Strahl to Resign?

[wilagro]

snappy: I wonder why bennyhin's message was pulled? Who complained?

[tower]

Tom4cwb, over the years I've seen a lot of different marketing options come and go, most have been nothing more than really short term economic development. A handful of people close to the project make a bundle during development and then they move on leaving infrastructure to rust and farmers holding the bills. Ethanol might prove to be the real thing pretty quickly but I don't see how that negates the assistance that farmers get from the wheat board. If ADM controls the production facilities in the future, and they already do, this doesn't improve marketing choice.

Would you define value chain for me?

[wilagro]

snappy: After looking back in my browser 'history', I see that a whole bunch of messages were either deleted and/or juxtiposed in this thread. Most likely a problem with database corruption.

Could be wrong...but it wouldn't be the first time...or last.

[TOM4CWB]

Tower,

I define a good value chain, as one that pays a fair farm gate price, under normal conditions returns the cost of production; plus a reasonable return on investment.

We deal in many Canola IP contracts; I see many of the new Malt contracts that paid over $4/bu; feed barley contracts that supposed to pay $3.60/bu or more with delivery off the combine, often these have had TRUE Act of God clauses where production risk is actually shared within the Value Chain.

In our seed production marketing these are targets we aim to fill as well, with marketers taking reasonable margins like 5% on wholesale and 10% on retail sales with full disclosure of the value chain and full pooling of produce within the chain members.

These kind of principals are acheivable with honest entities that have integrety.

Members in "Fair Trade Grain" Value Chains we have done these type of contracts with include but are not limited to:
Alberta Wheat Pool,
Agricore United,
Bunge,
Canadian National Railway,
Cargill,
Galloway Seeds,
Louis Dreyfus,
Prairie Seeds,
Pioneer,
SWP.

I list these in alphabetical order, not in order of who is the best member.

At times the CWB has even participated in our Value Chains, sadly they more often spoil them than help make them work well; because of inflexibility and management lack of understanding and respect for value chain members.

I spend days working with them, and CWB upper middle managers are not team players.

However it is possible to respect and have a viable profitable business in many cases: excluding the CWB wherever possible because they are so unreliable.

IMHO Minister Strahl is simply trying to get the CWB to become responsible members of our grain industry.

[wd9]

ProFarmer, you can't fire an elected director on a board. No judge required to challenge that law. He was doing his job protecting the interests of the corporation. For him not to do it would be reason for litigation and dismissal. Whether farmers are better off is irrelevant - board policy rules.

[tower]

Tom4cwb,tell me more about fair trade grains. It's a concept that i like and would be interested in how it might work given north American attitudes about necessities like food.

How could the Wheat board be a part of this kind of venture?

[ProFarmer]

if we can't fire Ritter send him over to Afganistain or Iraq . He has made my last 2 days a living hell.

[TOM4CWB]

Tower,

1. On ""Canada #1 Certified" Fair Trade Grain, for a start, the CWB could issue no-cost export licenses for "Designated Area" growers that create a market for their grain Above CWB offering prices... which return value chain participants reasonable value and profit.

2. The CWB itself could seek growers who are interested in working with industry partners, and who would supply end users with high quality grain at a fair price. We could Brand this as ""Canada #1 Certified" Fair Trade Grain", and the end user would then be entitled to use this Brand in marketing the product their value chain was producing. This would be a tracable IP origin product, with a number the consumer could look up our farm name/produce origin and picture avaliable on our "FairTradeGrain.ca" web site.

3. For Produce the CWB finds "FairTradeGrain" value chain markets that are developed and maintained by the CWB itself, it would then be allowed to charge a fair price for this service and be a "FairTradeGrain" initiator and sell this grain also as "Certified" "FairTradeGrain" Produce. If a Canadian "Designated Area" grower finds the CWB has used "Preditory" pricing practices, We will run an Arbitration Service that has the right to revolk the "Certified" "FairTradeGrain" brand, or conversely the CWB could call for arbitration if a Value Chain in the "Designated Area" had breached our codes.

I have registered FAIRTRADEGRAIN.ca and FAIRTRADEGRAIN.com.

I would be willing to work with the CWB to set this project up, if they will agree to this Criteria and agree to abide by our CANADIANGRAINSGROUP.com pledge. I will work directly with our Canadian Government to get the Right Honourable PM Harpers blessing on this produce, once the CWB has entered into a contract, with us, to agree to this market discipline tool to create value for "Designated Area" grain growers.

If you are willing to help with this project Tower, and willing to live up to the Pledge Canadiangrainsgroup.com stands by, I would welcome you to apply our group for a membership.

Sign our Guest Book, and lets see what we can create together!

[TOM4CWB]

Tower,

Call your local CWB Director, and ask for them to support Tom4cwb as President!

[tower]

Tom4cwb, I had a quick look at some of your suggested companies and found no sign of willingness to comply with any of your criteria, admirable as they are. I also looked for fairtradegrain sites and found nothing yet.

I gather you are trying to set this up and I'd be happy to see companies giving full disclosure of their share of the value chain, but I don't really see this happening for the majority of the companies you've listed.