Media

[parsley]

From Morris Dorrosh's Agriweek:


Let George do it


If the Board can’t get competitive
prices, should it get out of the way?


According to another report that
appeared last week, the trouble with the Canadian Wheat Board is that it
is too involved in details, such as
selling grain and getting it shipped
to salt water.

The report, by Richard Pedde and Rolf Mirus, issued by the University of Alberta’s Western Centre for Economic Research, suggests that these core functions could be farmed out to private contractors.

Pedde farms at Indian Head, Sask.
and also teaches at the University of
Alberta.

He is at least a lukewarm supporter of the single-desk system and in 2007 authored an inconclusive comparison of prices received for wheat at comparable locations in Alberta and Montana.

This new report argues that day-today
operations of the Board can be
improved while retaining its monopoly.

‘Modest’ changes could increase
transparency and efficiency and get better prices for producers.

Logistics, marketing and trading of
grain would be outsourced, allowing
the Board, especially its directors,
to concentrate on long term strategy.

Auctions would be held to select the
highest qualified bidder.

The resulting system, Pedde says, could use publicly-visible benchmarks
such as U.S. wheat futures prices for ‘transparency’.

Credit and performance risks would be shifted to specialists while guaranteeing producer payments and proper service to Board customers.

The Board already outsources management of its foreign exchange and interest rate risk.

The scenarios are admittedly hypothetical and its premise is that
results commonly improve when
business functions are outsourced.

The report firstly insults the people
within the Board currently responsible
for marketing and logistics, and
secondly assumes that more highlyqualified contractors would come
forward with sufficient motivation to
not just obtain better prices from
Wheat Board customers but sufficiently
better to generate a profit for
themselves.

It would also remove from the Board the very things that, in its inflated self-opinion, make it
the world-class marketing powerhouse.

The Board would become basically a regulator and enforcer, tasks at which it does excel.

It is also hard to imagine that such a scheme would be acceptable to farmers who either support or oppose the marketing monopoly.

It would not change the compulsory, repressive aspects of the Board system, with is the main thing in the present controversy.

What some qualified economic researcher should really look into is
the
(a) possible impact of the
Board’s trading in Minneapolis
wheat futures of the last six months,
and
(b) the matter of the origin of
soaring U.S. malting barley and durum
wheat exports offshore at a time
when that country is one of the biggest
importers of Board grains.


Parsley

[agstar77]

Read the article in the NY times in a previous thread, and then tell me if you can trust U.S. futures.

[parsley]

I readthis article from:

http://news.sympatico.msn.ctv.ca/TopStories/ContentPosting.aspx?feedname=CTV-TOPSTORIES_V2&showbyline=True&newsitemid=CTVNews%2 f20080328%2forganic_products_AM_080328



Organic farmers not meeting demand, study finds
28/03/2008 10:30:01 AM





Canadians' demand for organically-grown fruits and vegetables is increasing rapidly, but farmers aren't yet meeting the need, according to a new study released by Statistics Canada.


CTV.ca News Staff


The new study, 'Organic: From niche to mainstream,' is based on data from the 2006 agriculture census and a 2006 study by the Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada.

It was released Friday morning by StatsCan.

The study shows more farmers are jumping on board the organic bandwagon, but the majority of the certified organic products grown in this country are field crops such as wheat and barley, and hay, and most are destined for export.

"Canada has a competitive advantage for growing grains and oilseeds because of the climate and large expanses of cropland suited to mechanization," says the study.

"So it makes sense that organic field crops and hay would be the most common certified organic product. Many of the field crops grown organically are sold internationally -- not processed, sold or eaten in Canada."

The study found the following:

2,462 farming operations reported growing certified organic field crops and hay, nearly half of them in Saskatchewan;
Less than 1,000 farms grew certified organic fruits and vegetables or greenhouse products;
More than 6,000 farms produced certified organic animals or animal products.

But the study showed that progress is being made and production levels of organic products are on the rise:

A total of 3,555 Canadian farms reported growing certified organic products in 2006. That marks a major increase of close to 60 per cent from 2001, when only 2,230 farms made the claim.

Over half of the farms that accounted for the increase are in Quebec or Saskatchewan, the report states.
Saskatchewan had the highest number of certified organic farms, with 1,181.
11,937 farms reported producing products that were organic, but not certified.

Laura Telford, of Canadian Organic Growers, told CTV's Canada AM she wasn't surprised by the numbers or types of products grown on most certified organic farms in Canada.

"We've known for a long time organic doesn't really meet the expectations of Canadians," she said. "Most Canadians think of organics as being cute little vegetable operations in Ontario or Quebec. But that's far from the reality."

[agstar77]

Just goes to show how uninformed and paranoid Baby Boomers are. They should be more concerned with the SUV fumes they are breathing and all the plastic packaging even the organic foods come in. We won't even talk about the bottled water illusion. All power to the Organic people for taking advantage of them. These are the same people who idle there cars outside of the schools ,so they can run heaters or air conditioning. They demand biofuels that cost more to produce and cause more pollution.

[parsley]

...and then there's eating food that is religiously prepared.......


the consumer is always right.

I haven't read the article yet, agstar, but I will.

[agstar77]

Do you have special filters on the exhaust from your machinery. How do you keep the Harmful gases from getting on your organic crops or do you burn biofuels? Or maybe you use horses or donkeys to pull your equipment. I realize the customer is always right but not necessarily bright.

[parsley]

Nothing quite that sophisticated, agstar.

You obviously service a different set of consumers than I, ones I prefer to leave for you to continue to service.

Rather the consumers I deal with want traceability, (prefer to buy locally), want pesticide and chemically-free food, (practically produced,.. not growing in a glass rotunda),and want to support Canadian farmers.

Organics threw in third party verification as a measure of neutrality.

Interestingly, many elements of the organic system have been adopted by other players,a regognition which is not unnoticed.

For example, audit trails are used by the processing industry, and surely even you would agree that ever-increasing recalls demand identifying risks by that audit system put in place, so that their production lines do not entirely shut down.

Your tirade against Baby Boomers is duly noted, and with luck, they will not buy raw material from you, thus saving you the irritation.

You might want to lobby Flaman and Korneychuk to create a pooling account for similar minded Board supporters, such as yourself.

Anti-Boomer Pooling Account

Not selling to those Boomers will satisfy your resentment, and your markets will continue to include third world countries, I'm sure.

Much the same as some banks which advocate investing in mutual funds which are socially acceptable to the investor.

Glad we are not courting the same market. Goes to show why the CWB cannot not serve all, and serves as a reminder why the Board and its' supporters do not have any place in organic marketing.

Parsley

[agstar77]

I didn't say it wasn't astute business, just ironic, that on the one hand they want pure food and on the other they pollute the enviroment!

[parsley]

I presume you do ride a horse to town, and wash clothes in the river, which is where you get your stones to throw.


Good for you.
(pat pat on the back)

[Jay-mo]

Since when is the consumer always right? For a majority of products from food to cars to clothes. Consumers are advertized to and told what they should want.
What I mostly see in todays market place is not sellers asking consumers what can I sell you but telling consumers this is what you want and need.
Like I said on another thread I see alot of tactics by the organic crowd to convince people they should eat organic because if its not they are basically eating cancer.