Agriculture’s time line Demise

[wd40]

40 yrs ago
PRIVATE ENTERPRISE =PRICE DISCOVERY
(on both sides of the farm gate). No safety net programs.
20 Yrs. ago – Industry leadership began talking about the “NEED” for CONSOLDATION in the beef industry.

CONSOLDATION began (in all of Agriculture) [MUST have been a line taught to graduate students in Ag Economics]

SAFETY NET – programs began showing up.
PRICE DISCOVERY BEGAN TO ERODE

10 Yrs ago – “PRICE DISCOVERY” issues began to be discussed and debated at industry meetings.

SAFTY NET PROGRAMS – biggest beneficiary the big feedlot and packers. Both say they cannot survive without (case in point the packers last week asked the Feds for another 25M.)

Today – CORPORATE FACISM PRICE SUPPORT PROGRAMS = NO PRICE DISCOVERY (on either side of the farm gate in all Ag. sectors)

PRIVATE ENTERPRISE gone the way of the DODO bird.

Corporate control can’t sustain itself without Govt. bail outs, tax concessions, or just plain concessions.
The result industry control devoid of social conscience. What’s worse is that we (Canada) lose the value of “Value Added” benefits and spin offs, ship raw product, and are held hostage to foreign imports, the road that leads us to a 3rd. world country.

Private Enterprise is defined (check out the internet) “Business governed by the laws of supply and demand, not restrained by government interference, regulation or subsidy, also called free market”.

So friends in agriculture we need to unify in one voice, aim at a future goal, and take back our industries.

Our tax dollars have bailed out the packing plant industry to the place where we own the plants by default. Let’s go take possession!

I know my timeline might be alittle off, the pain suffered in this business has caused me to block out sections. However, I think you get the drift. I don't think I'm wrong. Ya I expect academia "experts" to say it's too simplified, but the principle stands!

[kato]

There are some real good points there. It's an interesting angle to see the relationship between government support and corporate growth. When you think about it, in the past, there was a definite line below which the price could not drop, or there would be no more supply available. Income support actually lowered that line, because the government would pick up the difference, and the farmers would keep farming. It made it possible to stay on the farm, but the result was that everyone became dependent on the support programs.

It's a race to the bottom. Now that we basically have non functioning support programs, we are seeing just what the true result is. The corporations are also seeing that the supply is going to disappear, and disappear quickly. So what do they do? They put in a request for their own support, and if that does not come, they will pack up their tents in the night and move off to conquer new lands.

They do not need more government money. They're already getting it through having people like us supply them with beef produced below the cost of production. I think it's SRM removal that they're complaining about, but from what I can see, we're already paying those extra costs out of our pockets by way of discounted cattle prices. If they got money from the government to cover their costs, would they pass the savings on to us by way of higher cattle prices? I doubt it.

How to get off this treadmill is the big question. Maybe the whole thing needs to collapse, people need to find out what it means to be hungry, and then it can all be rebuilt in a better way.

[ivbinconned]

In order to protect the principle of competition, valued by all liberal, capitalistic societies, laws or anti-combines laws need to have teeth to prevent and punish the undermining of free markets by corporate combination and what is called "vertical integration".

When corporates get together and eliminate competition, there is protection against this in the anti-combines law in Canada and also in the U.S.A. The combines department of the government can investigate and recommend prosecution, with or without complaint.

Canadian Parliament had passed an Anti-Combines Law in 1889, but its actual effect was to legalize price fixing, for the law held restraints on trade actionable only if they “unduly” or “unreasonably” lessened competition. Therefore a subjective decision.

The flawed Anti-Combines Law seemed a deliberate shot into its own net by a government of vested interests.

Sadly many see big monopolies as "capitalizim"...and it drives them to the left politically. But nothing could be further from the truth.

Monopolies use government...and visa versa... to regulate their competition.

True Capitalism and free markets only want government to regulate a level playing field.

Corporate giants injecting their interest into every level, from the grass to the consumers plate has destroyed price discovery. The implications huge to all related business activities.

Today the Canadian Beef industry is dying because these actions are being allowed...unchecked.