WGRF $$$: 1/Leave2/ Return 3/Build

[Hopperbin]

Agstar notice Western Grain Trade sells everything but Wheat and Barley?

[parsley]

1. "as we all use ferilizer"
Oh no we don't.

2. Value-Add
Return the farmers own money to him, and he in turn can appropriate the cash to the project he endorses. Simplest way to let him choose.

3. Nothing rude here. It's good business to question the motives of both proposee and proposal.

4. There's a good dab of cash here, and if farmers are not heads up and get it firmly tucked in their wallet, it will be kablunka-gone. Pars

[Fransisco]

Why don't we build a rubber boot factory?

Or better yet one for each province. And then we set up farmer committee's in each province to administer them with another board made up from representatives of the provincial committees to oversee the marketing of the boots.

The first order of business should be to lobby Ottawa for a 200% tariff on rubber boots coming from outside of Canada. The next should be a mandatory checkoff on all farm sales to fund R&D.

There may be some push-back from farmers who don't agree with us taking their money without asking so we'll also need a well funded in house PR department, do you think Deanna Allen is available?

[Fransisco]

And we need to be fair to the workers in these factories so we should bring in Buzz Hargrove to set up a GM style union agreement. You know one of those 4000 page ones.

[Zaphod]

I do like the idea of value added, but the problem is that it will be local or regional at best. Who gets to decide where the facilities get built? Since all farmers have contributed to the surplus, the benefits should be widespread. That's why other research efforts are probably the best bet.

Frankly, I think the fertilizer idea is the worng one. As CP said, you're going head-to-head with massive companies that have very deep pockets and it's simply not a core area of expertise for us.

I've got another question, pulse. You talked about India. What are the opportunities to sell split and ground pulses to India, instead of just the raw crop? Is there potential value-added there?

[parsley]

Value-added is so very important. And I hate to discourage anyone from having a vision they want to develop.

It's the way it is developed that determines whether or not it will serve farmers.

Ask Schnell. He put together a plan, liased with farmers who plunked their money on the table, and set out to make pasta. They were willing to take a chance, which is what business is all about. The Wheat Board smashed the idea. You see, they would have no control.

A lot of businessess have gone the way of the organic plant built out of Regina, or the hemp venture in Manitoba.

Some may think that the WGRF money, supplemented by some of Harper's regional pinata announcements yesterday, will create a viable business. But the company would report to two levels of government. Not farmers.

Isn't it a farmer making his individual commitment when he signs his personal cheque is what gives a business strength? And gives the individual farmer control? Management reports to farmer shareholders.

That being said, there are a lot of farmers with some cash ready to invest,if they are asked and if the venture looks sound and profitable.

Pars

[haveapulse]

My goodness people this is money you never even knew you had, found money.

What an amazing opportunity to begin to develope an industry.

You may note how Ottawa overlooked Saskatchewan in the budget; hence do you think any one is coming to diversify our economy any time soon.

Our go back to our forefathers where their taxes built my roads, the infrastructure I enjoy today, I figured maybe this generation could leave something for the future and that would be jobs, and plants and not the

WHAT DOES THIS DO FOR ME ATTITUDE
that this generation so abely embodies as witnessed by this dialogue.

Yes we would take some of this money that no one even knew they had and build something, obviously that something may be the funds to start a fertilizer plant, may be a canola crush/biodiesel plant/ may be a pasta
plant, may be someone in their kitchen making gourmet mustard, for GODS sake but it may just be SOMETHING.

However as amply noted
the IT IS NOT IN MY BACKYARD, and not on my DIME, and IT IS NOT ABOUT MY FARM is the mentality that prevaisl in this discussion. because in the big scheme of things it is just a dime..
there is not farm in the west today that will live or die if they do not get this money back because
1/ it was gone
2/ if we do not redirect it, it will stay with the WGRF
3/ YOU DID NOT EVEN KNOW YOU HAD IT!

I believe this fund presents an opportunity for this pool of farmers to create a fund to invest in agrivalue projects.

I am talking about a found pool of money that can achieve VALUE ADDED, LEAVING A CHANGED ECONOMY FOR THE FUTURE.

We travel the world and for a country that exports over 50% of every commodity we grow, we have little or no value added.

Perhaps all of you should attend a food show where every other country is exhibiting a maze of food products and Canadas stands are mostly whole grains.

Anyway if the best of the minds are on AGRIVILLE disucssing the future of our industry and you believe that the best use of this money is to send it back to the farmers, then please at the very least apply your energy to this.

Thank you for the discussion, it has been an eye opener.

[haveapulse]

I note, that the only that body NOT value adding helps is the railroad a target everyone can agree overcharges a captive customer. They thrive (very well I might add) shipping raw commdoties from farmers who are captive customers.

The only avenue to the global market is the railroad with raw commodities.
The only aveneue to change our dependance on raw commodities is to value add.

But ask yourself why since the demise of the CROW rate has this not happened?
Because as Parsley says the reality is many projects fail because they have insufficient capital to survive the start up years. This fund could provide a basis for patient capital to allow the business to get through the first 10 years of start up which are the most diffcult.

Ottawa helps industry to survive daily with our tax dollars, we could help ourself with this fund. No OTTAWA, NO PROVINCES just US. Like the NIKE slogan we could JUST DO IT.

We have an opportunity to do this with this pool of money, ourselves, directed by ourselves, for ourselves, but not for just for me.

There are Tides the affairs of men when taken...

[cottonpicken]

Haveapulse-have you ever changed your mind about anything?

Do you even listen to what other people say?

This is not a lot of money when divided out through western canada!

If you build some kind of value added plant it will only benefit a small localized area.

And then you SCREW the rest of us.

Why cant you get this through your head?

Start thinking how this will benefit everyone.

[parsley]

I don't have a problem with some other community having something I don't. If your community is rich, everyone benefits. If you drive a limousine,I have a chance at a night job.

What I do have a problem with is this:

Our businesses are excessively over-governed. Many of them function as a legislated entity. For example, the railroads, by law, legislated, are designated as "works for the general advantage of Canada. That is not free enterprise. The CWB is a government run legislated entity, as much as the farmers tell themselves they run it. This is not free enterprise. Have we not learned that mixed enterprises have not yielded profit for the farmgate?

Feed mills the same. See the pattern? All these companies influence the way the farmer does business, and profits.

Farmers aren't profitting, so maybe we should want to change the standard template that isn't working for farmers.


Promoting de-regulated, haveapulse. Not add a new "TigerLiy Ferilizer Plant" in Saskatchewan to the fray, that begins publically funded, is run by, and reports to goverernment.

He who pays, says.

Except farmer.Let's not do more of the same.

That's my point. Pars