Here's a plan on how to own our industry

[coppertop]

cswilson, please tell me what checks that Ralph puts in the mailbox ? The prosperity check for $400 didn't buy much, in fact many Albertans thought it was foolish, the money could have been spent for many things that were necessary etc.

During the drought I paid $80 dollars for hay, and sold good cows to be able to feed the rest of my herd. We got a little acreage payment from the province but it benefitted the larger land holders whether or not they even owned a cow !!!

If the province is getting vast amounts of oil royalty revenue the people of Alberta deserve their fair share, but in my view it should come in the way of taking Education tax off property, repairing highways, buildling much needed facilities for our seniors etc.

At the recent Premier's meeting your Premier seemed as worried as Klein about the possiblity of resource revenue being on the table for equalization payments so obviously Sask. is starting to get a good chunk of revenue too. Better be careful about pointing fingers at Alberta farmers and ranchers, what are you going to do if your own government sends a few dollars your way ?

Then you can out bid your Alberta counterpart on land, hay etc. !!

[kpb]

spud, as I said at the beginning of this thread, the $100 per head was just a number I picked out of thin air as a buy-in by producers who wanted to participate. It would go towards the building of packing plants, under my plan, that would be owned by the producers.

This "quota" would be based on two factors, as I have already said, one being the domestic beef demand and the other the number of producers who wanted to meet that demand and put their money there. If more producers wanted to get involved then there was demand for (roughly 50% of current production) the number would be pro-rated back. These quota numbers could not be more than the historic number of cows each producer ran so nobody could apply for as you say 100,000 units. In addition, the national marketing members would be considered shareholders under my scheme and presumably there would be interntal limits on the number of "shares" (quota) each member could own.

It is truly fascinating to me to see the reaction to this plan. Some people seem to think that producers owning their own packing plants is the same as Tyson owning them. That, frankly, is bizarre to me. If producers own the means of production through to the retailer (and maybe eventually beyond) can you not see that that is better than what we have now?

cs wilson suggested that small, boutique type meat stores be opened. That's a fine idea but it isn't happening is it? Nobody is stepping forward to do it and, in fact, we couldnt get producers to ante up during the BSE debacle could we?

Some guys are afraid of government involvement. But how else are we going to regain control of our industry? Our so-called representative groups do not see a problem and do not truly represent us. The packers are huge, with big pockets--pockets that could only be matched by a combination of producer and government money. And, truly, if we were going to do something about it on our own (see cswilson's point) it would have already happened.

This plan is sure not perfect and it needs some hammering out. But it might be a start if we can at least agree that there is a problem and this might go a ways to solving it.

And for the third and very last time in this thread---it is voluntary. If you don't like government involvement, if you love things the way they are, if you're a free enterpriser to the day you die and think that foreign packers owning 80% of our slaughter capacity is the ulitmate in free enterprise and just fine, then please do not join. You will still have the current feedlots and packers to sell to and the foreign market to reach. But don't condemn your fellow producers for wanting to get together with their peers to fight the multi's and make a regular, decent profit. After all that is also free enterprise (and don't tell me that there is any industry in Canada that does not get government support cuz it just ain't so).

kpb

[grassfarmer]

kpb, I agree with your analysis of this discussion - I conclude we must be insane. The definition of insanity afterall is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. In the case of Canadian beef producers we continue to do the same thing over and over again - nothing to help ourselves whilst discussing continually what the problems are and how badly we are all suffering. I have no idea how to unite producers into any type of organised thought or action plan - those who are exploiting beef producers to make their living must be laughing all the way to the bank.