Farmer organizations

[cakadu]

Just a cautionary note before we all jump onto the supply management bandwagon. It will ONLY work if it maintains domestic supply. You cannot get into the export market and maintain the artifical costs of supply managed commodities as you have to compete with the lower costs producers. If you take a look at the dairy industry, for example, the guys on the export side of things are having a far tougher go of it because they have to compete with countries like New Zealand who are the lowest cost producers of milk. Having said that though, I feel that if they want to protect the domestic supply, then they have no business trying to play in the export market as well. You can't have your cake with the milk too.

Supply mangement was essentially brought in to protect the "family farm" and make sure that the little guy had a chance to survive. That is no longer the case as the smaller farms are slowly being gobbled up by the larger as the larger farms are the only ones who can afford to keep buying quota. Where you could once make a living (in the West - out in Quebec where supply management is the most concentrated, therefore it is a different story) with a 40 to 60 cow dairy, you can no longer do that and you have to have around 100 cows plus in order to derive most of your income from the farm.

As consumers, we are helping to keep the supply management guys going because their costs of production are built right into the costs that are passed along to us. If they had to deal with world prices, our dairy, chicken and eggs would be considerably lower.

Supply management sets up artificial barriers to entry because of the high quota costs and capital costs to get going. It also does not allow for too much in the way of exit strategies because who can afford to buy existing operations without going so far in to debt you will likely never see daylight. I know of one fellow who sold his operation for $9 million. How many can pull together those kind of capital resources.

Of course, sitting on the other side of the fence, that makes a handy little retirement fund. (Rumor is he did put it into buffalo, so who knows how much he'll end up with).

There are problems in supply management too. We just don't happen to hear about them and they certainly don't want the average person to hear about their pricing formulas etc. There was a great paper written by Owen Lippert of the Fraser Institute called "Milk - a perfect food, a perfect mess" which helps to explain a lot.

The grass always looks greener!

[Deb]

No, no, Pandiana, I meant lets go BACK to what the United Farmers stood for. The present UFA are only a tiny shadow of what the United Farmers used to be.

[cakadu]

This article appeared in today's edition of the New York Times. Seems like things are tough all over.

KANSAS CITY, Mo., April 10
(Bloomberg News) — Farmland
Industries Inc., the nation's largest farm
cooperative, said today that its loss had
widened in its most recent quarter.

The cooperative, based in Kansas City, had
a loss of $50 million in the three months
ended Feb. 28, compared with a loss of
$1.3 million a year earlier, a spokeswoman,
Sherlyn Manson, said. Sales in the quarter,
the second of its fiscal year, fell 33 percent,
to $1.6 billion.

A surplus of cheap fertilizer and the rising
cost of oil compounded weaker demand for
the seeds, pesticides and fuel that Farmland
sells to its 600,000 members, analysts said.

Farmland's chief executive, Robert Honse, said the co-op had hoped for strong fertilizer sales this spring. Instead, he said, reduced demand because of the drought in the wheat fields had led to significant losses.

Farmland's fertilizer business had a loss of $35.9 million, compared with a loss of $3.2 million a year earlier.

[cowman]

Linda: You are exactly right about the export thing. Once again I reiterate" supply management got a bad name because the government ran it". Supply management, as envisioned by the federal government, was really set up to secure a stable supply for "big food". And while the marketing boards can set the price for the raw product they do not set the price in the grocery store! So if Safeway wants to make a 40% profit, it doesn't really matter what the price for raw milk, chickens, eggs etc. is...they just add 40%! This is one of the reasons that food is fairly high while the farmer gets so little! It is the processer/retailer(often the same owner) that rakes in the money. They squeeze the farmer and they squeeze the consumer. A good book(although an old one) is "The Politics of Food" by Don Mitchel. Tells you pretty clearly how the food corporations and the federal government have conspired to rip off the farmer, worker and consumer!

[Steve]

Who is this Government bad guy? Do you think a large number of warlords could run the country better, or what do you propose?

[ianben]

Goodness I could have written some of these threads myself.
I think supply management has to be global and done without fixed quotas which gain a value.
I think it should be done by each countries farmers having recomended price related to the wealth and buying power of their consumers as well as cost of production. Imports are only allowed over this price. We still all compete on service and quality but do not wreck each others markets by undercuting price.
The internet would be the source of this information we are all able to access it one way or another.
This is the way the global giants work different prices in different countries for the exact same product based on the competion and the ability to pay.
I think if we want to survive we have to find a way to do it too.
Governments cant do it for us and cannot be blamed for trying or not as the case may be.
Farmers are the problem and only farmers have the solution!!!!

[cowman]

Steve: You ask "who is this government bad guy?"
"he" is the "guys" who ripped Alberta off for 100 billion through the NEP. Who continues to extract 7 billion more a year than they put back in. Who subsidize Bombardier for billions but can't help the western grain farmer. Who rents blocks of office buildings(owned by Liberal hacks) in Hull, Quebec that sit empty. Who steals our gasoline taxes and spends it down east. Who uses swat teams to arrest our farmers for selling their grain. Who continues to extract about 70% of the revenue of our people.
Who have taken away our basic rights and freedoms and mollycoddled the criminals.
Is that enough for you? I guess we could fill a book about these "guys".
Would you rather no one complained about these rascals? Sort of bury our heads in the sand and pretend they are such nice fellows? What this country needs is some accountability from its politicians, not some fantasy that they are "honorable" men. If you believe that you need to educate yourself!

[ValueChainFX]

Well cowman you always work best with your hair on the back of your neck standing up. But I must agree with you, we are having our challenges with a government out of touch, however, all we can do is try to leave our own legacy behind in changing the things we can and if that means building a new system then we best get started now! Keep in mind that the government of Canada does have some good people (most of the time they hire them then tell them not to give us information) and in a big company it is easier to manipulate the government. But so far they have not built a wall in Canada, or started shooting people in the streets. So now all we have to do is figure out how to make a living with what they do not take away! Cowman you are a very knowledgeable person, I am sure you could be a leader in our new movement??

[cowman]

HAHAHAHA! That is the best joke I've heard all day! Sorry, I'm just one of the indians...have no desire to make chief!
Actually once I got elected to my local recreation board. I went in all gung-ho, going to change the world sort of thing. Found out that most of the people were idiots more interested in coffeeing and talking themselves to death than actually doing anything. I plowed along for awhile and then told them all to go to hell and quit!! That was the end of my "public life".

[cakadu]

The CFA is comprised of member organizations, of which Wild Rose is a part and it has a number of the supply managed sectors in it as well. There are no individual memberships to the CFA and the organization relies on the members to get information disseminated. I had opportunity as part of my Canadian Agriculture Lifetime Leadership (CALL) group to meet with both the American Farm Bureau and the CFA. It was an interesting experience and pointed out some very big differences between the two groups both organizationally and from a power standpoint.

Perhaps apathy has arisen in many of our farm organizations because it appears as though not much is being accomplished. Why bother when things aren't going to change. If you want changes to occur, you have to get involved. We can't just keep going out and saying what's wrong, we also have to be prepared to give solutions and "give us more money and leave us alone" is one of them, but is it the best one?

What would it take to make Wild Rose more productive and effective, for example?