Empowering Canadian Farmers in the Marketplace

[farmers_son]

Wayne Easter recently tabled his report which made recommendations for the future of agriculture in Canada. A must read for all producers in this country.

http://www.agr.gc.ca/cb/min/index_e.php?s1=agmin&s2=consult&page=rpt0705

[grassfarmer]

I'm impressed after reading that report - it feels like someone really understands the problems facing our industry. How this translates into an action plan remains to be seen. I think congratulations are due to Wayne Easter and to all the groups and individuals that took time to share their views and information in the drafting of this report.
I can't wait to see how this report is viewed by the other Agriville participants. So much rational analysis in there - and coming from a Liberal who was the President of the National Farmers Union for 11 years,LOL

[FarmRanger]

Is there really much analysis here? I see a whole bunch of suggestions that will supposedly help the producers if they are implemented, but what are the long term effects?
Supply management seems to be a sacred cow here, and we've seen mixed results from that. Personally, I think its pretty silly that the licence to milk a cow is worth more than the cow. How does that benefit the poor guy who has a mortgage on a piece of paper saying he can milk his cow.

Biodiesel and ethanol, I'd like to see a study that shows the cost effectiveness of these, but if it requires government subsidies to run in the black, wouldn't it be easier just to give those funds to the farmers, and cut out the middlemen?

I can't see much in the way of analysis here, looks like a lot of brainstorming without analysis to me.
Sorry to sound negative here, and I do appreciate people trying to come up with solutions, but maybe we should get past the brainstorming stage and into the analysis stage so we can move quickly to implementation of practical solutions that will help us in the long term.

[daretodiffer]

This is a very lite report full of truck sized generalizations such as " make it easier to hire seasonal workers" to " governments should get more involved in (fill in favourite issue here)". Wouldn't we all like to have someone else do it for us and let us know when we can get on with what we like to do. The recommendations seem to have "the gov't should do this" in almost every one. Not much about what individual farm businesses and industry sectors should do. Very clearly the report perpetuates the perspective that the government is the source of all leadership.

All in all a pretty empty bunch of notes reporting from many rural monday morning quarterbacks.

[cropduster]

Like your comments D to D!!Also interesting to see that the Bullmanure has dazzled the grassfarmer.(Thinking of the old saying `If you can`t dazzl`em with brilliance.Baffle`em with B.S.)Guess the `reds` just have to travel together!!!!Shouldn`t expect anything else.......almighty gov`t will solve all!!Is there a place on here where we can just go and PUKE!!

[cowman]

Well I personally believe Easter came up with some fairly good ideas, considering the kind of country/world we live in? However I doubt anything will ever come of this report...sort of a feel good do nothing type of report?
The whole purpose of this report is to promote the family farm and a fair return from the marketplace...and that has never been the goal of the federal government? Their real goal has always been cheap food and squeeze the peasants so the city slickers can have lots of money to blow on garbage(and taxes)?
People should never be too smug about being big "right wingers"? We're all on the government tit one way or the other. Might not be right but thats just how it is?

[FarmRanger]

Check this out.

http://www.grainscanada.gc.ca/newsroom/news_releases/2005/2005-07-29-e.htm

Highlight
"Changes resulting from WTO ruling
Two provisions and two subsections of the CGA have been repealed and will result in the following changes:

Paragraph 57(c) – Operators of licensed elevators will no longer have to seek the CGC’s authorization before receiving imported grain.
Paragraph 72(1)(a) and subsections 72(2) and (3) – Operators of licensed elevators will be able to mix grain of any grade with grain of any other grade, including imported grain, without the CGC’s authorization."

Doesn't this go against the rhetoric in Easter's report? Are we going to start getting more dumped U.S. and European grain, and how is that going to help us?

[grassfarmer]

Cowman, you say "The whole purpose of this report is to promote the family farm and a fair return from the marketplace...and that has never been the goal of the federal government?"
The first paragraph of the document states contradicts that by stating:
"The Government of Canada is committed to addressing the issue of continuing low farm incomes among primary producers. The Honourable Andy Mitchell, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food appointed Parliamentary Secretary, The Honourable Wayne Easter, in November 2004 to meet with farmers and to gather their input on what must be done to help them earn more from the marketplace."
Now if the Government stick to their word and act on this report we could have a breakthrough - this is a report favourable to primary producers and is now sitting on the Ag ministers desk. If producers and producer groups put some pressure on now this report may be acted on.

daretodiffer and cropduster, "Not much about what individual farm businesses and industry sectors should do."
What should primary beef producers in Western Canada do to improve their lot in your opinion?

[cowman]

grassfarmer: I have no doubt about Easters committment! And I'll even concede, maybe Mitchel might be committed(but I doubt it). The facts here are the "primary producer" is a nobody to the likes of Martin(and ilk)? A simple dumb peasant who just doesn't realize that he is expendable? Now if the government actually brought in policies that saw a rise in food values to even ,say 12% of the average income, what would be the result? Massive hysteria! Why we might have to downgrade the RV we were going to buy...those damned greedy farmers!
I would think you would have a better grasp of how cheap food is here compared to the UK? Now I will admit I have no clue what prices are there? My old mother occasionally travels abroad to the old country and she says prices are pretty steep! So give us a few ball park figures for the simple things...like a T-Bone, loaf of bread, liter of milk?
Also I wonder what kind of subsidies farmers over there are getting?

[grassfarmer]

I'm not up on current store prices in the UK but from what my parents observe when they visit us here beef bought in a rural Alberta store is about the same as rural Scotland but vastly cheaper than if it was bought in a large town or city superstore over there. In general of course food is a bit cheaper in Canada - the cost of living in general is cheaper, but wages are lower too.
I think it pretty much balances out - they certainly have a cheap food policy in Europe too when you measure income spent on food versus what it was even a generation ago. So the farmer's lot is not much different in Europe - the large subsidies are soon gobbled up between higher price inputs, higher land values and the cost of bureaucracy. The relatively higher prices in the stores don't result in any more profitability for producers because the profits are removed by the retailers and processors just as they are here.
One notable difference is that the "packer" sector in Europe doesn't have that much power - the retailers have a lot more which is the reverse of the scenario here. Slaughtering livestock in Europe is becoming a nightmare due to over zealous rules and in the UK is dominated by a few crooked Irish operators who somehow cut enough corners to stay ahead of the pack.
Wayne Easter realises that this income crisis facing primary producers is a world wide problem - did you note how the number of Brazilian producers had declined in recent years? And we think farmers are disappearing in Canada.

[grassfarmer]

I notice this thread has gone very quiet - no reply to my question from daretodiffer and cropduster, if you missed it i'll ask again. What should primary beef producers in Western Canada do to improve their lot in your opinion?
Have you any constructive input you would like to share with us? or do you limit yourselves to schoolyard taunts about what "colour" peoples politics are (which you often get wrong in any case)

[kpb]

grassfarmer, it's hilarious to hear any farmers on this board who are in any way connected with the beef industry talk like they are free enterprisers. Surely we all know that that was over once the first of many government subsidies went their way in the last few years.

So I'll assume that the posters who assumed you were some sort of pinko were grain farmers who've been out in the sun too long. On that basis I wouldn't take what they say seriously. It's pretty ridiculous to judge a man's political bent by a few comments on a board. And it's always the last resort of the narrow-minded to label and call names.

I agree with you that Easter's report has some good recommendations in it. But I also agree with cowman that the likelihood of anything concrete being done is low given that the government has no real, repeat real, interest in keeping the family farm alive. And certainly has a greater interest in keeping food costs low for the majority of the citizens of Canada who live in the cities.

Grassfarmer, could you clarify your comments for me about food costs in Scotland. Did you say that overall costs of living are lower in Scotland but so are the wages? But food costs in Canada are lower? I understand that farmers in Europe are heavily subsidized. How are the subsidies paid, if not through higher food costs? And are those subsidies, if not directly paid through higher food costs, factored in to the overall cost of the food (by adding, say, tax money paid to the farmers to the basic cost of the food).

thx,

kpb

[grassfarmer]

kpb, I realise Easter's report is by no means something the Government will automatically adopt as Ag policy. This is where we as producers should play our hand a bit smarter. For a start, as this report is favourable to all sectors of Canadian agriculture, I would like to see it being loudly applauded and promoted by every commodity group in the country. If we can raise awareness of this among producers, build some momentum and put it in front of the general public using the media we could increase pressure on the Government to implement the reports findings in formulating future ag policy. The Government only walks on you if you allow them to.

Regarding the Canada - Europe comparisons I was indicating that the cost of living and wages are higher in the UK than in Canada.
I wouldn't say that subsidies are paid through the higher cost of food - rather through a persons general taxation. There is however an on-going campaign to try to show that farmers are OK because they recieve subsidies which the consumer pays for through high food prices - not true!Essentially the subsidies are paid to make up the farmers cost of production defecit after he has been robbed by both input suppliers and retailers/processors at the other end.
A good parallel would be the calf set aside program run in Canada last year. Cow/calf producers had a serious income deficit and the industry a potential over supply of fat cattle at some point in the future. So they developed a scheme that was so full of holes (replacement heifers etc) that it ultimately was never going to alter the flow of fat cattle. So producers here got a substantial subsidy - where did the money come from? general reserves I guess - it certainly didn't cause retailers to raise prices of beef so that consumers would pay for the subsidy directly.
This is pretty much how subsidies work in Europe.
Since the 1980s they have been used to replace the income removed from the production chain by retailers, processors and input suppliers just as we have witnessed in the beef sector in Canada in recent times. I would argue that it isn't really the consumer that benefits through subsidised agriculture by way of cheap food as they have to pay for the subsidies as well. The people that are really benefitting from the subsidy are the processors and retailers who buy their inputs at well below the cost of production. I think this idea needs further developing as there may be a way to link producers and consumers politically as both are getting a bad deal under the current system. Working together we could maybe bring some pressure to bear on the true beneficiaries of both subsidised and unsubsidised(if there is such a thing) agriculture.

[kpb]

grassfarmer, your last paragraph addresses an issue that I was getting at with my previous questions. At the risk of being branded a commie by our farming friends, I think if we were able to show consumers here and abroad that they are basically funding the profits of the multi-national packers, processers and retailers when tax money is allocated to producers, we would go a long way down the road to fixing our problems.

As I see it the fundamental problem in agriculture everywhere is that producers do not own the means of processing and distributing their goods. As long as a middle-man controls the buying of the goods from the producers and the supplying of the goods to the consumer, both ends get screwed. A first step to rectifying this is to show the consumer, who has the political power, that he/she is getting used just as much as the producer.

kpb

[grassfarmer]

I believe the idea definitely has merit kpb. I think maybe in Canada it could happen as there seems to be a fairly strong tie to the land and rural roots (at least in western Canada). In Europe I think it is a lost cause - too often the largely urban consumer sees the farmer as their rich, landowning enemy. I think possibly they have been off the land for too long to have any affinaty or sympathy with ag producers.