The CWB Debate Gets Personal

[parsley]

You know jensend, your lack of a sense of humour reminds me why I view socialists the way I do. LOL Pars

[jensend]

no humour this morning. my son was standing beside the kid that got killed in olds thursday night. most of the time i have a great sense of humour but it might be directed differently than yours. btw i'm definitely not a socialist but i want sustainability in politics same as in agriculture.

[parsley]

Sorry to hear it jensend. All of us affect one another, don't we. Pars

[freewheat]

Sorry, I just thought of another point.

If I were one who had no idea what the wheat board entailed, I would look at the parties stands on the issue. Having never stood with the socialists (liberals), or the communists(ndp, bloc) on any other issue EVER, I would have to go with the conservative stance, the party I usually but not always agree with.

Here goes,

Liberals and ndp stand for the following few items on which I beleive them wrong:

They love the gun registry
They love killing unborn children
They love making marriage a farce
They stole millions of as yet unaccounted for tax dollars
They love the muslim president
They love Omar Khadr
They love the idea of a mosque on ground Zero
They love to hate conservative women, yet are supposedly pro women
The list goes on and on

So by normal deduction, if they are on the wrong side of so many issues, what is it that could possibly make them right on the CWB issue?

[CeePen]

I have to throw in my two cents here. I was the lead author of the Informa study back in 2008 that looked at the potential gains from an open market for board grains. Now that I'm no longer employed by Informa, I can speak freely about the study and how it was done.

Just to summarize, we found that opening up the market would save farmers $450-625 million per year through better prices, efficiencies and a quicker payment system. Even then, it was pointed out that we had missed some other gains such as impacts of shuffling money around in the pool accounts.

In any case, critics should know that I had no agenda in doing the study. When I started, I had no bias and felt that opening up the market would probably be a wash. Some gains, some losses but no net change. Boy, was I wrong.

Critics will also charge that the Alta govt funded and pulled the strings on the study. Yes, they paid for it but the only input they provided was to fix some typos and make sure I listed sources for the charts and tables. That's it. No evil agenda, just a straightforward look at the numbers.

Oh yes, the numbers. The CWB responded that the study only looked at high level data with no detail. That was their choice. We asked the CWB (in writing) for some sales volumes and quality information (without prices attached) but they refused to provide anything. So we did the best we could with the high-level numbers and they still showed the CWB was doing a poor job of marketing.

We didn't leave anything out and didn't twist the numbers to reach certain conclusions. The CWB's only defense was to attack the company (Informa) as being US-based. The US office of Informa was not involved in the study at all. It was just a farm boy from the Red River Valley in Manitoba who dared to actually crunch numbers. I agree with those that the only real debate should be over the numbers and I don't see any single-desk supporters doing that.

Just my two cents.

[TOM4CWB]

CeePen,

As you obviously know... this is NOT about the numbers.


The CWB does not 'market' grain... because it never owns it... and the CWB has no obligation or responsibility to seek out the best and highest value of that product for the grower who grew it.

Instead the CWB 'Sells' grain...The CWB is a: religious, socialist, communist organisation.


Religious because you must have 'faith' in the CWB to believe they serve your farm well... NOT an examination of the numbers;

Socialist: because the CWB believes government statutes and control is better to; create and maintain efficiencies and value, to those individual citizens... the CWB is supposed to serve;

Communist: because they believe the 'Single Desk' will create prosperity and additional value... instead of the hard work and innovative ideas of the individual grower to prosper their farm and create value.

Sadly it does not matter how much 'faith' you have in the CWB... it still sells the grain it possesses in the same manner... with the same result... a depreciation of value because the CWB never produced or owned the grain in the first place. THIS is vastly different than the private trade who buys, owns; and then must sell (and create/add value) to the grain they then possess.

[Fransisco]

tipsy, thanks for that. And thanks for going to have a look for yourself. Like you say its not that hard to do and if more farmers would just do the odd price check every now they would get a very rude awakening.

[CeePen]

Sorry Tom, but I'm just an economist. I'll leave the philosophical arguments to someone else who's more qualified.

[Fransisco]

agstar said, "Mr. Depape believes in a single desk , it just wouldn't be the CWB."

Care to explain yourself for once?

[Fransisco]

jensen said," i wish the cwb would disappear just on the basis of property rights but to expect a wonderful new world after is dreaming in technicolor."

There was a wonderful, and much more profitable, new world in Oat's after it was freed from the shackles of the CWB.

I also don't see the Ontario farmers agitating to go back to the good old days of their single desk.

[sumdumguy]

I think there would be many desks just like Special Crops- not to mention lots of processing and jobs for people in small communities.

[cchurch]

I think all you scared of communism or socialism should burn all your pension cheques when they come in.

[jdepape]

agstar:

LOL!

No really - I seriously laughed out loud when I read that!

You guys can't defend against the numbers or the arguments that go with them so you try to conjure up something sinister about my intentions. Too funny.

[hoppsing]

Well now, Mr Depape. Just who is paying you? a) WCWG, b) WBGA, c) Alta govt, d) Conservative Party of Canada, e) all of the above. Talk about interference in the election process! Oh, well. The point is you do a very good job of missing key points and/or distorting the facts. You tell your audience what they want to hear and they love you for it! I, for one, have been very pleased with the CWB's GDCs and EPOs that have consistently given me at least a $0.50/bu premium over domestic bids. And I know I will be getting substantial future payment(s), something that I tend to doubt would happen in a open market. Domestic values still have not reached CWB values. Why do you not mention that livestock numbers are down, and there have been plenty of feed substitutes available (wheat and corn DDGs) so domestic feeders have not had to bid up the feed barley to CWB values. I have also noted that U.S. barley bids have been consistently below CWB values (in the so called open market).

[freewheat]

Mr. Depape,

What are you, uh uh uh American or something? Or far right? Or uh uh republican? or uh uh, paid by big oil? Or by uh uh, the tobacco industry, or uh uh (insert really lame far leftist what they think is an insult here).

Sheesh, a guy has free thinking ideas and he is insulted, or attempted to be insulted. See, leftists are hurt by insults, thats why they use 'em. From liberal mps calling Deb Grey a big fat cow, to pointing a handgun at all canadians faces, to stealing their money. They think it frightens or makes conservatives so upset they won't sleep at night. Unfortunately for them we laugh and roll our eyes.

If a conservative questions the koran for example, using passages it proclaims, liberals are hurt and can't sleep at night. LOL

Liberals want women to "have the right to choose" to kill their unborn, but want guns banned, and farmers forced to use the stinking wheat board.
UN

REAL