Organic

[Incognito]

Are you coming to Saskatoon next Friday for the CWB's major announcement, Vader? Or is the BOD and the bureaucrats still wrestling with the dynamics of the timing and the election; and the conundrum that it may cause if the Conservatives win a minority?

The Minister's loose lips can sink ships...

[Vader]

sounds like you know more than I do.

[parsley]

Vader, I find it amusing that you will scold organic farmes, saying:

"I would hope that producers would be paying attention to the market and would know that price is somewhat current"

Write this down, vader. Organic farmers have always marketed their own products and because they do, they DO pay attention and they DO stay current.

Organic marketing has served organic farmers very well. Farmers invest in co-operative shipping, not shipping co-operatives. Farmers invest in marketing co-operatively, instead of marketing co-operatives. The key inclusionary word here is FARMERS. No Government experts. No single desk prices. No CWB political donation deductions from our accounts.

Organics have understood that our buyers have budgets, too. We know when buyers have budgeted for $18.00 flax in his finished product,and if there is a supply shortage, that the end-user can only sustain $50.00 flax for a very short time and for a very small amount I am willing to make sure he gets his $18.00 flax so he stays in business, because I know my buyer.I am in touch with him.I need him to profit and he needs me to profit. It is a symbiotic relationship.


A $50.00 market was only an anomoly, vader, reflecting exceedingly tight supplies. The uninformed may conclude that organic growers should be disciplined and not sell abelow $50.00, but that would destroy either my breadmaker/snack bar manufacturer/etc. or else it would destroy my sales because he would source a substitute such as millet,amaranth etc. After all, The consumer has a spending limit, too.

I found your attempted supply and demand tutorial a little amusing, vader, considering you are the CWB's Mr. Single Desk of the Year.

Single desk pricing, which you stridently and actively promote on this site, is currently absent from organics, and the very reason why organics has thrived; so When you begin to comment on organic marketing, vader, claiming, "I hope that the organic growers are disciplined sellers and will not accept these offers", I really have no choice but to say that you really don't know or understand organic marketing, and that your particular kind of reasoning will reduce the organic prices farmers get, to the same financial junkyard the Wheat Board brags conventional farmers are lucky to get.

You market equality by force, and I market diversity with choice.

That's as personal as it gets.
Parsley

[lakenheath]

Parsley, where do you farm?

[parsley]

In Saskatchewan, lakenheath.

There are well over 1000 organic farmers in Saskatchewan, and unfortunately, many of the new entrants have the attitude that organics should be "managed" the same as conventional farming.

After all, some abandoned Conventional Agriculture, because the Banker wouldn't meet with them anymore, and they bring those same set of skills to the table. What can I say?

Conventional farming has been "managed" right into the deficital ground, and only the key players, the experts, in the industry can claim credit for it's failure; unfortunately, it's the actual farmer who has to exist on the remnant dollar exacted from their decisions.

And one of the biggest players in the Designated Area, with most of the say,(because they claim it to be so), and most of the resources to coerce farmers(using farmers' $$), and with the most influence at the Federal table (represented by a duly appointed Minister), is the infamous Canadian Wheat Board.

Their entourage occassionally moan at the appropriate time, on their way to depositing their inflation-protected cheques, but they are actually acutely aware of what they are doing, and what they are.

Next time you see them "working on your behalf", lakenheath, after all, you are the next generation, recall not only what they have done FOR my generation, but recall what they have done TO my generation.

It's decimated.

Make your decision. Should you leave, or should they?

Parsley

[lakenheath]

What does a CWB director make per year in salary?

[lakenheath]

Back to organics. I struggle with the concept. I am very much a farmer that is "attached" to the land. Everything organics stands for makes sense. The whole soil biology aspect and environmental stuardship role are what I like. But, you mention it to many people and they think you are nuts. But no means am I grasping. My financial ratios on my farm are healthy, but I often question our current model of agriculture and how we conventionally farm.

As for marketing, I like what I see in organics. But many organic farmers I talk to struggle with marketing. They tell me it is very difficult. What is your take on organci marketing?

[parsley]

We spent a winter studying everything we could source about organics before we committed the time and money.

Our foremost anxiety was, "What will the neighbors think?"!!

The new entrants struggle,(as did some East Berliners when the wall came down), mostly because many are accustomed to simply hauling to the elevator and waiting to "see what they got". They are waiting for "someone to do something" Worst kind of new entrant.

Let's face it. Building an entire counter-ag industry paralleling the conventional industry wasn't just an accident. But its here.And it's good for the farmer.

Organics readily trades and shares information, lakenheath.

We've never looked back.
Parsley

[Incognito]

Lake:

Careful: It may be just gossip.

http://www.cwb.ca/en/about/annual_report/pdf/2003-04_annual-report-03.pdf

BOD salaries are outlined in the link above.

[lakenheath]

Quite the salaries. I hope the per diems actually represent cost of travel etc. Otherwise that is a disgrace.