Natives, Bay Street form country's biggest farm

[wilagro]

Yes, and she is just barely scorned...

[parsley]

Have you ever been treated with silence?

Everyone on coffee row is arguing and discussing and ranting, belonging, and Joe walks in and suddenly there's dead silence and suddenly everyone excuses themselves, saying damn, they were busy, and coffee time is over and they had to go home?

Joe understands silence.

Silence sends a profoundly loud message. It is very important for the farm community, or for farm groups or for farmers themselves, to be able to criticize a project, or criticize an organization, to subject them to the intent, to quiz their direction, to examine the tools they use to reach the goal, to treat them like people with idea and purpose, albeit the examination may scrutinize everything from soup to nuts, from economic scrutiny to religious scrutiny, from racial composition to age participation.

Few twenty year old farmers are classified as bigots for slamming the number of sixty year old and over permit book holders. Nor should they be. It's fair scrutiny.

Earth Farms project should be scrutinized.

It's a huge entity that may grow into a formidible entity harboring either good and bad or both, all of which can, and then could, have a profound effect upon the farming community, and we should be able to discuss it. Openly. Frankly.

Whether it's native bands, united by their strengths and resources to build the largest farm in North America, for example, or whether it's camps of scattered separate or French schools working towards rural education changes, those with like-minded
"interests" will move their interests forward, and those "interests" affect the farming community.

Earth Farms can affect all farmers, about the effect "large" has, good and bad, especially if large has different goals from the status quo.

We have watched central planners redistributing rural wealth into the cities. Hospital money. School money. Buses. Surely we have learned something. We're fragile. With one piece of tiny legislation, the contol of your entire municipal budget could be managed by some bureaucrat in Regina.Tommorow.

Farmers are aware of the profound effects that large influences have upon them. And must be comfortable discussing them, free from alienation and intimidation and humiliation. And not be called racist or bigots for questiong what can make our lives very different. We need to do more of it, not be evasive about it, not be intimidated into silence.

There are probably few reading AVers, who are without First nations in their familiies, or Ukranians in their families (don't we marry for perogies, lol). Or the luck of the Irish. The discussion is not about living with each other, we already do, the discussion is about HOW we are going to live with each other if we are pulling in the harness in different directions? Isn't it talking about what we really want from each other? It's about pulling up a chair for Joe.


Discussing the issue of Viterra's consolidation, or ranting about the presnt potential potash concentration issue, is no different than grumbling about the effects of a million acre farm. Let's not alienate what we need to ask about from those who can provide answers.

If Sprott rented the land from all the present farmers in ten existing counties in the Montana, would farmers there be asking questions? Hey, you'all, "Are you eying up tax breaks"? "Or subsidy income?" You bet.

When did we come to the point where we are afraid to discuss or disagree because some one will call us racist?

People, groups, organizations, every color and religion and political affiliation and sex, and age, all of us lobby for privilege, and need to be scrutinized.

Not examining, not grilling, not questioning, any one group simply because they ARE women or Swedish, or native, or midgets, or movie stars or farmers, is,... well... folly.

And damn predjudiced.

Showing true respect is when every person, and every group, is worthy enough for you to want to argue with them. Listen to them.

Silence says something far worse. Ask Joe. Pars

[Hopperbin]

This deal is not yet in Thunderchild's website. Maybe coming yet. Nice website.

http://www.thunderchild.ca/upload/documents/Thunderchild_Acimowin_Issue2.pdf

[pilpilsner]

I'm not a rascist,i hate everybody equally.

[Hopperbin]

You know Thunderchild is not poor, they don't need to be renting the land to a large corporate farm and they most likely have skilled people that could manage the farming themselves. So no shit something is fishy here.

[Hopperbin]

Sprott does not appear to be a very profitable investment. And no dividends.

http://cxa.marketwatch.com/TSX/en/Market/intchart.aspx?symb=SCP&sid=2858073

[Hopperbin]

Click on time frame and then all data.

[mustardman]

Parsley you hate subsidies , but are you not a member of the WCWG which is the most highly subsidized farm group going. In fact it was down and out till it given another shock of Alberta gov't money

[parsley]

Why, Mussy, you remembered. I believe I've only mentioned one time that I don't approve of subsidies.

Isn't the CWB, hands down, the most subsidized farmer organization?

But I am glad you reminded me of the WBGA. I'll make out a cheque first thing in the morn. Two hundred bucks. Maybe I should send a little more since you seem to think they need money. Any chance you'll take out a mbshp Mussy, so we could end up at the same convention and squabble? Pars

[ado089]

This is an absolute wreck for the rural community. First of all, yes they are exempt from selling through the CWB due to trade agreement amongst N.American first nations that supercedes the CWB. Secondly of that million acres probably 96% is currently being farmed by non-natives, meaning if you don't farm it, your neighbor, or his neighbor does. That means there will be just shy of a million acres missing from farms across western canada, where does that come from, who's going to have to leave. Thirdly what's left of our revenue is going to be taxed and given to them in the form of training incentives or scholarships. I don't know how that sits with you but I don't think evicting perferctly capable operators and taxing them to train a bunch of green horns kind of leaves me feeling sick...not to mention that Viterra already has there greasy fingers deeply plunged in this pie. This was a tragic day for canadian agriculture.