Media

[parsley]

The government's greenback tongue is firmly planted on the ass of Ontario's Ontario’s food and beverage processing industry:

QUOTE
GOVERNMENTS INVEST $3 MILLION TO SUPPORT LONG-TERM DEVELOPMENT OF FOOD AND BEVERAGE PROCESSING INDUSTRY



CAMBRIDGE, Ontario, August 7, 2008 – The food and beverage processing industry is being provided with the support they need to remain competitive thanks to a joint investment by the Government of Canada and the Province of Ontario.



Gary Goodyear, Member of Parliament for Cambridge, on behalf of Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz, today announced a new $3 million Food and Beverage Industry Innovation (FBII) Fund, made up of equal contributions by the federal and provincial governments.



“Innovation has always driven this sector and our Conservative government wants to ensure that proud tradition continues,” said Mr. Goodyear. “Our government believes supporting producers will help the Ontario food and beverage processing industry, the second largest manufacturing sector in the province, achieve successful results.”



“I am very pleased to see the co-ordination of efforts to develop this program as part of the funding that the McGuinty Government announced earlier this year to support the competitiveness and productivity of Ontario’s food and beverage processing sector,” said Leona Dombrowsky, Ontario Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.



The federal contribution of $1.5 million is being provided through Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Advancing Canadian Agriculture and Agri-Food program which, in Ontario, is delivered by the Agricultural Adaptation Council (AAC). The provincial contribution of $1.5 million was provided to increase food industry competitiveness and was announced on January 31, 2008.



The Alliance of Ontario Food Processors (AOFP) and the AAC joined efforts to establish the FBII Fund to encourage investment into new, innovative processes, products or skills development in the food and beverage processing industry. Projects are expected to improve the long-term sustainability of individual businesses as well as sectors within the industry.



“Long term sustainability and competitiveness are critical to the future success of Ontario’s food and beverage processing industry,” said Jane Graham, Executive Director of the AOFP. “The Alliance thanks both the provincial and federal governments for recognizing the importance of this industry by providing support for this newly created Fund.”



“The Agricultural Adaptation Council is pleased to be the administrative partner for the FBII Fund,” said Kim Turnbull, Chair of the AAC. “The Food and Beverage industry is so important to the continued wealth of Ontario that anything that improves this sector will help the province.”



Ontario’s food and beverage processing industry is the second largest manufacturing sector in the province, generating more than $33 billion annually in sales and employing more than 110,000 people. The industry is the largest customer of Ontario’s farmers and purchases more than 70 per cent of all farm production.



The Food and Beverage Industry Innovation Fund will be administered by the AAC. More information and a request for proposals for companies and sector associations will be posted on the AAC website at www.adaptcouncil.org.



The deadline for submission of proposals is September 22, 2008.

For more information, media may contact:



Media Relations

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

Ottawa, Ontario

613-759-7972

1-866-345-7972



Margaux Stastny

Press Secretary

The Office of the Honourable Gerry Ritz

613-759-1059



Ian Barrett

Communications Manager

Agricultural Adaptation Council

519-822-6248



Jane Graham

Executive Director

Alliance of Ontario Food Processors

519-767-5599



Sherry Persaud

Communications Advisor

The Office of the Honourable Leona Dombrowsky

Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs

416-326-6439
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Parsley

[wilagro]

Parsley: More gov't welfare primarily aimed at getting VOTES in the next anticipated federal election. Harper is on a spending spree again. He does this every once in a while...just like clockwork. He has been out west here spending money in BC and AB fixing up roads and glad handing all around. Seems like they can't do routine gov't business without presentations and media exposure.

I understand that WE are getting close to a deficit budget...I wonder why.

[parsley]

Governments wilagro....

...most legislated bodies will try to get away with what they can. I can hardly be surprised this Government would be little different from all of the governments that preceded it even though I hoped it would. The Conservative government does stupid things on occassion, and need their rope jerked hard when they do. That's what will keep them from becoming all we despise.


Glimmering hope? Fooled once...fooled twice...you know the saying. When you put your faith in someone's promises, you can be sure you will be let down.
The only way to keep them at least a little on track is NOT to endorse, and agree with, and defend every mistake they make.

That is the problem with CWB supporters. The CWB represents a political instrument to them. Stewart Wells' ideal. Nettie Wiebe's hope.

Instead of recognizing and criticizing the CWB when it slid off the rails, the CWB supporters will prop them up even when it's being is harmful to all farmers, but most of all harmful to the Board itself. It will become so indecent, it will self-destruct.

What will destroy the CWB is its' complete lack of credibility...with it's accredited agents, with the rest of the ag community, with its' global peers, and with the farmers who pay their wages.

Like the SWP, even it's creators and sustainers will grow to hate the Board and all it has become.

Parsley

[parsley]

Kevin Libin

National Post

Thursday, August 07, 2008

For 73 years, the Canadian Wheat Board swore there was strength in numbers; that Western farmers, as a band of grain-pooling brothers, could stand firm against the exploitations of speculators and corporations; that as one of the world's biggest grain marketers, its clout commands premiums.

Announcing last week that the board projects a record $7-billion in revenue this year, chairman Larry Hill handed credit directly to monopoly power. The "CWB was able to leverage its role as a single seller ... to achieve strong values for farmers" boasted his press release.

A new study by one of the world's top agronomics firms, Informa Economics, though, suggests the CWB isn't so mighty after all. Commissioned by the Alberta government and released the same day as Mr. Hill's announcement, it concluded the board succeeds no better than your average schmo when it comes to grain marketing.

More damning, it calculates that growers would have gotten richer over the past several years from the open market, rather than being forced to sell to the board.

Freeing farmers from the CWB's monopolistic grip has been the federal Conservatives' plan since they were elected in 2006, rooted in Reform Party principles that Westerners deserve the same rights as their Eastern peers to freely sell a product of their labour. So far, their efforts have been frustrated. But this latest report may offer the most powerful ammunition yet in undermining the Canadian Wheat Board's entire raison d'etre.

"If you could show that year in, year out they get a higher return you might be able to argue, 'Well maybe there is a case for denying individual freedom,' " says Blair Rutter, executive director of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association, a pro-marketing-choice group. "If you can't even demonstrate that they get an above-average return, then what's their justification?"

The CWB has studied the report for the past several days, preparing its response. In an e-mail, spokeswoman Maureen Fitzhenry said it may come as early as today and "would certainly refute its main conclusion."

This will be a tough thing to dismiss, though. Informa's reputation is as a top authoritative source for agronomics analysis. Based in Memphis, British owned, it has no dog in this policy fight; its good name (its parent firm is traded on the London exchange) is surely worth more than scoring political points in Canada with faulty studies.

Economists used a treasury of grain pricing data from the UN, USDA and published elevator and gate prices to analyze wheat board profitability using three different models (the CWB refused to share its own confidential sales figures, but controlling 95% of Canadian wheat and barley exports, national statistics come close). Every which way, the study found board taking home prices that, over time, came up short.

If the CWB ever was a market mover, it is no more, says David Reimann, Informa's vice-president. Producers in the former Soviet bloc export more wheat. Americans, too. Western Canada, suffering a heavier drop in wheat acreage than any exporting jurisdiction, slipped from 20% world market share in 1995 to 14%. Canadian barley, just 11%. "The CWB's relatively small share in the international market means it is unable to exert any real influence over global prices," the report states. It is a "price taker" -- meaning it gets the going rate. Anyone can manage that. And without the inefficiencies of the single-desk system, the authors estimate, Western producers could have made $2.25-billion-$3-billion more over the last five years in the open market.

That's Alberta's interest in fact-checking the CWB's claims, spending $50,000 on the report to do it; its producers have long favoured marketing choice (Saskatchewan recently joined the campaign, too, leaving Manitoba's NDP the board's only provincial ally). "The evidence is that the current system is costing [farmers] money," says Alberta Agriculture spokesman Lucas Warren. "We want to provide the best economic opportunity for them."

The federal Conservatives' approach, though, has faced accusations of being more ideological than practical. Attempts to, as a first step, let barley farmers opt out of the CWB have been thwarted by an aggressive, activist board. Directors overturned the government's tries at regulatory changes in court. Opposition parties refuse to support legislation deregulating barley, persuaded by the CWB that a majority of producers prefer the status quo and believe it makes more than going it alone.

But the board's own surveys have shot the first claim: 67% of barley farmers polled this year oppose its monopoly. And if the CWB can't offer one heck of a compelling argument to controvert Alberta's new and potent evidence that board collectivism actually hurts farmers, not helps them, it's going to have a tough time selling its strength in numbers story any longer.

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[parsley]

When you read the following article, keep in mind there are many interests who want to control major food commodities.

Every Government of Canada uses wheat and barley as a political tool.

Processors will do the same if they could get legislation passed giving them control. Feed mills would too, if they could have legislation passed in their favor. Looking at who is always speaking for them, it is obvious the NFU are not interested in the interests of farmers; rather they are interested in the politiciains and their control.

Food and who controls it, should be on the minds of farmers. Farmers have the most credibility in the minds of the public. Farmers grow the damn stuff and need to be able to survive.

Written on August 11, 2008by Mike Stones ... the managing editor of Decision News Media:

QUOTE
"Why food is the new oil

“Food is a weapon – don’t waste it.”

This message, which featured on a Second World War poster issued by the US Office of War Information in 1943, is a lesson from history we would do well to heed.

Its significance is highlighted by the Russian government’s recent announcement of plans to form a state grain trading company which will control up to half the country’s grain exports.

The prospect of Moscow using food as a diplomatic weapon is as chilling as it is easy to imagine. The Russian state is no stranger to exploiting access to a key commodity to exert political power.


For example, Russian state oil company Gazprom has proved more than willing to manipulate natural gas sales to achieve political objectives in neighbouring countries. Only this week, crude oil prices leapt by more than a dollar reflecting fears that the conflict between Russia and Georgia could disrupt supplies from the area.

State control of grain exports would also exert a truly global reach. Exporting 10.79m tones in 2006/2007, the Russian Federation is the world’s fifth biggest grain exporter, according to statistics from the United States Department of Agriculture.

However Russia enjoys relatively reliable harvests in contrast to the more weather dependent output of normally bigger exporters Argentina and Australia. For example, as the Australian drought intensifies, grain production has fallen from 25m tonnes to 9.8m tonnes in 2006 with a corresponding fall in the volume of exports.

So, Russia’s plans to transform the Agency for the Regulation of Food Markets into a state organization, potentially tasked with achieving political objectives not merely commercial ones, should concern everyone.

We all have an interest – whether as consumers, major food retailers or processors worried about access to reasonably-priced raw materials and governments concerned about the strategic implications.

Moscow’s plans have drawn a swift and decisive response from Washington. US agriculture diplomats have branded the development “a giant step,” back to the Soviet era, according to the Financial Times.

Regardless of the Trans Atlantic rhetoric, an important point is at play: Food, just like energy, is becoming an increasingly precious commodity; the control of which confers political power. Of course, it has always delivered power. In the past, the US has withheld food aid from regimes of which it disapproves.

But for the first time in a generation, western access to plentiful supplies of cheap food is no longer assured.

Not for the first time, we are learning the cost of complacency when it comes to supply of a key commodity.

Just as the West is learning to reshape it’s relationship with the availability of energy – particularly-carbon based fuels – now is the time to rethink food policies. Let’s not repeat with food the mistakes we made with oil. Is there a better way?

Could we apply to the food sector what we have learnt from the management of oil? At the last G8 Summit, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called for a Grain Summit in Moscow next year. If that takes place, we suggest the launch of OGEC – the Organisation of Grain Exporting Countries. Although far from flawless, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries has, for many years, introduced much needed stability into volatile markets.

A similar organisation dedicated to grain could help regulate world grain stocks at a time when they are touching their lowest level since 1979.

As demand for land to produce biofuels increases and climate change impacts global harvests, OGEC could deliver a steadying hand.

It could also help both to re enforce and to institutionalise the truth that access to food is a basic human right –not a weapon of war.
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[TOM4CWB]

Parsley...

AKA... it is the right of Gov. to confiscate food production... if it is popular with the consumer/Voter.

[parsley]

....and your tax dollars, tom 4 cwb, for those destitute dairy folks.

QUOTE

"GOVERNMENT OF CANADA TO ANNOUNCE FUNDING FOR INNOVATIVE RESEARCH IN THE DAIRY INDUSTRY



OTTAWA, Ontario, August 12, 2008 – A funding announcement will be made on behalf of Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz on Wednesday, August 13, in Agassiz, British Columbia, for the University of British Columbia Dairy Education and Research Centre.



EVENT:

Announcement and media availability



DATE:

Wednesday, August 13



TIME:

10:00 a.m. (local time)



LOCATION:

UBC Dairy Education and Research Centre

6947 Highway 7, Agassiz, British Columbia



For more information:



Media Relations

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

Ottawa, Ontario

613-759-7972

1-866-345-7972



Tamara Leigh

Senior Regional Communications Officer

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

Cell: 778-828-2501"


Maybe they'll design injectible chocolate milk with artificial sweetening to save the effort of swallowing.


Parsley

[parsley]

I now, can fully understand why marketing choice for the West got put on the backburner when there are obviously these IMPORTANT things which have to be tended to, first:

QUOTE
THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA SUPPORTS EXPO QUÉBEC’S INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN



QUÉBEC CITY, Quebec, August 13, 2008 – The Government of Canada announced $150,000 in financial assistance to Expo Québec to pursue the agricultural fair’s international development strategy. The announcement was made today by Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Labour and Minister of the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec Jacques Gourde, on behalf of Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz.



Through the initiative Expo Québec 2008 : un tremplin pour les ventes de bétail canadien à l’étranger, organizers are carrying out the fourth phase of a five-year strategy for sustained growth in the number of foreign buyers at the event site and sustained growth in international sales of Canadian livestock. This year, organizers will try to attract buyers for the Mexican, Algerian and Russian markets, who all have shown strong interest in Canadian livestock. Note that Expo Québec is the site of the Quebec provincial animals judging finals, where the province’s finest specimens will be on display.



“By providing a full business centre onsite at Expo Québec, organizers have created an atmosphere conducive to trade,” said Parliamentary Secretary Gourde, who was pleased about the Government of Canada’s support. “The Government of Canada strongly supports job creation and new markets opening. Expo Québec is an excellent venue for showing the entire world our agricultural expertise.”



The financial assistance will also make it possible to present the popular Showcase of Canadian Culinary Riches, which features well-known chefs from all provinces and territories preparing, before a live audience, recipes that use ingredients from their region of Canada. As well, during this 400th anniversary year of the City of Québec, Expo Québec will host a large delegation from France, including an acclaimed master chef.



The financial support of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada is provided through the Canadian Agriculture and Food International Program (CAFI), a program to support the implementation of a long-term international marketing strategy for Canadian agriculture and agri-food industry.



-30-



For more information:



Media Relations

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

613-759-7972

1-866-345-7972



Margaux Stastny

Press Secretary

The Office of the Honourable Gerry Ritz

613-759-1059
UNQUOTE


What was I thinking, to want to push first in line? I need to enroll in a "Priorities First" course.

Parsley