Hey Tom4CWB, I can cut and paste too.
Mb farmers are highly diversified. From the RR valley, west to the Brandon, they produce crops varying from Potatoes, carrots, onions, many edible bean types, hemp, peas, sunflowers, forages, perenial and annual grass seed, export Alfalfa hay and seed, soybeans, peas, canaryseed, winter wheat, spring wheat, oats, flax, barley des barely, canola, and more. They have lots of processing capacity(i.e. Can Oats, wheat millers, Canola crushing, pulse processing, mega hog farms, beef, etc).
If you look at the stats Can figures, they are some of the most diversified farmers in W. Canada, and most profitable.
But why do they still support the CWB, afterall, they are experienced marketers. They market many non-board products. Why would they support the CWB, when they have the cheapest freight costs to the Minneapolis and Chicago milling markets. They produce 14.0 -16.0 protein wheat most years (with fusarium levels within US tolerance levels). They have the lowest Seaway costs to Latin America, the EU, Africa, etc.
Why do these farmer continue to subsidize Saskatchewan and N. Alberta wheat farmers, via the CWB wheat pool returns?
Could they know something we dont?
***********************************
WINNIPEG (CP) — Manitoba farmers have voiced clear support for the Canadian Wheat Board’s monopoly on wheat and barley sales in a symbolic plebiscite dismissed by the federal agriculture minister as a waste of money.
About 70 per cent of farmers who cast ballots in the Manitoba government’s vote said they want to keep the status quo on wheat. The support for the barley monopoly was 62 per cent.
Provincial Agriculture Minister Rosann Wowchuk said Tuesday the results send a clear message to the federal government.
“I would say to the government they should have their wheat and barley vote just as we did, and they have to quit being ideologically driven and acting like dictators and really listen to producers,” said Wowchuk.
The province held its own referendum because federal Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl said he would hold a barley plebiscite, but wouldn’t commit to having a vote on wheat.
Strahl confirmed Tuesday he will hold a wheat plebiscite when the government is closer to allowing marketing choice for that grain. Right now, his priority is allowing an open barley market.
Barley farmers will vote in the federal government’s plebiscite between Jan. 31 and March 6.
“It’s a shame, really, that Manitoba proceeded with this, a waste of farmers’ and taxpayers’ money,” said Strahl.
“We’re going to have a plebiscite, it’s going to be a fair question with as big a list of producers as we can get. That’s the vote that matters because this is federal jurisdiction.”
Wheat board chairman Ken Ritter said he was pleased with the results.
He noted the response rate of 65 per cent was well above the 40 to 50 per cent rate for the board’s director elections in recent years.
“Every time you have a vote on a clear question like this one was and you get farmers in these numbers voting for a position that supports the board’s single desk. The government should take notice, and I’m quite sure they will,” said Ritter.
However, farm groups who support the federal government’s plans urged Strahl to stay the course.
Joe Janzen, a Manitoba farmer and vice president of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers, says farmers who want an open market shouldn’t be ignored.
“This (Manitoba) government clings to their standard of democracy, but they can’t take away the fact that there are a significant number of farmers whose freedoms are being denied,” said Janzen, who grows wheat, canola and oats in St. Francois-Xavier, just west of Winnipeg.
Janzen also took issue with the wording of the Manitoba question, which asked farmers if they wished to “maintain the ability” to market wheat and barley through the board’s single desk system, or if they wanted to “remove the single desk marketing system from the Canadian Wheat Board and sell all barley (and wheat) through an open market system.”
Janzen said farmers were not told there could still be a voluntary wheat board within an open market.
Strahl has suggested this is the option he favours, but wheat board directors, executives and other supporters say an open market would effectively kill the wheat board because it would be at a disadvantage trying to compete with multinational grain companies.
A total of 11,371 farmers were eligible to vote in the plebiscite.
Meanwhile, the board suffered a setback Tuesday in its bid to have a Federal Court judge fast-track its challenge of a government gag order.
Justice Yves de Montigny refused to consider the issue urgent. His decision means the case won’t be heard before the federal barley plebiscite.
Last October, the federal cabinet issued an order preventing the wheat board from spending money to advocate to keep its monopoly on wheat and barley sales.
Board lawyers argued Monday that staff and elected directors can’t properly inform farmers about the plebiscite for fear of violating the order.
But de Montigny agreed with government lawyer Steve Vincent that if the issue was really urgent, the board should not have waited until December to try to challenge the order.
Wheat board lawyer Jim McLandress said the order is so vague that it’s unclear how to define what is just doing your job and what is advocacy.
“You end up with a lot of misinformation coming out and it’s difficult to constantly be reactive to correcting the record all the time,” said McLandress.
“Lots of people have an opinion and people love to throw out things as fact when often times they’re just plain wrong, so the difficulty we’re going to have is that we’re always going to have to play catch up.”
But Strahl said employees and directors are free to voice their support for the monopoly as individuals, as long as the board doesn’t spend farmers’ money to do it or interfere in the plebiscite.
© Canadian Press 2007
Mb farmers are highly diversified. From the RR valley, west to the Brandon, they produce crops varying from Potatoes, carrots, onions, many edible bean types, hemp, peas, sunflowers, forages, perenial and annual grass seed, export Alfalfa hay and seed, soybeans, peas, canaryseed, winter wheat, spring wheat, oats, flax, barley des barely, canola, and more. They have lots of processing capacity(i.e. Can Oats, wheat millers, Canola crushing, pulse processing, mega hog farms, beef, etc).
If you look at the stats Can figures, they are some of the most diversified farmers in W. Canada, and most profitable.
But why do they still support the CWB, afterall, they are experienced marketers. They market many non-board products. Why would they support the CWB, when they have the cheapest freight costs to the Minneapolis and Chicago milling markets. They produce 14.0 -16.0 protein wheat most years (with fusarium levels within US tolerance levels). They have the lowest Seaway costs to Latin America, the EU, Africa, etc.
Why do these farmer continue to subsidize Saskatchewan and N. Alberta wheat farmers, via the CWB wheat pool returns?
Could they know something we dont?
***********************************
WINNIPEG (CP) — Manitoba farmers have voiced clear support for the Canadian Wheat Board’s monopoly on wheat and barley sales in a symbolic plebiscite dismissed by the federal agriculture minister as a waste of money.
About 70 per cent of farmers who cast ballots in the Manitoba government’s vote said they want to keep the status quo on wheat. The support for the barley monopoly was 62 per cent.
Provincial Agriculture Minister Rosann Wowchuk said Tuesday the results send a clear message to the federal government.
“I would say to the government they should have their wheat and barley vote just as we did, and they have to quit being ideologically driven and acting like dictators and really listen to producers,” said Wowchuk.
The province held its own referendum because federal Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl said he would hold a barley plebiscite, but wouldn’t commit to having a vote on wheat.
Strahl confirmed Tuesday he will hold a wheat plebiscite when the government is closer to allowing marketing choice for that grain. Right now, his priority is allowing an open barley market.
Barley farmers will vote in the federal government’s plebiscite between Jan. 31 and March 6.
“It’s a shame, really, that Manitoba proceeded with this, a waste of farmers’ and taxpayers’ money,” said Strahl.
“We’re going to have a plebiscite, it’s going to be a fair question with as big a list of producers as we can get. That’s the vote that matters because this is federal jurisdiction.”
Wheat board chairman Ken Ritter said he was pleased with the results.
He noted the response rate of 65 per cent was well above the 40 to 50 per cent rate for the board’s director elections in recent years.
“Every time you have a vote on a clear question like this one was and you get farmers in these numbers voting for a position that supports the board’s single desk. The government should take notice, and I’m quite sure they will,” said Ritter.
However, farm groups who support the federal government’s plans urged Strahl to stay the course.
Joe Janzen, a Manitoba farmer and vice president of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers, says farmers who want an open market shouldn’t be ignored.
“This (Manitoba) government clings to their standard of democracy, but they can’t take away the fact that there are a significant number of farmers whose freedoms are being denied,” said Janzen, who grows wheat, canola and oats in St. Francois-Xavier, just west of Winnipeg.
Janzen also took issue with the wording of the Manitoba question, which asked farmers if they wished to “maintain the ability” to market wheat and barley through the board’s single desk system, or if they wanted to “remove the single desk marketing system from the Canadian Wheat Board and sell all barley (and wheat) through an open market system.”
Janzen said farmers were not told there could still be a voluntary wheat board within an open market.
Strahl has suggested this is the option he favours, but wheat board directors, executives and other supporters say an open market would effectively kill the wheat board because it would be at a disadvantage trying to compete with multinational grain companies.
A total of 11,371 farmers were eligible to vote in the plebiscite.
Meanwhile, the board suffered a setback Tuesday in its bid to have a Federal Court judge fast-track its challenge of a government gag order.
Justice Yves de Montigny refused to consider the issue urgent. His decision means the case won’t be heard before the federal barley plebiscite.
Last October, the federal cabinet issued an order preventing the wheat board from spending money to advocate to keep its monopoly on wheat and barley sales.
Board lawyers argued Monday that staff and elected directors can’t properly inform farmers about the plebiscite for fear of violating the order.
But de Montigny agreed with government lawyer Steve Vincent that if the issue was really urgent, the board should not have waited until December to try to challenge the order.
Wheat board lawyer Jim McLandress said the order is so vague that it’s unclear how to define what is just doing your job and what is advocacy.
“You end up with a lot of misinformation coming out and it’s difficult to constantly be reactive to correcting the record all the time,” said McLandress.
“Lots of people have an opinion and people love to throw out things as fact when often times they’re just plain wrong, so the difficulty we’re going to have is that we’re always going to have to play catch up.”
But Strahl said employees and directors are free to voice their support for the monopoly as individuals, as long as the board doesn’t spend farmers’ money to do it or interfere in the plebiscite.
© Canadian Press 2007
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