Bruce, the goose at it again in Saturday Leader- Post

[sumdumguy]

Johnstone, the authority on human rights and
things good for farmers, claims the virtues of
single desk----AGAIN

Wonder what his interest is?

[TOM4CWB]

Thus far, the federal government hasn't produced one shred of evidence, one scrap of research, to justify its decision to remove the single-desk monopoly on wheat and barley sales from the Canadian Wheat Board.

But there's plenty of evidence and research that the single desk has been a boon for western Canadian farmers and its removal will cause significant, and permanent damage to the Western Canadian economy. Some of that evidence is the government's own website.

For example, a paper prepared by the economic and policy analysis directorate of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada says that eliminating state trading enterprises (STEs), like the Canadian Wheat Board, may not lead to improved market returns for producers.

"The assumption of a competitive alternative inevitably leads to the conclusion that elimination of STEs would lead to improved performance,'' said the 1998 paper prepared by AAFC in advance of international trade negotiations at the World Trade Organization. "In fact, markets are rarely competitive,'' the paper said, due to domination by a few large companies, which are able to generate and capture "excess profits."

The paper concludes that in a market of "imperfect competition,'' such as global agricultural commodity markets, the "STE could enhance overall market performance.''

The fact that the AAFC paper is more than dozen years old doesn't alter its essential truth: that in an imperfect market, dominated by large players, size matters. And the CWB - the largest wheat and barley marketer in the world, with over $5 billion in annual sales to more than 70 countries - has a size advantage.

How much of an advantage? According to agricultural economist Andy Schmitz, the CWB generated a 'price premium' of $107 million a year for western wheat and barley farmers from the 2004-05 to 2008-09 crop years. In effect, the single desk generated a premium of $428 million over four years, versus the open market.

Here's another good reason to keep the single desk. The Americans don't like it.

In a recent commentary, Wascana MP Ralph Goodale recalled, when he was a rookie agriculture and wheat board minister in 1993, meeting Simon Reisman, Canada's recently retired chief trade negotiator. In Reisman's view, the CWB was fair-trading entity doing business worldwide. He believed that if price premiums were available, the CWB would get them.

"He told me the U.S. opposes the wheat board, not because it's unfair, improper or illegal, but because it consistently outperforms the American grain marketing system,'' Goodale said.

In fact, over the past three decades, the U.S. has launched more than a dozen legal challenges against the CWB - each one of them unsuccessful. So why were the Americans so persistent in attacking the CWB? "The answer is obvious: Eliminating the CWB is a multi-billion-dollar gift to the U.S. grain trade,'' Goodale said.

And the U.S. grain trade is certainly grateful to the Harper government for giving Canadian farmers "marketing freedom."

Recently, the head of the U.S. grain trading firm Bunge Ltd. said getting rid of the CWB will be good for Canada because the "efficient farmer will become even more efficient. Normally, the ones who are less efficient would like to hang on (to the board)," Bunge CEO Alberto Weisser told the Globe & Mail.

Well, there must be a lot of inefficient farmers out there because, after 75 years of existence, the CWB still seems to have lots of support, based on the results of director elections since 1998, which have overwhelmingly returned prosingle desk candidates.

According to a poll of Saskatchewan producers commissioned by the Saskatchewan government in January 2007, 58 per cent of respondents were in favour of continuing the single desk marketing system, while 35 per cent supported the open market.

Interestingly enough, 92 per cent of farmers surveyed believed that "they themselves through a blinding plebiscite should make the decision about the future of the Canadian Wheat Board,'' according to the pollster's executive summary.

And that's exactly what the CWB is doing with its plebiscite: asking farmers who they want to market their grain - the CWB or the open market?

Surely, that's the least the federal government can do before embarking on such a divisive, potentially devastating, public policy shift.

Johnstone is the Leader-Post's financial editor

© Copyright (c) The Regina Leader-Post


Read more: http://www.leaderpost.com/business/Feds must give farmers future/5182586/story.html#ixzz1TtysMvWE

Pay me a premium... and I will believe you Bruce.

The world has changed... but Bruce is lost in a huge barrel of monkeys... trying to count tails!

[stubblejumper]

once again tom and his farmers for just me friends a right and anyone who thinks otherwise is an idiot.

[gregpet]

Actually its the CWB that will put you in jail for selling your own prodiction. In a free market you can pool all the grain you like without any fear of jail time.

[Choice2U]

Bruce Johnson is close friends with Ralph Goodale. Johnson's credibility as a business jounalist is completely shot.

[TOM4CWB]

Stub,

..."anyone who thinks otherwise is an idiot."

Goodale/Alcock and the Liberals were planning the end of the CWB monopoly... before Goodale got smucked and the Liberals lost the election in 2006.

THis is pure and simple bad blood and Liberal sour g****s. Once again... the Liberals would rather mess up western Canadain grain growers... than work for a productive solution that puts grain growers FIRST.

Stubble... you are no better than Goodale and Johnson.

If you have a hankering to sell your grain at less than fair market value... I am sure you can find many buyers... without forcing other grain farmers to join in your bad habit!!!

[jdepape]

Stubblejumper:

Your use of the term "Farmers for just me..."
makes no sense.

Think about it. Farmers who want marketing
freedom want it for everyone - even you. But
those saying the single desk should stay if a
majority of farmers want it (like you) are telling
Tom (and others that don't want it) that they must
accept it - because you and others want it.

Who really are the "farmers for just us"?

[BTOfarmallll]

Stub is Mr. Dayne Perrin to Yous..........

[stubblejumper]

jdepoop refering to the producers who would stab their own mother in the back for 2 cents a bushel

[charliep]

stubblejumper

Are farmers who utilize producer payment options to improve their bottom line greedy? Decisions could mean a lower price as well. Is a canola producer that watches the market and sells for an above average price greedy? Is there any difference between using a CWB PPO and pricing in the open market?