on individual Ontario farms, where soybeans and corn are the primary
cash crops. Thus, the impact on Canada and on prairie farmers from changes to the CWB is much greater
than the impact of changes to the Ontario system.
3. The Ontario wheat business is completely different from the western Canada’s
Ontario produces soft wheat used for pastry, cookies, donuts, etc.
Prairie farmers produce hard red spring wheat for bread-making and durum for pasta.
Ontario produces less than 10% of Canada’s wheat, the Prairies produce 80%.
Most of Ontario’s wheat is sold within Canada or in the northern USA (65% + 25% = 90%), while
most of the Prairie wheat is exported (68%), with 13% of it being sold and processed domestically
Ontario flour mills rely on prairie wheat for bread flour.
4. US-Canada trade in wheat is relatively low. Ontario farmers benefit from the difference in grading
where the US allows higher levels of fusarium infection in its milling wheat than Canada does. As a result,
Ontario farmers could increase exports when US farmers had high fusarium levels. However, the graph
below shows that compared with what it produces, the USA imports a relatively small amount of wheat,
and its exports nearly equal Canada’s total production. The current Ontario exports into the US market are
significant for Ontario wheat growers, but it is unlikely that the US would take additional Canadian wheat
unless the price of Canadian wheat was reduced to the point it could replace their domestically grown
wheat, allowing the USA to export even more. The CWB seeks high end markets for high quality milling
wheat and durum in over 70 countries, and does not have to pursue markets by reducing its prices
Two very different situations
Why are western farmers deeply concerned about losing the Canadian Wheat Board, their single desk
marketing agent, when Ontario farmers recently chose to end theirs? The two situations are completely
different. Anyone who attempts to say they are the same is simply ignoring the facts.
1. Ontario Farmers decided on changes their marketing system, not the federal government. The
Ontario Wheat Producers Marketing Board was started by farmers in 1958 to obtain better prices when
they sold their crops to flour mills each fall. In a 1973 two-thirds majority vote they decided make their
board into a single desk selling agency. In a process starting in the late 1990s, their farmer-elected board
of directors began a transition towards an open market, which was completed in 2003. The OWPMB
merged with the corn and soy producers association in 2010, and now operates a marketing pool through
the Grain Farmers of Ontario.
2. Western wheat production is ten times that of Eastern Canada (Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes
combined). The graph below illustrates the difference in total amount produced in the two areas. In
addition, wheat is a smaller crop on individual Ontario farms, where soybeans and corn are the primary
cash crops. Thus, the impact on Canada and on prairie farmers from changes to the CWB is much greater
than the impact of changes to the Ontario system.
3. The Ontario wheat business is completely different from the western Canada’s
Ontario produces soft wheat used for pastry, cookies, donuts, etc.
Prairie farmers produce hard red spring wheat for bread-making and durum for pasta.
Ontario produces less than 10% of Canada’s wheat, the Prairies produce 80%.
Most of Ontario’s wheat is sold within Canada or in the northern USA (65% + 25% = 90%), while
most of the Prairie wheat is exported (68%), with 13% of it being sold and processed domestically
Ontario flour mills rely on prairie wheat for bread flour.
4. US-Canada trade in wheat is relatively low. Ontario farmers benefit from the difference in grading
where the US allows higher levels of fusarium infection in its milling wheat than Canada does. As a result,
Ontario farmers could increase exports when US farmers had high fusarium levels. However, the graph
below shows that compared with what it produces, the USA imports a relatively small amount of wheat,
and its exports nearly equal Canada’s total production. The current Ontario exports into the US market are
significant for Ontario wheat growers, but it is unlikely that the US would take additional Canadian wheat
unless the price of Canadian wheat was reduced to the point it could replace their domestically grown
wheat, allowing the USA to export even more. The CWB seeks high end markets for high quality milling
wheat and durum in over 70 countries, and does not have to pursue markets by reducing its prices
Dude did you even bother to read your cut and paste? I doubt it, because you would have realized that it supports my position.
It is also important to add that the article focuses primarily on wheat in the province of Ontario.
