Report of the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food

[parsley]

Here's a a Father's Day gift of valuable thought for Agri-ville readers:

"Men have been taught that the highest virtue is not to achieve, but
to give. Yet one cannot give that which has not been
created. Creation comes before distribution--or there will be
nothing to distribute. The need of the creator comes before the
need of any possible beneficiary. Yet we are taught to admire the
second-hander who dispenses gifts he has not produced
above the man who made the gifts possible. We praise an act of
charity. We shrug at an act of achievement." A.R.

Parsley

[AdamSmith]

thalpenny you wrote;

"So if an open market is what farmers want, they should be prepared to forefeit these items. But a dual market can not exist in a sustainable way. Ont. mills are saying they want the single desk, or an open market. This inbetween stuff is dysfunctional, and uncertain and not good for business."

My response to thalpenny would be that I have already forefeited those items because I have quit growing wheat and barley for the CWB. I am growing Winter Wheat, CPS Wheat and Feed Barley, all of which are destined for the domestic feed market. 99.99% of that decision was made because I didn't want to deal with the CWB at all. How many other farmers are making the same decisions? How many acres of land are becoming out of the CWB's reach? At what point in time will we hit that majic # when the CWB collapses under it's own weight? In my area this year I would bet that acres dedicated to CWB exclusive grains (CWRS,Durum,Malting Barley) would be between 20% and 30% of what would have been planted ten years ago. This is no exageration.

The point is this thalpenny, the CWB can play it's word games, it can stall for time and use all the old, tired and worn out scare tactics it wants but the reality is that the CWB must decide soon if it wants to exist as one of many or not at all.

The CWB must decide if it's prepared to be the best marketer it can be for those farmers who, by free choice, want to use it's services. Or whether it wants to remain defiant to the bitter end and wait for some kind and generous parlimentarian to put it out of it's misery.

The status quo is no longer sustainable. Either the CWB loses acres by giving up it's monopoly or the CWB loses acres because it refuses to.

AdamSmith

[parsley]

Want to read what the participants at the Standing Committee actually said? Copy and paste this in your Location box:
http://www.parl.gc.ca/InfoComDoc/37/1/AGRI/Meetings/Evidence/agriev73-e.htm

Parsley