Canadian Fair Trade Ag Produce

[parsley]

grassfarmer, Half-assed drivel you say?

Do you actually believe that any farmer who respects another farmer would approve of compulsory participation in a marketing scheme.

It is the very reason why I would NEVER buy a membership in the NFU.

Until they change their attitude towards their peers, I'm with barleyman.

Parsley

[Lifer]

Interesting concept. Tom and Parsley write about consumer choice and bringing new ideas to them. "Give them what they want". Excellent let's do more of that.

Use a different term then "Fair Trade". How will you choose fairly who will be part of this scheme? Can you be fair to everyone?

[Lifer]

As far as "True Organics" go.

I hear different definitions of what organics is about.

I understand true organics as being about repecting the soil and "tending the garden". This is at its heart.

Good work in marketing this out. I believe these roots need to be respected.

[grassfarmer]

barleyman quote "After more than 25 years of farming 1 thing that i know is that i will never listen to or follow anything or ever join the National Farmers Union. They are all about yesterday, and promoting going nowhere." It's half-assed drivel to me Parsley, what does it mean?

[TOM4CWB]

Lifer,

I believe the Maple Syrup growers in Quebec are on the right track.

They allow marketing by individual farms, to meet direct consumer demand, yet cater to commercial demand through the marketing board. I know it is not a perfect system, but it does show a recent example of co-operative marketing that meets many of the voluntary aspects we speak of... while having group discipline the place a "fair trade" price on maple products for the benefit of family farms.

Coffee and Chocolate hold the same issues of who should be a part of the program, and what a true fair price is.

The dry bean growers in Alberta have been working with these ideas... not calling it "fair trade" produce specifically... but because it is cooperatively produced... the opportunity to make the case for this kind of premium is avaliable to them!

As Parsley pointed out, I also favour, voluntary marketing... those who join may benefit... and this also allows difficult people who are not agreeable to be excluded from the association and services.

IMHO this is 100% of the CWB's problem. They don't have the grace to accept that people are individuals and have different needs.

[parsley]

In a phrase....Patriarchal attitude.

The attidude is that grassfarmer is too stupid to make a decision, "the group knows best", and grassfarmer will participate whether or not he likes it.

I happen to think that individual farmers themselves know what is best for their individual farms.

NFU support the CWB....government run, compulsory, heading for poor countries, bargain prices. shiploads exported, value-added discouraged.

Surely you have to agree that this kind of thinking and planning is not only going nowhere, (that's proven. Check your CWB cheques!)but it is old and tired and needs to be replaced.

The closer u get to the consumer, the more $$$ jingling in your pockets. Markets have become so specialized. Communication is fabulous. Custom food is a bloody reality grassfarmer. We need to adjust our marketing to 2007.

I remember when the "leaders" in the Hereford business advocated everyone should buy short, blocky, faddy, dumpy bulls. Were they right? Maybe to a specific area. But for general breeding stock? No, dwarfism developed.

The guys who saved the day were the cattlemen who stood back from the pack and said, "I think this is a wrong move"

YOU seem want to eliminate the guy who stands back, and instead you'd like a flock of sheep!

Get real, grassfarmer. At least try to summon up a convincing argument.

Parsley

[agstar77]

Unfortunately organic food , a name which I feel is totally inappropriate, does not have a better safety rating than food that is not labelled organic. There is no measurable increase in safety, far different than survivability in a crash test. The comparison is valid in machinery where the overpriced Green machine is of inferior design to a Red machine, but they both do the same job. It has been a very smart marketing ploy by so-called organic producers to extract more from the consumers. The large corporations have caught on and are providing their version of better food. In my opinion a better goal would be to reduce the contamination of our air and water so that the produce parsley grows would be less contaminated.

[TOM4CWB]

agstar77,

"extract" a premium... where have we heard this term before!

Is there a possible reason that consumers pay more for green machines and organic food... than just the quality of air or water used to produce it?

It is a very interesting turn of events to have the CWB flatline the buyback on Organic to a simple fee... tales of underselling and cherry picking are forgotten...

Kind of brings a tear to your eye... the individual responsible is the best person to skillfully extract the highest value from a product they themselves created!

[agstar77]

Yes, it's called BRANDING!

[TOM4CWB]

Agstar77,

OK,

What do you call the $50m lost because the CWB sold malt barley they didn't have growers agreement to sell... at below the cost of production?

I would call it a death wish... you call it branding?

[TOM4CWB]

What would you call going to court to extract $50m out of barley growers at less than cost of production and against their better judgement... fair trade Agstar77?

[parsley]

The word ORGANIC was branding.

Consumers embraced it.

The CWB wants to steal it.


Parsley

[parsley]

BTW, agastar, your comment, "a better goal would be" means here you go again! agstar knows best. Your goal.

Here we have orgnaic farmers making good dollars from willing consumers and you want a different goal.

You need to produce a show called
"Agstar knows Best" so we can all sit back and have a laugh.

If it wasn't so sad.

Parsley

[sawfly]

tom i commend you on your post.
fair trade is an excelent idea.
while farmers in this country
get shafted the same way they do in the poorer countries , at least we can
quit, change jobs or have some gov. support.
their choice is take what they get or starve.
if we don't have a conscience about their plight, why should anyone care about ours.

It would be nice if you bought a 10$ shirt , that you could pay 10.25 and know that the 25 cents ended up in the workers hands. and not in a beach house in malibu.

[TOM4CWB]

Thanks Sawfly!

If anyone wants to take a stab at it; what are farm gate prices that would be "Fair Trade" acceptable?

THis thread is getting a little long... perhaps someone else can work on another one.

I believe that a gross per acre on our farm of $330 for wheat is fair, with an average yield we normally produce non-organic:

CWRS #2 13.5 = 55 / $325/ac = 6/bu

1 Can Canola = 35 / $350/ac = $10/bu

Barley #1 = 80 / $320/ac = $4/bu