You have to read this!

[kato]

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/Farmer-hands-out-beef-outside--82709757.html?commentConfirmed=y#comments

Langruth cattle farmer Kerry Arksey (left) gives beef to James Miller outside the legislative building Tuesday. Arksey is shutting down his farm after years of industry downfall and is giving away 1,000 lbs. of beef to raise awareness for fellow financially-strapped farmers. January 26/2010

WINNIPEG - Kerry Arksey is handing out hundreds of pounds of ground beef this afternoon outside the legislative building to draw attention to the plight of the province’s cattle producers.

Arksey, a cattle rancher from Langruth, is going out of the beef business, saying he can’t make a go of it anymore.

He says federal and provincial governments have failed to offer enough support to keep producers like him in business.

Arksey was accepting donations for the beef, which he said he planned to pass on to the Manitoba Farm and Rural Stress Line.

Check out the link, and read the comments. *********

[kato]

And the Globe and Mail picked it up too.

Manitoba's cattle farms facing a slow death

Years after an Alberta cow tested positive for the disease, farmers like Kerry Arksey are bowing out of the industry


Patrick White

Winnipeg — Globe and Mail Update Published on Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2010 8:48PM EST

He got his first cow at the age of four.

Fifty-one years later, Kerry Arksey gave away the last of his livelihood – one defiant slab of frozen hamburger at a time.

It was his last act as a farmer – a life that gave him three good decades followed by seven disastrous years – as well as one of the strangest protests ever to hit the provincial capital. His aim was to draw attention to Canadian cattle farmers, whose plight has driven him out of the industry.

“Hello, my name is Kerry Arksey and I'm a recovering farmer,” he joked with the parade of Winnipeggers who approached his red Toyota Tacoma, strategically parked across from the neo-classical columns marking the Legislature's entrance.

Some took a single pound of hamburger, others demanded a whole lot more.

“That one guy took a whole box and said he'd send me a cheque, but I'm not so sure.”

They all walked with a little bit of Mr. Arksey's prized Simmentals, pure-bred cattle that once demanded upward of $1700 a head. A few weeks ago, he auctioned off most of his herd for just over $800 an animal.

In May, 2003, a single cow carcass from Alberta tested positive for the brain-wasting disease known as Bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE.

The lives of Canadian beef producers have never been the same.

“We were basically debt-free until BSE hit,” Mr. Arksey said, hunkering inside his truck, his hands cold from the -30 wind chill outside. “The government said it was fine to grind up cows and feed them to other cows.”

Foreign markets quickly slammed their doors to Canadian beef. Most have been reopened, but with restrictions so onerous that Canada exports just three-quarters of the beef it did in 2002, according to Canadian Beef Export Federation.

Since the BSE crisis broke, Mr. Arksey and his wife, Sharron, have lost over $200,000. And that doesn't include the $200,000 hit they've taken on the value of their property, over 1,000 acres of Langruth, Man., ranchland that's been in Mr. Arksey's family since 1901.

His 18-year-old son has no interest in the family business. “He's too smart for that,” Mr. Arksey said. “He's in university taking classics.”

Four years ago, his nephew, Tim Wilson, had expressed interest in quitting the Canadian Forces and taking over the ranch. Mr. Arksey told him to wait a few years.

Master Corporal Tim Wilson was the 10th Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan.

“He's why I'm here doing this,” said Mr. Arksey, wearing a Tim Horton's ball-cap from the coffee chain's Kandahar location. “Somebody has to stand up and fight, just like he did over there.”

His neighbours are facing the same succession woes. In his municipality, roughly 150 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg, three farmers sold-out over the fall. He expects two more will do the same in the coming months.

As for Mr. Arksey, he plans to get a job, maybe in Alberta or the Yukon. Or maybe he'll stage another protest. “I was going to chain myself to the front door of the legislature,” he said. “And if I froze to death, at least they couldn't say there were no problems in the industry.”

The Province knows of Mr. Arksey's woes. Minister of Agriculture Stan Struthers met briefly with him today and plans to take his concerns to a ministers' meeting in Toronto next month.

“There's a shortage of silver bullets out there to solve these problems,” Mr. Struthers said. “The Province has done a number of things for folks like Kerry. The question for me is can we do better.”

The answer to that – at least for the Arksey's – is a no-brainer. A recent government assistance program offered him $3800, and even that he couldn't collect.

“It doesn't help,” Mr. Arksey said. “It's like you're drowning and every now and then someone throws you a brick.”

I see the Torontonians who commented are obviously much farther from their food source than the good people of Winnipeg.

[grassfarmer]

Thanks for posting that Kato - another good story, but a sad one too. I see this like the cow we did and the campaign Randy is trying to start up as a bunch of random acts from desperate producers looking to shake the status quo. Unfortunately what we need now, as we did back in 04 when Beef Initiative Group was in it's heyday, is MASS PROTEST not a few solitary ones. The longer it goes without that the poorer our chances of getting results. I just do not see any indication that the average Canadian beef producer is prepared to stand up and fight for their interests.
I see Christoph Weder is trying to encourage producers in Grainnews to up the ante by contacting the stores that are selling US beef in preference to Canadian and telling them what you think of their antics and their profiteering. I think that is another worthy campaign and I have seen this working very effectively in the UK where producers stand outside the retail store and hand out leaflets informing consumers where their beef comes from eg Costco - good, Save On - bad. I think we should be doing that here as the retailers are very sensitive to this type of action - again it takes numbers of producers on the street to succeeds and I personally doubt the average Canadian rancher would stoop to such a menial task. It seems to me the average rancher would rather go bankrupt protecting their tough, solitary cowboy image rather than work effectively with their neighbors to achieve results for us all.

[vagabonddreamer]

i dunno GF..you british dont seem to learn...here you go again wearing a red coat and marching straight down the middle of a road beating on a drum...while cowboys pick you off like...well...like british marching down the middle of the road wearing red coats beating drums...(these are metaphors by the way)...some might consider the solitary subbornnes born of independence to be an asset in some situations...and as to whether a canadian rancher will or will not stoop to doing menial tasks...pretty much every day i shovel the same stuff you ended your post with...either from a horse or a bull....it dont come much more menial than that...so dont accuse ME of not being willing to do menial...and as to stereotyping by country of birthright...better be careful when you live in a glass house...you monarchists are not without your failings....vs

[kato]

Good grief vs, settle down! That's not what gf was saying. What he was saying is that it's time for one big push from all producers, not a bunch of disjointed ones. What gf and Kerry Arksey have done does get consumer's attention, and we should all stand up and commend them for it. I think consumers also get the feeling that the troubles don't affect every producer, since the rest of us have not done anything like it.

I was thinking about this last night, and came to the same conclusion as you did, gf.

Is it time for a national day of protest?

Is there enough fight left in us to do it?

Do we want to survive? Or just fade away and become NB employees?

I think I'll start another thread on the topic.

[gaucho]

Grass Farmer is right.... the executives in these stores react to pressure and the more calls they get the more they squirm... why not get it on some of the talk shows in Calgary or Edmonton and fill in the consumers about the highway robbery that is taking place at the retail level. .. better yet why not talk to radio stations like CFCW about bringing it on their commentary.. after all, are their advertisers not geared in around agriculture and would they really want to see an agriculture sector that is broke...my next campaign is to get this into the discussions and consumer groups that use things like Twitter to spread the news.... more importantly quite relying on government to take your cause on... it ain't going to change unless you take action...by the way NB.... they did not get things handed to them on a platter... they went after it themselves through hard work and determination and that is why they are who they are today. You want some change then get at her.