ABP Zone 6 Fall Producer Meetings

[rkaiser]

My lasting impression came after you left grassfarmer. Tony S, the CCA rep for CFIA made a little speech and asked for questions at the end. He took the opportunity to slam BIG C by stating that he wouldn't answer any questions from any BIG C members as they only wanted to abolish the CCA and ABP and fire all the leadership. I tried to ask if he had read the rest of the letter from Cam, but was put in my seat by the chairwoman.

Funny how so called leaders like this show their defensive underbelly with smart assed public comments trying to run down any opposition.

The other CCA fellow caught me at the door and challenged the testing issue by saying that Cargill and Tyson have already almost filled the needs of Japan with age verified cattle let alone going the extra nine yards and testing them. My comment was that he may have answered his own question. Maybe the Japanese government has bent over to the Packer led USDA bully, but the Japanese consumer has not.

Thus time for the question that could end the argument once and for all.

Mr. Japanese consumer Sir, would you accept our beef if it were tested for BSE to your standards.

[grassfarmer]

Sorry to miss that exciting part rkaiser but had to get ready to deliver beef to Calgary tomorrow - what a jackass eh? can't quite keep their arrogant side hidden sometimes. Thanks by the way to Pandiana for organising the meeting, shame you were so poorly rewarded by producers attendence.

[rkaiser]

We passed one more resolution that grassfarmer forgot.

That ABP move forward to change the grading system for cull cows to reflect the carcass value.

And yes thank you to pandiana and the other ABP members who made the meeting worth while attending. Nice lunch!!!

[coppertop]

Sorry I was away, I had planned on attending but business travel forced a change in my day. Thanks to the organizers, plus thanks to grassfarmer and randy for ensuring that ABP was reminded they are supposed to represent producers. Too bad they didn't have the decency to allow your question randy, obviously an organization that picks and chooses who they answer to aren't really representing the best interest of the industry.

[farmers_son]

Interesting thread. It is my impression that attendance at the ABP meetings is down this year and, at least in some zones, producers did not even bother to put forward any resolutions.

I think it is important to note that ABP policy is no longer guided by resolutions that come forward at the fall meetings. The ABP structure has changed in the past years and the ABP board now has a number of directors who come from the Cattle Industry Council as well as Cattle Feeder directors. These two groups form their own policy internally and then bring it to the board. They do not intend to be bound by resolutions that come from the country, i.e. cow calf producers, even if those resolutions were to be passed at the Annual General Meeting or as most are, debated at the lower committee level.

The ABP has changed from a one producer one vote organization to a one checkoff dollar one vote organization. While I am heartened to see producers who still have enough spirit to attend the meetings and bring forward resolutions I think all producers need to be realistic about the influence those resolutions will have on ABP policy today. Ten years ago resolutions from the fall meetings did set the course of what was then the Alberta Cattle Commission. I think today even if a resolution was passed at a fall meeting and had enough support to be passed at the AGM, or worse in committee, that the resolutions would not form ABP policy if it did not have the support of the Cattle Feeders and Industry Council.

If Tony S. let Rkaiser know he was not going to listen to him, well Tony was just telling it like it is.

[coppertop]

If enough producers feel strongly enough about the lack of attention paid to resolutions, or issues raised at zone meetings, perhaps now is an opportune time to attend a leadership forum and ask the candidates for the premier's job how aware they are about the way the average producer is represented. As has been said before on this site, the provincial government feels that ABP speaks for the cattle industry. When ABP holds it's Red Meat reception every year, the average rank and file producer is nowhere to be seen, but the venue is crawling with MLA's and ABP board members etc., so not much wonder the government feels that those folks are the voice of the industry.

With more and more people getting out of the cattle business and less attendance and participation in ABP zone meetings one has to wonder how long it will be before the only avenue for input will be the annual beef conference which is open to everyone that wants to spend the money to register. I don't want to sound critical of ABP directors that have gotten involved for all the right reasons and are doing everything they can to represent their fellow producers, because there are certainly those that are working hard for the industry.