The problem with marketing choice

[parsley]

cockshutt,
Glad you contacted me. You have some very interesting ideas and you are very knowledgeble and focused. The Board cannot withstand guys like you!

Parsley

[chaffmeister]

bmj182:

I have a theory that in the next WTO round, there will a lot of pressure on Canada to give up on a number of things in the ol' ag pouch, the two most prominant are supply management (particularly dairy) and the biggest State Trading Organization out there, the CWB. (The US has already served notice on both supply management and STOs). And with the US stating that they will be ready to cut their subsidies in half, the pressure for us to give up something will be immense. (Now we see the method in their madness with the huge Farm Bill!)

Now think about this - if you were the feds, which would you see as more important to keep happy: Quebec (dairy) or the praires (CWB). (Forget for a moment the fact that more than half the farmers in western Canada would like to market without the CWB.) Forced to give up one, I think the feds would quite easily place the CWB on the chopping block in order to keep the French vanilla ice cream machine.

Now, having said that, I also think that the feds will never give up the CWB unilaterally. The CWB's true value to the feds will be in using it as a pawn to protect supply management in dairy - and to protect all those francophone votes.

And THAT would be your first line of defense as I see it. But rather than fight like hell to keep the CWB, when the time is right, the CWB will get tossed like a bone to the dogs.

[TOM4CWB]

Chaffmeister;

I agree with much of what you have said, and many "designated area" farmers have been thinking this for some time.

Tooo bad we are just pawns in a game...

The prison terms make what Ottawa is doing... a crime... kind of like we slaves are here for the convienence of the east...

What a deal!

[chaffmeister]

Tom - sorry to say this but it's worse than you suggest. You are not just a pawn - you are a pawn of a pawn.