A Typical Anti-CWB Farmer

[lakenheath]

I will once again start my post with this statement "the CWB is far from perfect". They could learn a lot from some of Tom4CWB's ideas. I respect Tom's intellegence.

Anyways, I would just like to make an observation from my area in Southwest Saskatchewan. In general our most progressive and successful farmers, farming on a fairly large scale 3000 to 7000 acres are strong wheat board supports (yet strong critcs at the same time). But the typical anti-CWB farmer in our area is:

1) Farming more land than they can handle

2) Over-financed

3) In make or break situations

4) In a situation that, and this is my all time favourite comment, "in order to reduce my fixed costs per acre", i have to pay high dollars for land and for cash rent just to get more.

Hmmmmmm.....maybe it is not the CWB's fault but somebody else's looking at them in the mirror.

[silverback]

And why would you care if they are overfinanced or taking on more than they can handle? It is none of your business, is it? Wouldn't it be good for you if they went broke? Then you could farm all the land they have at a cheaper price. Are you also saying that as big CWB supporters, that they do not grow off board crops also?

Is it your job in life to make sure that everyone lives the same way, drives the same truck, and eats the same food? I am guessing you would say no. So why are you so jealous that someone might be doing something better or different from you. Socialism is a pretty easy way to get through life, make no decisions of consequence and let the people with ambition carry the lazy through. I don't know what the average age of the pro CWB people are out there, but you should all see the writing on the wall. The young people that are farming will not let the status quo continue for long.

[lakenheath]

If you had any insight into what I was saying you would realize i am quite anti-socialist. Don't jump to your rediculous conclusions. I made a simple observation. I am also 27 years old. I am a Chartered Accountant and a farmer. I am not some old socialist with every share's equal ideals. I am merely stating that the CWB is far from your worst enemy. And farmers should take a whole lot more of the blame for the situation they are in. For example, the price of land. The price of land today is soley the fault of the farmer and agrocultural economic theory that doesn't apply in the real world.

[silverback]

If the CWB is not a socialist organization or ideal, then what is? Pooling everyone's grain through a beaurocracy in Winnipeg is as socialist as it can get.

How much of your annual net income do you get from your farm, does you accountant job help pay for your input costs? If it does, it is pretty easy for you to criticize those of us who try to earn a living solely from the farm. We need every penny we can get. Did your accountant job help you buy any land? Did that allow you to pay more for it than your poor farmer neighbor who couldn't afford it? Did that raise the bar for the land in the area?. Well the same thing happens out here. The rich sell out close to the city and buy land further away, it has happened forever.

A large portion of people I know do not advocate the complete elimination of the CWB, but they cannot stand leaving it as the monopoly it has become. They want choice.

If the CWB is so good at getting us all the best price, then it will have no problem maintaining the grain volumes it handles now through forced compliance. The fear is irrational.

[sawfly]

how can the board get the best price if there are thousands of farmers with the same product,some of them are willing to sell for less. in doing so the price for everyone has dropped. the board without a single selling desk is meaningless.
if banding together to get a certian price for a good or service is socialist then we are surronded by commies.
doctors lawyers pharmicists,nurses,unions, trades,even independent gravel truckers.
the big farm chemical companies don't compete by cutting price on each other.their not that stupid, so why are we
admittedly the board has limited monopoly powers in a world market,but its a thousand times more power than an single farmer has.