New Thread with grassfarmers numbers

[rkaiser]

Who on earth can't look at numbers like this and then say we should accept things the way they are?

Grassfarmers post says - rkaiser, the figures came from an NFU document(... gasp, horror, those lunatic socialists!) showing how free trade wasn't workingfor farmers. It was commissioned to show the negative effects the 1989 Canada-US free trade agreement,1994 NAFTA agreement and 1995 WTO agreement on agriculture had on producers. The result of these 14 years of free trade were:

1988 - Canadian agri-food exports $10.9 billion
2002 - Canadian agri-food exports $28.2 billion

1988 - realised net farm income $3.9 billion
2002 - realised net farm income $4.1 billion

1988 - farm debt $22.5 billion
2002 - farm debt $44.2 billion

These figures obviously will pale into insignificance when compared to the 2003-2005 results with the major ramping up of tran-national piracy through the "BSE" crisis and low grain prices.
Kaiser says -
The way that I see it we have three choices.

1).Let the current system win and subsidize our farms with off farm income.

2).Cut our expenses to the max and make the excuse that we love to feed cattle with horses and a pitchfork.

3).Ignore those who call us whiners and open our darn mouths and say something.

The system is not working for the primary producer and these numbers that grassfarmer has produced are only the tip of the proof. There are other ways folks, but if we don't talk about them, it's guaranteed that they won't happen.

[wd40]

good post Randy - only thing is, it looks like your losing sleep over it. :-)

[rkaiser]

Not really wd, just waiting up for my subsidization Cheque. When she works an evening shift, she wakes me up when she gets home anyway, so I might as well stay up and spew.

Besides that, that darn Ostercamp phoned last night. Talk about losing sleep

[grassfarmer]

I think part of the trouble has been education - how many of the well informed readers on this site weren't aware of these figures, let alone the "average" producer who is less informed on what's going on? If all producers and many consumers were aware of what these figures show perhaps then we could do something to improve our lot.
It's a shame that most of the other commodity groups that purport to work on the producers behalf aren't doing similar research, without it they have no ammunition to fight their case with. Can you imagine ABP coming out with this kind of finding? why not?

[rkaiser]

Well they are going to see those numbers again now grassfarmer. Got any more?

[grassfarmer]

I've got plenty more rkaiser but I don't know it is necessarily appropriate to post them chapter and verse on this forum - check out some of the information at www.nfu.ca. Better still plan to attend the Alberta annual NFU convention in Calmar on 17th June where we will be discussing a plan of action and passing resolutions based on this information - resolutions that will be taken to both Federal and Provincial governments.
One thing that is clear from all the NFU research work is that we are in a longterm farm income crisis - not a stable position with a few little blips due to BSE or early frosts in Saskatchewan. I think this is an important point to make as many producers hear from politicians and ABP types that beef (or any other commodity) has returned to prosperity again and go home from meetings feeling that they must be failing as producers because this prosperity is not not what they see when they look at their bank accounts.

One report looks at the Realised Net Farm Income from the marketplace (excludes government payments and adjusted for inflation)as a measure of producers prosperity.
Looking back as far as the depression it is clear that for 40 years up until the mid 1980s there was relative stability but that it then fell to a near zero figure where it remained through the rest of the 80s and 90s. Since 2000 of course it has fallen deep into negative territory - 2004 showed a negative $10,000 per farm RNFI level only topped by 2003 which showed a never before seen record low of negative $16,000 per farm.
During the depression this figure fell below $5000 per farm for 7 years yet it has been below $5000 in 15 of the last 20 years!
Contrast this with the fortunes of the multi national corporations and companies who supply inputs,process and distribute the food once it leaves the farm gate. The big corporations really started working the way they do now around the mid 1980s - a coincidence?
The study looked at companies in the fuel and oil supply business, fertiliser, machinery, banking, food processors, beef and pork packers, grain handling, milling etc etc. In 2004 the majority of them realised record or near record profits - of the 75 companies studied 41 posted record profits with another 16 near record profits. Contrast this to farmers fortunes and tell me there isn't a connection.

I'll end with a telling quote from Dwayne Andreas, CEO of Archer Daniels Midland Corporation. “The free market is a myth. Everybody knows that. Just very few people say it. . . . If I’m not smart enough to know there’s no free market, I ought to be fired. . . . You can’t have farming on a total laissez-faire system because the sellers are too weak and the buyers are too strong.”

[cowman]

Now grassfarmer, I don't claim to be an "informed person" and will readily admit I never knew those numbers! I do believe, by and large NAFTA has been a good thing for Canada and especially western Canada?
However it is disturbing to here the numbers you quote! It is almost an "AHA moment" of why we are doing so poorly in agriculture.
You challenge my old "redneck free enterprize" thinking and I will have to digest this info a bit! But thanks for posting those things.

[grassfarmer]

Cowman, It was very much an AHA moment for me when I started reading these works too. Not only did it make me realise what was going on in Canada and shape my farm policy accordingly, it also explained a lot of things about European agriculture - and then you realise that these are global problems not regional ones. The fact that last year's report prepared for the Minister of Agriculture by his deputy Wayne Easter mirrored these findings show that they are real and the Government knows about them. Now we need to get some action to address the root causes of our farm income crisis.. unfortunately I don't think it can be led by the "wiser minds" of the current ABP set up.

[cowman]

Grassfarner: believe it or not...I do respect your opinions and again, some of the things you have said on these forums have made me investigate, look into....whatever...change some of my opinions! Not trying to stroke you here...but you have made me think!
I have never thought Wayne Easter was some sort of idiot! Politics aside I have always recognized him as a farmer, standing up for farmers!
Hey, I'm not the enemy here! I'm just an average Joe...just like everyone else...dismayed how this thing has gone so wrong! I'm doing whatever I have to do to survive just like everyone else on here?

[dalek]

Grassfarmer I'm surprised you got this far into the thread without mentioning Compare The Share, either the original version or the 2004 update. I think it gives a pretty good roadmap on where the problem lies.

www.nfu.ca/on/misc_files/CTSFINAL%202004.pdf

[grassfarmer]

Thanks dalek, I wasn't aware of that one - it makes an interesting read too. There is clearly enough evidence out there to identify the problems - how we can use that information to change things is the challenge.