Is it time for a National Day of Protest?

[teastman]

It is a shame that it's our nature to be so independent - for years my brother (living in the U.S now) would make comments like, "Why don't you guys all just get together? Drive a mile of combines through downtown Edmonton...get some cattle liners together and plug up Deerfoot trail!" (not like THAT doesn't happen normally!) "You've got to do something to get the attention of the city dwellers!"
Easier said than done, right?
And now I am one of those who gave up - got tired of "beating my head against the wall". We've had cattle here for three generations - since 1923...Last December they walked up the alley and on to the trucks...guess I should have trailed them down the Deerfoot...

[coppertop]

Farmers plugging traffic with combines
or cattle liners only serve to turn
public opinion against them. Nothing
makes a motorist who is trying to get to
work or home from work angrier than slow
traffic so I would not advise that
method to gain support.When many urban
types see fancy combines they think they
must be owned by RICH FARMERS. Cattle
liners on the deer foot make people mad
because there is POOP running down onto
the street. I have a relative in Calgary
that voices his displeasure at the
liners on the Deerfoot all the time !

[kato]

It's good to hear new voices here though! I say just keep tossing out ideas, and see which ones stick to the wall. It's too bad it's only the radical ones that get any attention though. You've got to give them a good sound bite for the news intro, or they won't pay attention.

Isn't there a new cattle numbers report due out in the next day or two? The one in the U.S. had cow numbers down, and I'd really like to see what ours says. I have a feeling it's going to surprise some people with just how low it has gotten.

There is a real danger here of having the numbers get too low. That could lead to a whole other set of problems. Nightmare scenario... they get low enough for one (we all know who) of the two left in this country to say they don't want to be here any more. What happens then? I don't even want to think. It would break the industry, because it takes just too long, and costs too much money to set up new outlets for our cattle, and if the one packer left has no one at all to bid against, why on earth would they pay more than the minimum needed? We wouldn't. The cattle producers left standing don't have the resources to last long enough to get past that sort of trouble.

This is what I've been telling J.Ritz in my letters, but of course I'd be better off telling my dog, for all the good it's done.

[coppertop]

Kato, never underestimate that your dog has
more intelligence than a politician . My
dog listens very intently when I tell her
anything, she at least acts like she cares,
which is more than I can say about most
federal politicians.

[kato]

You're right about that! And your dog will watch your back too.

[grassfarmer]

The federal politicians are no worse than the provincial ones in my opinion. When I was doing my cow protest thing in December I sent out a press release specifically targeted to the politicians and sent it to my local provincial and federal politicians, the ag ministers at both levels and a few of the opposition MLA's in Alberta. I didn't receive the courtesy of a reply from anyone with the exception of Hugh McDonald out of an inner city Edmonton constituency. This is what voter complacency and apathy brings - arrogant out of touch politicians who feel they can ignore the electorate.

As for the comments about city folks not liking combines on the Deerfoot there is another way. In the UK when we had the problem of too much imported beef being brought in after the picketing stores project got a bit old it was stepped up by "rolling delivery stoppages". This entailed farmers turning up unannounced during the night when the supermarkets get their delivery trucks in, parking trucks and stock trailers across the entrance for a couple of hours to hold up the delivery - next day the store opens with some empty shelves and it's the store owners consumers get mad at not the farmers ;o) You don't realise how vunerable stores are to this type of action until you try it. I guess that would be way too radical ever to happen here apart from in Quebec.
Stage four definitely is - when you stop delivery trucks and unload some of their cargo! I well remember the night some Irish beef imports went for a swim in the Irish sea. Not that I was involved or anything - just sayin'.

[Willowcreek]

burnt {Add a few gimmicks like wearing caps that say "Buy Canada Beef" and maybe we could find the funds to get a few thousand coffee mugs that say the same with a Maple Leaf on them. Hand them out to the people.}

burnt- don't you have to have COOL- and a product correctly labeled in order for that to work?...How else do the consumers know if it comes from Canada- or from Uruguay?

Kind of like what we're trying to do down here in the States with MCOOL-- and one of the main reasons the consumers asked for it to become law...

[perfecho]

I agree with GF, whining in the coffee shops seems to be the status quo, and until a number of producers get together and educate the consumer and themselves to put pressure on gov and monopolies, nothing will happen.

A buddy form the US reminds me that Canadians wait for the gov to do something, while the US players "tell" their officials what to do....and I agree.
So when you've got a date and a time, I'll be there, but in the mean time I've got to work on saving my farm!

[burnt]

Oldtimer you can stick your COOL crap where it belongs. If you would have read my post you would have noticed where I said that each region can promote its own locally produced and accordingly labeled product.

That is a whole different concept than COOL. COOL is for cry babies like you who are afraid that their own stuff won't stack up against the other guy's meat.

So go stuff your COOL. There's lots of room for it where I am suggesting that you stuff it.

[Willowcreek]

While burnt- good luck in finding packers that will go along with your plan- and compete against their generic products they import..

May work on a smalltime level- but when its starts threatening those multinationals bottom line- they'll end that....

In the meantime it appears some Canadian producers are recognizing the signifigance in being able to identify-and promote your own countries product- and the threat that exists from these multinationals importation of generic products from all over the world..

[Canadian COOL Law Being Pushed



Farm Futures

January 28, 2010



Canadian Pork Council chair Karl Kynoch says Canadian pork producers are increasingly concerned that the U.S. Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling law has made it more difficult to move Canadian product into the United States, while American product continues to flow freely into Canada. According to Kynoch, a growing number of Canadian pork producers believe Ottawa needs to impose the same labeling rules on U.S. pork entering Canada as is required for Canadian product entering the U.S.
]