Off to a Parlimentary vote----Please respond

[silverback]

How about I decide who gets to buy my product by letting me decide which company has the best price to me.

I don't really care if a company makes 20 billion dollars profit in a year. If they are offering a price higher than the cwb can give me, they will get to buy my grain. If the cwb is higher, they will get it.

That evil word "profit" from the cwb zombies keeps popping up.

[chaffmeister]

Tower comments in italics:

<i>A farmer might vote to have the choice of delivering to the board. </i>
Yes. That would be the status quo – keeping things just the way they are (Option #1 on the plebiscite). Yes, indeed – that would be a choice.
But don’t confuse Option #2 with a vote for the status quo – because its not. Voting for option #2 is a vote to get rid of the single desk but have provisions for the CWB to continue to participate in the barley market.

<i>If the process of making choice available to farmers negates the option of delivering to the board, then we as farmers have lost one of our choices.</i>
I agree. You would have lost one option. But that’s all you’ve lost.
(I’m not against the CWB, I’m against the Single Desk and everything that goes with it.)

<i>If I lose that choice then all I am left with is dealing with the multinationals like ADM. </i>
Even with the CWB single desk, your grain still gets sold to ADM. If you think you do better with the CWB selling to ADM, so be it. Remember the data I showed you? Still haven’t looked at it, have you?

<i> I think that for farmers who voted to have the choice of delivering their barley to the CWB there needs to be a CWB marketing barley.</i>
I agree. Someone should tell the CWB.

<i> If they have to become a grain company to survive and compete I don't need that I already have a number of those. </i>
You’re only listening to the CWB. Others have explained quite clearly that the CWB could be a viable marketing agency in a choice market. And it wouldn't be another grain company.

<i>Take ADM for example …… the company would have done better but grain prices went up for a short spell and that ADM is counting on rising profits due to lower grain prices again. </i>
Yes – buyers (consumers) of commodities do better when prices are lower. Just like sellers (producers) of commodities do better when prices are higher. This is true with or without the CWB Single Desk. I hope you don't think that the CWB keeps ADM from making money because if you do, we should start a whole new thread to go into that one.

More pertinent to the discussion is the value of the CWB Single Desk relative to its cost. Take a look at the Grain Monitor’s Report and Section 5 of the Sparks Study (as I’ve directed you to already). If logic and open-mindedness prevails, you will see that your costs are higher with a CWB system and sales performance is below average – truly a double whammy. This may be acceptable to you but I don’t understand why anyone would demand others to accept it.


Do you expect the CWB to provide a financial benefit to your farm? If so, how that’s working for you? (After you take a look at the data.)