Who agrees and who disagrees! Open for discussion.

[bucket]

Grassfarmer

Do you worry about having enough abatoir capacity?

[food4u]

To me it makes no difference whether it is CPP or" Land Bank" that owns the land. It is off the market and not available to potential buyers. Around here some of the land that got "sold" to the land bank is still being farmed by the seller.The land bank was used as taxpayer money source to keep their operations going.

[wmoebis]

Don't see much dif between land bank and FCC in the 80's when they foreclosed on farms then rented it back to same farmers eventually lending them money to buy it back for half price.

I know lots of farmers that were only able to farm because of the land bank.

Right or wrong I don't know.

[grassfarmer]

It's the #1 problem bucket, not only creating enough capacity to meet increased demand going forward but holding on to the capacity we have. In AB even the best run plants, the ones that really know the job inside out can't compete with the oil patch. The ones we use were running under capacity this fall due to the labor shortage. An oil patch slow down won't help as none of these guys will be looking for a $15/hr job that involves blood and they don't have the skills to be meat cutters.

The high cost of meeting regulations and health standards makes it difficult for the plants to be viable - but of course the rules and regulations were set by Governments being lobbied by the corporate packers who wanted to stack the deck and make sure the small plants couldn't compete with them.
It's the biggest challenge facing the direct marketed meat business.

[tweety]

Hopalong, unless you farm at least 50,000 ha, i wouldn't call yourself large scale.

[SASKFARMER3]

Lest see Under Allen's vision. Both my self and my father would have had to liquidate land down to 1000 acres each.
Ah like that was a great plan. USSR.
But the Canada pension plan is Our money buying farmland. It is the same as the land bank.
Sad sad sad.

[bucket]

Land bank or not alot of the issues were caused by one big bitch - MOTHER NATURE.

[jd3007]

Companies have been bundling for a long time. The want to have all your business.For some producers this is happening already with IP Canola Waburton Wheat, and Malt Barley. We have been seeing more of these programs and they will increase in the future if we keep buying them. If you don't buy they wont grow. Pretty simple.

[ag-boy]

marketing organic farming operation better be stepped up ! from what we see around us . where is the inspection ????
some of that produce does not look clean and healthy .
had some organic raised beef ! did not marble and taste like our regular grain fed alberta beef. crossrib roast lookt small and not fed to finish ,our neighbor said grass and hay fed only !
he has to get dubble the reward for his hard work , but it does not pay him any more, and heard that mutch outdated
beef en vegetable are thrown out, ad the end of the day.

[grassfarmer]

ag-boy you never did tell us which large store was selling all the organic and grass-fed and having to throw so much out. Who was it?

Yes, some people make a poor job of organic or grassfed beef but the consumers buying this type of product would rather have it than the commodity "fix" Plenty of cow calf guys making a poor job too - then the feedlots get to fix them up with drugs and ractopamine and hormone implants and feed them to a fairly uniform level of condition. I'll give you that -the feedlot sector and commodity system produce a fairly uniform product - but it's full of #$%^ that I and many others prefer not to eat.

I have produced outstanding quality grass-fed beef over the last decade and it's all been properly inspected so don't insult us all with your biases.

[CptnObvious]

Nowhere did Allan Blakeney say that farm ownership must be capped at 1,000 acres. The evidence against the right is observation. The evidence against the left is imagination.

[LEP]

Right like the classic "All the crowns will be privatized" line used every election for the past twenty years.

All based on fact.