Mr Kuharski

[farmers_son]

What are my solutions?

I would get rid of George Groeneveld. This was Mr. Groeneveld’s first cabinet portfolio and he has proven he is not up to the task. Whether you are in favour of ALMA or have concerns as I do the fact remains Groeneveld clearly demonstrated he was not cabinet material when he made the infamous "exit the industry statement" but beyond that when he lied to producers that the AFRP payments would not be tied to CAIS when it was.

George Groeneveld needs to be removed from cabinet, given a seat on a back bench with chalk and blackboard and made to write "I will not tell producers to exit the industry” one thousand times.

If I was in charge of Alberta Agriculture, I would be down in the U.S. with the entire cabinet plus the premier, coming home through Ottawa, lobbying for relief from COOL.

Alberta may have no real ability to influence beef trade with Asia but Alberta should have clout with the U.S. I believe several major pipelines are in the works to carry oil and gas to the United States. Why is Alberta and for that matter Ottawa approving these projects when a major industry like cattle is being hammered by U.S. protectionism? Maybe we can’t turn off the taps but we do not have to keep putting in more plumbing.

Why isn’t Alberta lobbying Ottawa for solutions for the crisis we are in? I think Alberta has isolated itself from the rest of Canada through ALMA. Alberta has lost all its support through its go it alone policy. The rest of the country is showing Alberta that if Alberta wants to go it alone, let them. Only it is the men and women on the Alberta farms that pay the price while from his lofty perch George G. watches the provinces cattle producers exit the industry.

Grassfarmer…you never responded to my comment that “Even the most optimistic ALMA supporter would have to agree that by the time ALMA could effect any change in the industry all the damage will have been done."

ALMA is not leadership, it is doing nothing while the industry collapses. We have an immediate problem that needs immediate solutions yet the government is turning a blind eye.

The oil companyies just this month received a major subsidy from the Alberta government. My goodness. After years of record profits and two months of lower prices they get a cash injection. The cattle guy is told to exit the industry.

Oh, I forgot. I should be getting a tiny cheque from the AFRP program in the New Year. What a joke.

[grassfarmer]

Ah so your solutions are to fire the Ag minister, appoint a new one and send him to bully the biggest bully in the world into dropping COOL? But is that really the extent of our problems?
In any case why slate the AB government for failing to lobby? your ABP has a $12 million budget to spend lobbying in the US and Ottawa - how's that going for us?
I didn't respond to your comment that
"Even the most optimistic ALMA supporter would have to agree that by the time ALMA could effect any change in the industry all the damage will have been done." I guess my response would be it depends what you define as "all the damage" - damage from what? COOL?, BSE?, High dollar? If you read the NFU document released recently (which I note you have totally avoided mentioning or commenting on)you would understand that our problems are much deeper and much longer running - try going back to 1989.
You say "ALMA is not leadership, it is doing nothing while the industry collapses. We have an immediate problem that needs immediate solutions yet the government is turning a blind eye." I would suggest that is rather like the ABP busying itself with lobbying for high speed internet in rural Alberta given all that is going on currently.

Still I suppose you are right, we could always resort to the begging bowl again - it's served us well in the past when politicians and industry leaders totally fail to diagnose the problem properly.

[kato]

Talk about failing to diagnose a problem! Where the &*^^% is the Federal Government in all this??? Programs like this are not provincial responsibilities. They are federal. And the feds are dropping the ball.

Or does our Federal government think that since it's boss is from Alberta, then Alberta means the whole country when it comes to the cattle business?

Letting one province go it alone with programs that will probably just distort things even more is gross negligence in my opinion. Whether it's a good program or not, and whether it helps Alberta producers or not, the fact is that Ottawa has let things deteriorate to the point where provinces are having to step in and do something themselves. This is not right, and it's obvious Ottawa just doesn't care about the rest of us.

If anyone wants to know how things like what happened in Parliament a couple of weeks ago get started, this is just one of a whole number of ways the Tories have brought it on themselves. We get lip service, and a token trade investigation that's going to take so long there won't be anyone left to see it out. And even it didn't happen until power threatened to slip from Mr. H's grasp.

I heard from a guy in the know last week that between the insiders in Manitoba the general opinion is that 25% of our cattle are gone. GONE. They aren't coming back either. And no one cares. We don't have a provincial government that will even come close to doing what Alberta has done already. They're even worse than the Feds when it comes to support for the cattle producers of this province.

So whatever problems you guys have with this program, take heart in the fact that at least you have a program. We on the other hand, have been thrown to the wolves.

[grassfarmer]

I feel for you folks out in Manitoba, or in BC as I know it must be tougher still where you are.

As to federal involvement I've really come to believe that the Feds are already involved more than we realise - only they are working for the other side. I never really believed that a few officials within CFIA had a personal agenda to stop exports or prevent new packing plants meeting approval etc. What would their motive be? as Federal employees they would be well paid so why stick their neck out unless they were either getting backhanders from the established big packers or that their unofficial mandate from the Federal Government was to keep Canadian beef captive on the north American continent. Am I crazy for thinking this? I'll let you be the judge.
Given the way the Federal Ag department right up to the PM's level have acted over the CWB fiasco I wouldn't put anything past them. Plus the fact that Ritz has already proven he supports Cargill and Tyson when he cast the deciding vote back in '04 that let them off the hook instead of being fined $250,000 each, per day until they opened their books to the Commons Ag committee investigating alleged packer profiteering.

[Kathy]

Perhaps we should all go into the mini-refrigerator manufacturing business, as all that meat which ALMS is going to allow us to sell into Asia - will need to be protected from spoiling.

There is an article in "Acres USA" magazine, June 2008 issue, which I just saw and found fascinating.

The article is called "The Road to Serfdom" by Charles Walters and it includes a transcript of a speech given by John Carter from the Australian Beef Association (ABA).

John states that Australia has had premise ID since 1980. He goes on to state that the system is in shambles and the database is "garbage in - garbage out"....


John C. also stated that Australian producers were receiveing about 60% the value for their cattle, as compared to the Americans.

Perhaps I'll post the whole article, if I get some time. I highly recommend this magazine to you all. Their concerns are reflective of many producers - no matter what country you are from.

Here is a link to the Australian Beef Association. Brad Bellinger is their top guy, right now, and here is his bio. There are bios for all their directors. I note that Linda Hewitt - is mentioned in John Carter's comments in Acres. He states that the Hewitts run 15,000 head of cattle. When their stations was flooded out by the rains, and cattle were scattered helter-skelter, the good old "firebrand" was used to sort out the cattle. Then the veterinarians and bureacrats stepped in and told the owners that before they could take their cattle back home, they would be have to be RFID tagged with a special tag, to show that there was no continuity in their "ownership"/"history". This special tag, would then allow the packers to discount those cattle - according to John.

Australians were told they had to implement an animal ID program because the USA was going to and the USA would take away their markets.... Perhaps there are some past shows from the Derry Brownfield radio program with these guys on, which can be downloaded from their archives?

Brad Bellinger, ASA director, (according to Derry Brownfield), has expressed deep concern over the Australian government's plans to bring to their isolated continent, research on Foot and Mouth and other diseases which Australia does NOT suffer from. They are concerned the disease(s) will be released into their herds, just as it was in the UK - from the labs manufacturing vaccines, and doing research on these diseases.

This mirrors the concerns of American producers who are faced with the move of the 'isolated' Plumb Island research facilities for infectious animal diseases to Manhattan, Kansas (which happens to be the geographical center of the USA).

http://www.austbeef.com.au/Content.asp?regID=15403&id=73371

Quote:
DIRECTOR PROFILES

Brad Bellinger (Chairman): Oxley

Brad Bellinger grew up on his Family's mixed grazing farm in Tasmania. He jackarooed at Forbes, before attending Marcus Oldham Agricultural College, graduating in 1987. He returned to the family property, taking on a joint management role, until purchasing his own property in northern Victoria in 1994. Here, he was involved with grain production, fat lambs, wool, and cattle trading. In 2001 he sold that property purchased a grazing property called Trevanna near Glen Innes in northern New South Wales. Trevanna runs 5000 sheep and 500 head of cattle.
In Tasmania, he was involved in the Wool Floor price debates and was also involved in a successful campaign against the introduction of Land Tax on rural property. Eventually the tax was dropped. He has been continually dismayed at the increasing erosion of farmers' rights over the past 20 years and although he participated in the farmer protests of 1985, which saw the formation of the NFF and associated state farming organisations, he has been disappointed in the effectiveness of these groups. He feels the mandatory introduction of NLIS is the final straw in a long list of government lead infringements on his right to farm and the ability to run to run his enterprises in a manner, which he sees, fit.
In 2004, he conducted 2 polls in order to gauge the feelings of producers on mandatory NLIS. One poll was undertaken at the Inverell saleyards, where 88 people voted, 87 against NLIS and only 1 in favour. The second poll was conducted through the Land Newspaper, where 1877 voted against NLIS and 22 in favour. He took these results to the Minister for Agriculture in NSW, Ian McDonald, who ignored them. The Minister is completely oblivious to the democratic process, which Brad believes should be the policy driver for new legislation placed upon farmers.
In November 2004, he was appointed as Vice Chairman of the Australian Beef Association. In this position, he will endeavour to campaign against legislation, which infringes upon his right to farm and the manner in which he raises and sells his livestock.


John Carters article in Acres, also mentioned a poll that was done by other parties, it turned out this poll was hacked by members of the Meat and Livestock Association - and the numbers which were very much "against" mandatory animal identification, were switched around to show a favourable response. The hackers were caught, but not punished.