Will democracy work?

[rkaiser]

Well the zone meetings are over and now we will se if the opinions of the ABP/CCA board or the will of the producer wins out in the end.

The final meeting was a real hoe down in Fort Macleod. I guess most would say that we were the Indians as we did have the most war paint on. Four years of getting belittled by the brass tends to bring out the disdain in some of us.

I would guess that this was the largest meeting in the province right near the home of the legendary bse testing be littler and CCA chairman, Hugh Lynch Staunton. A good four hours from my zone but I wasn't going to miss this one. By the way - in my zone - I ran under one basic policy - that being, BSE testing for export marketing purposes and fully expect to be the newest member of the new ABP.

Thought I would take the democracy thing out on two fronts. Run for a position and carry forward resolutions with the same message.

We were defeated trying to take the checkoff back to voluntary, but had a couple of resolutions passed promoting a portion be directed to the group of choice.

The issue of the day (in my little mind anywhooo) was soundly supported in the final meeting in my zone and at the Hoe Down at the Fort Macleod Auction Market. The CCA Pres. and the vice Pres. of ABP did there best to ward off the bows and arrows flying from almost every corner of the room but in the end had to succumb to a major majority in favor of BSE testing for export marketing purposes. All of the major provincial organisations were represented and like I posted before - 4 of the 5 groups that now consist of the round table discussions with our Provincial government support testing.

Will ABP/CCA join the team?

Now we see if all the talk about "our organisation", "producer directed ABP" and all of the other little tidbits offered throughout the meetings are true.

Will the zone delegates and the two chairpersons in Fort Macleod listen to what was said, by the said producers? Will they either vote with their zone for resolutions passed in their zone or abstain at the AGM if they have a different personal opinion? Will they continue to belittle a delegate who was elected on one topic?

Time will tell.

But one thing for sure - the volume will be turned up at the AGM if democracy is not adhered to. ( that is as long as my predictions of being elected are not just Kaiser's silly mind.)

Hi di ho neighbors - I'm gonna take a couple of days off and sell the s*** out of some of our damn cattle at at local trade show. Hope I'm not set up beside the ABP /Cargill /Tyson beef sales booth like I was last year. Kinda hard selling truly Canadian beef beside folks with mega checkoff dollars from my customers pockets - selling beef for Cargill and Tyson after they (legally) stole it from our producers in the first place.

[coppertop]

Randy, when will you know whether or not you were successful in your bid for election to ABP ?

With the mess the cattle industry is in, one would think MLA's across the province would be talking about it with cabinet. Only one MLA, Richard Marz from Olds/Didsbury brought up the matter to the Ag Minister during question period yesterday.

The Whitecourt/Ste Anne MLA was moaning about the forestry industry and he represents one of the largest concentration of cow/calf operations in the Province, but didn't utter a word about the crisis in that industry !

[nicolaas]

the democratic process worked great,if you enjoy losing money on cows. A harmless resolution regarding actually asking if offshore markets would take our beef if it was BSE tested was handily defeated in the zone I'm in. I guess people love the status quo. I am glad I dropped my herd by 100 head this past winter as I am not too optimistic about the future with the reliance on an economy going into recession. Not to mention the huge basis. What a blood bath this will turn into.

[grassfarmer]

Coppertop, Interesting comment on the political situation. "With the mess the cattle industry is in, one would think MLA's across the province would be talking about it with cabinet." Suggesting that our worthy politicians should respond to what is clearly a disastrous situation for their constituency primary beef producers. Isn't it in fact the case that our plight as producers has been largely brought about by these same politicians? Their blind faith in a "free market" economy which serves only to transfer all the power into the hands of a few multinational corporations. Their total support and financing for Cargill and Tyson to allow them to strengthen their captive supply situation. Their total refusal to back any move by producer led groups to change the status quo all speak volumes for the desire of Alberta MLA's to help out primary producers.Of course their agriculture policy may be misguided due to listening too much to the ABP dictatorship that claims to speak on behalf of producers, yet as nicolaas says will vote against producer interests at every turn.
It seems both the ABP and the Alberta Government have their heads stuck so far up the backside of corporate America that neither have seen the light for a very long time. Again as long as 90% of voters in rural Alberta will elect a donkey if it wore a blue suit our plight won't improve. We certainly have a donkey in our constituency.

[Burbert]

Well said grassframer, exactly on point, exactly what is going on! The AB gov't in fact supports and funds, these phoney groups that claim to speak for framers, ie AB Grain Commiss, Wild Rose etc. etc.

[mcfarms]

Hey Burbert ,Wild Rose would be happy to hear the AB Gov't supports them financialy it'll be news to them though. How did you think the Alberta Gov't finacially supports them?

[rkaiser]

The take home message from all of this is that agricultural producers, and I will say especially my beef industry, do not market our product properly. We are damn good producers and actually do a good job of promotion but we leave the purchase order in the hands of the wrong people. People who are simply out for profit for their shareholders.

I know that each of you will say that that is a simple - no brain-er statement. If it is --- then why do we continue to let it happen?

All of our groups have good philosophers - Wild Rose, NFU, BIG C - you name it. What we need is a Lee Iacocca in the Beef Industry and maybe one with a burning desire to send Canadian Bacon to Asian as well.

I may sound like a broken record to some of you talking about BSE testing - but that my friends is one of many ways that wee could identify and brand our Canadian beef product unique to the world and get back on track to making our industry viable once again.

First off --- we need to take back control of this industry instead of working so hard and then not only handing control of it to two or three multinational self serving companies, but promoting it for them as well.

[jensend]

the bse testing fiasco is just one of the more obvious signsthat the cattle industry is not controlled by producers to even a minor extent.this isn't unique to beef. farmers and ranchers are working in a food production paradigm that plainly isn't working for them and by the number of recalls and health issues it isn't working for consumers, either. i think if there is going to be change the pressure will have to come from consumers. the primary food production sectors are so screwed right now that without the help of consumers i don't see the walls breaking. in the end our allies have to be consumers instead of packers, grain co.'s, fertilizer suppliers, feed co.'s, etc. there is a bottleneck in the middle of the value chain and it will have to be worked on from both sides.

[Burbert]

Dah, How much does it cost to belong to Wild Rose? Nothin, where do they get the support, bake sales? Each and everytime the media want a quote on framing they run to Wild Rose and the propogandi machine grinds out some grist. The Albertie gov't is hiding in dar somewhere!

[Ron]

http://www.wrap.ab.ca/membership/

It took me 15 seconds to google and find that producers pay to join.
Burbert, please spend 60 seconds researching and thinking before you shoot your mouth off.

[mcfarms]

Burbert


NO problems with you having an opinion just try and check your facts before you make statements, be careful you might lose all your credibility here. lol



Wild Rose Agriculture Producers is Alberta's largest producer funded general farm organization. It is an organization comprised of farmers and ranchers who wish to have a voice in shaping the future of their farming operation. Unlike many other farm organizations, there are no check-offs or major corporate sponsors. Nearly 85% of the money raised each year comes from membership and membership services.