Building resilience in the Saugeen Region.
Canadian Wheat Board
Inviting your comments on this issue....
The Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) will cease to be farmers' organization under new legislation tabled by the federal government on October 18. "Farmers' hard-fought success in controlling their own marketing organization will be destroyed," said Allan, chairman of the CWB. The Government of Canada "is taking us all back in time: to the years when farmers were captive to grain companies….”
The CWB is western Canadian farmers' marketing organization for wheat, durum wheat and barley. The Canadian Wheat Board Act gives it a legal mandate to extract the highest overall returns for farmers by effectively leveraging the powers of the single desk.
It has been an important expression of a participatory, sustainable, egalitarian agricultural policy in Canada.
A document on the CWB’s website, “Dismantling the Canadian Wheat Board: what's at stake”, list many advantages to the CWB’s single desk, orderly marketing system as well as the likely impact of its loss. See: http://www.cwb.ca/public/en/hot/decision/atstake/
Among the advantages -
As the only seller of western Canadian wheat and barley, the CWB generates valuable premiums for Prairie farmers. Under a single desk, there are no competing sellers to undercut each other's prices to the same grain buyers. Also, because it has assured access to the entire Prairie wheat supply, the CWB can market very strategically in terms of sales destinations and timing. This includes the ability to "price differentiate" by selling at different prices in different markets. Numerous studies by leading agricultural economists using actual CWB data have concluded that the single desk earns Prairie farmers hundreds of millions of dollars a year more than they would achieve in an open market.
Among the negative impacts of the CWB’s dismantling - Smaller, regionally owned grain handlers rely on the CWB for competitive access to port capacity. Without this access, such companies may not be viable, leading to greater market concentration and fewer delivery options for farmers.
The CWB filed an application in federal court on October 26 that challenges the government's process in introducing Bill C-18, the Marketing Freedom for Grain Farmers Act. "The CWB's farmer-controlled board of directors are taking this legal action in order to defend farmers' democratic rights," The CWN said.
Under the Canadian Wheat Board Act, changes to grains marketed under the CWB single-desk structure must first be approved by a vote of affected producers and consult with the CWB board of directors. According to the CWB, the federal government has not complied with either requirement, set out in Section 47.1 of the CWB Act, which remains in force.
Results of the CWB's own plebiscite conducted in September showed a majority of farmers want to maintain their ability to market wheat and barley through a single-desk system.
The CWB filed an application in federal court on October 26, 2011 that challenges the federal government's process in introducing Bill C-18, the Marketing Freedom for Grain Farmers Act. The CWB's farmer-controlled board of directors are taking this legal action "in order to defend farmers' democratic rights," the organization said.
Under the Canadian Wheat Board Act, changes to grains marketed under the CWB single-desk structure must first be approved by a vote of affected producers and consult with the CWB board of directors. The federal government has not complied with either requirement, set out in Section 47.1 of the CWB Act, which remains in force.
Minister of Agriculture, Gerry Ritz, told the Toronto Star [“Wheat Board sues Ottawa over breakup,” 27/10/11] that the government has the right to change or repeal any piece of legislation. He accused Oberg of refusing to let go of the past and to filing the suit “to satisfy their [the CWB’s] ideology.”
Ritz said a majority Conservative government means the Conservatives have the mandate to dismantle the Board. That mandate, he said, came with the election of a majority Conservative government in June.
Last summer the CWB organized its own plebiscite in which a majority of wheat farmers (62%) voted to keep the single-desk system.
The effective dismantling of the Board would appear to favour agribusinesses and larger farmers. “If you are a grain company like Cargill, you prefer to deal with large producers because volume is handy – you don’t have to deal with as many farmers,” said Richard Gray, an agricultural economics professor at the University of Saskatchewan. “So larger farmers will likely be able to negotiate better deals than smaller farmers,” Gray added.
The government’s move to end the tenure of the CWB can perhaps itself be viewed as ideologically motivated -- -- and appears to be yet another blow to the small Canadian farm and the vibrant social fabric of Canadian life to which it has contributed for generations. Larger farms will result in less small small family farms and the decline of the small towns that service farm communities. At a time when an increasing number of Canadians are demanding local food and the re-localization of economies especially around food issues, the dismantling of the CWB and the impact that will have on small producers seems a step backwards, to say the least.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Nathan Carey on -
I stand by the wheat board on principal but don't know too much about the issue. Thank-you for posting some background on it. To me the question is how to fight Harper's majority for the next four years. Wheat board, securitized internet, industrialization of the prison system, pro-tar sands and a myriad of other deleritous initiatives that we'll see rammed through. How can we stop the shut-down of the wheat board? If we can't stop him on this how can we stop him on future fights? Tyson XL Pipeline anyone?
Harper's majority has come at one of the worst possible times. Canada has been given a tiny reprieve from the economic meltdown of corporate globalism. This time is squandered when Harper destroys the social institutions that give us a small cushion on the way down from the coming storm. The destruction of the wheat board is destroying what little we have in the way of regional food security. It won't be long before the hollowing out of our bread basket is complete and we are an oil shock away from not having bread.
The Wheat board, perhaps like supply management is one of the few bastions of true Canadian social ideals left after the three decade onslaught of free-trade and global economics. If the wheat board falls how long before all supply management is on the chopping block? How far from there to putting our social medical system on the line? Clear the way for the 'free market' everyone...
Two worlds: the fiction of 'rational markets' and 'free' global trade versus the reality of living on a finite planet. These two worlds are coming into starker and starker relief day by day by day. The dinosaurs in government are firmly mired in a violently fading paradigm that still has a few years to spin out its' destruction. The only solution I have is to commit fully to a new world view and prepare the world for the shaky future ahead. Harper will do what he wants with his majority. I believe his ears are deaf to any one that doesn't support him.
I feel like we just have to press onward with our community initiatives. Reaching out to share our visions and working models to those farmers and like minded people across the country as we go. As the government breaks down the social fabric of our lives it pushes more and more of us into the 99% and towards a true Kingian 'revolution of values.'
More opinion that anything...hopefully that has some value.
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Permalink Reply by Gary Kenny on -
Hi Nathan,
Your comments are always of value, and I share your perspectives and analysis on this particular subject. I spoke with staff at the national NFU office this morning and they regard what happens to the CWB Act as precedent-setting for how the federal government will handle other acts and legislation that don't measure up to its particular ideological leanings. Passage of legislation to effectively kill the CWB Act has been fast tracked (hearings this week) and the hearings are only before the Parliamentary Legislation Committee, not the Committee on Agriculture and Agrifood. The bill is omnibus in nature (also typical of this particular government) and only five minutes debate is allowed for each item, one of which is the CWB Act. Talk about contempt for the democratic and parliamentary processes! But of course this is nothing new with this government. The NFU and CWB do want folk like us to speak up on this issue despite the uphill climb it represents. I'll post info on what can be done soon.
By the way, the NFU placed a great full page ad in the Toronto Star today showing a steam roller with the caption: "This is how Harper harvests Canadian wheat." You can view a similar image at:
http://www.cwb.ca/public/steamroller.jsp There's an online action there that I encourage folk to respond to.I agree that we have to press on with community-based initiatives; that real change will come from the grassroots, in time and as more and more people take up the cause. However, I believe we would be remiss not to pay attention to what happens at higher political and bureaucratic levels and trying to have some influence there. For me, a long-time professional activist and a relatively new farmer, it's a matter of balance that I struggle with. In my work of international development programming, I see real progress being made with grassroots initiatives like promoting conservation farming in countries like Zimbabwe, because these initiatives are all about accompanying communities on their journey to achieve food sovereignty. And so much can be done to help them become empowered. But there is also important work being done on food security issues within various UN structures which warrants attention. But again, the question is one of balance and where one puts the bulk of one's attentions. I tend to side with the grassroots initiatives.
Cheers,
Gary
Nathan Carey said:
I stand by the wheat board on principal but don't know too much about the issue. Thank-you for posting some background on it. To me the question is how to fight Harper's majority for the next four years. Wheat board, securitized internet, industrialization of the prison system, pro-tar sands and a myriad of other deleritous initiatives that we'll see rammed through. How can we stop the shut-down of the wheat board? If we can't stop him on this how can we stop him on future fights? Tyson XL Pipeline anyone?
Harper's majority has come at one of the worst possible times. Canada has been given a tiny reprieve from the economic meltdown of corporate globalism. This time is squandered when Harper destroys the social institutions that give us a small cushion on the way down from the coming storm. The destruction of the wheat board is destroying what little we have in the way of regional food security. It won't be long before the hollowing out of our bread basket is complete and we are an oil shock away from not having bread.
The Wheat board, perhaps like supply management is one of the few bastions of true Canadian social ideals left after the three decade onslaught of free-trade and global economics. If the wheat board falls how long before all supply management is on the chopping block? How far from there to putting our social medical system on the line? Clear the way for the 'free market' everyone...
Two worlds: the fiction of 'rational markets' and 'free' global trade versus the reality of living on a finite planet. These two worlds are coming into starker and starker relief day by day by day. The dinosaurs in government are firmly mired in a violently fading paradigm that still has a few years to spin out its' destruction. The only solution I have is to commit fully to a new world view and prepare the world for the shaky future ahead. Harper will do what he wants with his majority. I believe his ears are deaf to any one that doesn't support him.
I feel like we just have to press onward with our community initiatives. Reaching out to share our visions and working models to those farmers and like minded people across the country as we go. As the government breaks down the social fabric of our lives it pushes more and more of us into the 99% and towards a true Kingian 'revolution of values.'
More opinion that anything...hopefully that has some value.
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