New CWB Organic Programs

[charliep]

Can someone help me untderstand the new CWB organic program announced yesterday?

New Program for Organic Grain
In 2007-08, farmers will have three options for marketing their wheat, durum and barley.

The Organic Fixed Spread Contract: a new CWB program for organic grain, designed to provide organic farmers with increased flexibility and greater certainty on returns, taking effect August 1, 2007
The CWB pool price plus negotiated premium
CWB cash buying
Organic Fixed Spread Contract (OFSC)
The OFSC allows farmers to obtain an export licence or sell inter-provincially by making a low, stable, up-front payment to the CWB. The payment is based on type of grain and market destination. It represents the benefits that organic farmers receive from the CWB, such as branding, product and variety development, and advocacy on issues such as transportation, trade and biotechnology.

The payment for wheat sales in Canada and the U.S. is expected to be between $2 and $5 per tonne, for the EU and the UK between $3 and $5 per tonne, and for Japan between $4 and $7 per tonne. Rates will be confirmed prior to August 1 and remain in effect for the entire crop year.

The OFSC is easy to use.

The farmer phones the CWB (Wayne Foubert 204-983-5760) with shipment information and proof of organic certification.
The CWB informs the farmer of the applicable rate and invoices the farmer.
The farmer pays immediately by wire transfer, VISA, or certified cheque.
Once payment is received, the CWB issues the farmer or exporter an export licence.

[TOM4CWB]

Charlie,

Logic has prevailed!

Long live the "single desk" at $5.00/t!

[Lifer]

Improved maybe. Doesn't it make you wonder why they ever got involved with Organics in the first place?

Isn't Organics at its roots more of a way of living?

[AdamSmith]

Sounds alot like a protection racket to me!

[charliep]

Won't go off topic but will note organics provides a lot of farmers a good living (they treat it like a business). Organics is not farmer driven - it is consumer driven in particular niche markets and demographic profiles. Is the consumer who demands this product right or wrong - don't know. Just know someone who makes purchase decisions by getting out their wallet and buying something ultimately drives the market.

Which takes us back to the original question is do these individuals benefit from the single desk to the tune of what they are being asked to contribute to everyone else in the pooling system via this deduction?

[craig]

What a great offer. As a producer you have no choice and the CWB gets to decide what the value of the so called benefits are.If as a producer I brand my product on my farm of what value is the CWB brand. Second did I as a producer ask the CWB to represent me on the issues noted. It's ironic that while the friends of the CWB go to court on the barley issue claiming farmers didn't get to make the decision, the CWB unilaterally continues to dictate to the organic industry. Maybe its time we charge the CWB $5.00 a tonne for the privilege of handling our grain.

[Lifer]

Answer to charlie P

No because to be selling or buying organic wheat you are not trading commodity wheat.

The CWB should have never got involved in organics in the first place. How does the CWB add to the holistic approach of Organic Farming?

[cropduster]

You are right Charlie....different angle,different light......it never has been about MARKETING grain!!!!Now these donkeys are truly caught between a rock and a hard place.Farmers WILL know Aug 1th(as they are observing by the marketplace)that the "strength" of the CWB was only used to smother their activities.CWB lawyers argued they had "no duty of care to farmers".The TRUE market will show that in spades!!!!

[parsley]

Organics....

1.Organics is and always was comnsumer driven, as charliep nicely makes that point, again. How many have bought a diamond ring, for goodness sakes? For what? You've spent thousands of $$$ on a piece of rock for your woman. That is good marketing on someone's part.

2. Property rights issue...The CWB et al always try to transfer the issue from me growing the grain, owing it and selling it, to an economic issue...the CWB get s more money for ypou. They need to be reminded 40 x/day to take a flying leap into the bowels of single-desk hell.

3.JOBS and employment at the CWB...here they are hiring Patty Rosher to work organics. That should read work organics for cash. We don't need any Patty Roshers. It's a cash layout for sweet tweet. It's about providing JOBS, JOBS.

4. Branding? How about deerpoop grain? CWB Who is famous for Deerpoop grain?CWB

CWB CWB CWB

Deerpoop specialists of the World.CWB

Branded properly/ CWB/DEERPOOP SYNONYMOUS


Parsley

[TOM4CWB]

Charlie,

This is a large departure from past CWB policy... in essence a deregulation of the organic wheat and barley industry.

Past arguments about the "single desk" requireing the "buy back" on this grain for it's survival of the CWB, are now proven a hoax...

Change is on it's way... one has to wonder about the politics of this... the end of the "single desk" in theory... before we even get to the Federal Court hearings on the 25-27th of July in Calgary!

[Lifer]

Actually Organic farming at the beginning was more about the farm or soil this also does not necessarily make it farmer-driven. It started as more soil driven and still is for some today.

As copied from Wikipedia:

"The organic movement began as a reaction of agricultural scientists and farmers against the industrialization of agriculture. Advances in biochemistry, (nitrogen fertilizer) and engineering (the internal combustion engine) in the early 20th century led to profound changes in farming. Research in plant breeding produced hybrid seeds. Fields grew in size and cropping became specialized to make efficient use of machinery and reap the benefits of the green revolution. Technological advances during World War II spurred on post-war innovation in all aspects of agriculture, resulting in such advances as large-scale irrigation, fertilization, and the use of pesticides. Ammonium nitrate, used in munitions, became an abundantly cheap source of nitrogen. DDT, originally developed by the military to control disease-carrying insects among troops, was applied to crops, launching the era of widespread pesticide use.

In Germany, Rudolf Steiner's Spiritual Foundations for the Renewal of Agriculture, published in 1924, led to the popularization of biodynamic agriculture.

The first use of the term organic farming is by Lord Northbourne. The term is derived from his concept of "the farm as organism" [5] and which he expounded in his book, Look to the Land (1940), wherein he described a holistic, ecologically balanced approach to farming.

The British botanist, Sir Albert Howard studied traditional farming practices in Bengal, India. He came to regard such practices as superior to modern agricultural science and recorded them in his 1940 book, An Agricultural Testament and adopted Northbourne's terminology in his book "The Soil and Health: A Study of Organic Agriculture" in 1947.

Lady Eve Balfour, author of the organics classic The Living Soil, established the pioneering Haughley Experiment on her Suffolk farm in 1939 that ran for more than 40 years.

In the US, J.I. Rodale popularized organic gardening among consumers during the 1940s.

The Japanese farmer and writer Masanobu Fukuoka invented a no-till system for small-scale grain production that he called Natural Farming. In the early 1940s.

In 1972, the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM), was founded in Versailles, France. IFOAM was dedicated to the diffusion of information on the principles and practices of organic agriculture across national and linguistic boundaries.

In the 1980s, various farming and consumer groups worldwide began pressing for government regulation of organic production. This led to legislation and certification standards being enacted beginning in the 1990s.

Since the early 1990s, the retail market for organic farming in developed economies has grown about 20 per cent annually due to increasing consumer demand. While small independent producers and consumers initially drove the rise of organic farming, meanwhile as the volume and variety of "organic" products grows, production is increasingly large-scale."

[charliep]

Do organic farmers have to work through the process of delivering, collecting intitial payments (realizing can use the fpc/modified organic dpc) and then do the buyback. My reading is an organic farmer simply sends in the money for this program and then recieves an export licence. Is this wrong?

[TOM4CWB]

Charlie,

When talking with an organic grower yesterday, he said it looks as simple as paying for the export license with visa and they were off. Indications were there was no need to transfer ownership through an agent of the CWB or the CWB itself... somewhat like getting an export license for Pedigreed Seed wheat or barley.

[charliep]

Tom4cwb

Do pedigreed seed growers have to pay for the export licence? Do they have to share information about the sales transaction (buyer, price, etc)?

If the buyback process is removed, this program is a significant change to CWB policy.

[parsley]

The CWB has pulled a number out of the sky and said, this is what you will pay. It can change on Tuesday, or on Hallowe'en, depending upon hw the Directors react to the full moon.

Pedigreed seed growers pay $0.00 and always have.

Donna Youngdahl and Patty Rosher will get their paycheques.

Parsley