Look at the year...
QUOTE
norganic wheat board
By avoiding the Canadian Wheat Board and selling their own organic
wheat, Western grain farmers could earn more, while taxpayers saved millions
Carol Husband
Financial Post
Thursday, March 04, 2004
ADVERTISEMENT
Kirk and Ila Torkelson farm organically at Beaubier, Saskatchewan, and like all businesses, it's challenging. In Nov. 2002, two truckloads of Torkelson's wheat headed south for the American organic market.
He needed the sale.
If Torkelson lived in Ontario, he would have been granted the required Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) export license, but CWB policy denies licences to Western farmers. CWB policymakers use their licensing division to funnel grain into the CWB's Marketing Division, where it is pooled.
For Torkelson to legally cross customs, he needed to sell both loads of his wheat to the CWB and then, be damned, buy back the same two loads of
his own wheat from the CWB, coughing up a tidy $1,430 payout to it in
the process.
The CWB legislation, itself, doesn't specify this buyback requirement
for getting a permit, but the CWB bureaucrats do.
By having to sell his grain to the CWB, Torkelson was automatically plunked into the conventional CWB system, one which eats up Western organic farmers' profits, gives them a price based on a formula meaningless to organic farmers, and prevents them from competing with their Eastern
counterparts on a level playing field.
Out West, organic farmers want to be added to the CWB's privileged licensing list, which includes Eastern growers, kamut wheat growers, big
corporate feed mills, seed growers and others.
Each is automatically granted export licences, each bypasses CWB marketing and pooling, each downloads its licensing costs on the West and each puts the cash in its own pocket.
Adding organics to the privileged list is logical because the CWB can't even market organic grain since global organic markets require the CWB seller to be certified organic, which it is not.
The CWB was so confident in its selling ability during the 2002 bullish grain market that it actually predicted, in writing, that the CWB's
payment system should get Torkelson what amounted to a preliminary $8,900 payment at the end of the crop year.
The CWB's communication's
machine -- a $2-million farmer-funded operation -- was in full gear in every media outlet and farmers were inundated with the likes of CWB
analyst Peter Watt, boasting, "... the wheat board is in the driver's seat in terms of where we market the grain, when we market the grain and what price level we market the grain."
Prices were high and grain seemed scarce as CWB elections appeared on a
sunny horizon.
But the CWB pulled out of the hot market.
It should have spent more time marketing and less time going to Liberal fundraisers with tickets paid for by farmers, because the market dived and the board ended up selling into a falling market and swallowing a huge deficit, but not before it took a bite out of Torkelson.
Thirteen months after his buyback, Torkelson received a second dun, or
demand for money, from the CWB for $4,630, increasing his buyback cost
to $6,060, or 30% of the gross income from his sale, with the only service being rendered was to issue an export licence.
When his plight became public, the CWB claimed it was Torkelson's own
fault.
The CWB's organic marketing specialist (who doesn't market organic grain nor do organic farmers want him to), went after Torkelson in the Western Producer newspaper saying: "It appears that he wasn't following the pool return outlook and he wasn't keeping abreast of what the market was doing. If he had done that, he would have been more aware."
There was absolutely nothing Torkelson could have done. He had done business according to the CWB's terms.
The CWB's actions highlight the pitfalls of dealing with this government agency.
First, you can't trust the CWB's figures and projections to determine whether the buyback is affordable -- the second dun proved just how bogus the CWB's own figures can be. Second, although CWB experts stopped selling during a bullish market and although CWB profits turned so sour that the CWB ended up begging the federal government for $85-million of taxpayer's money, Torkelson -- the managing expert on his farm -- knew enough to sell into his niche organic market when prices were high; third, it reflects the CWB's attempt to download the blame for their lacklustre selling on to the backs of farmers who are critical.
Torkelson wasn't alone in suffering at the CWB's hands.
Organic producer Cyril Stott of Brandon, for example, calculated that he lost $13,500 from his 2002 crop in the bottomless-buyback-hole.
These kinds of losses happen all the time in organics, but you don't hear about them.
No less important, but often overlooked, are the organic sales that are actually lost.
Dwayne McGregor farms in Chaplan Sask., and he blames the CWB's high buyback as a contributing factor behind his lost sale to Japan.
Arnold Schmidt near Maple Creek lost his sale to the U.S. because
of the CWB.
Even though organic buybacks are gouging profits, strangling Prairie
sales and stopping contracting, the CWB continues to withhold licences.
Eastern Canadians and other countries then seize the Western farmers'
lost economic opportunities.
Most CWB directors refuse to acknowledge the disadvantage that Western organics face.
The truth is clear to others, including the Western Barley Growers, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, the Standing Committee of Agriculture and Agri-food, Agri-core United and the Grain Growers of Canada.
All have adopted policies supporting marketing choice for farmers.
The Alberta government is also firm in its stance for equal marketing choice opportunities. Economic hurt is embodied in Western alienation, and until each Westerner has the same economic opportunities that Easterners enjoy, resentment will grow.
Is there a solution? Yes.
Organic farmers have provided the CWB with an instant, no-cost solution. The CWB could simply grant export licences to Western organic farmers, the same as it already does for Eastern farmers
and others.
No changes in the legislation are required.
Carol Husband is an organic farmer in Wawota, Sask., and a member of
Organic Special Products Group, a voluntary, self-funded association of
organic grain producers that advocates marketing choice for farmers. © National Post 2004
UNQUOTE
Parsley
QUOTE
norganic wheat board
By avoiding the Canadian Wheat Board and selling their own organic
wheat, Western grain farmers could earn more, while taxpayers saved millions
Carol Husband
Financial Post
Thursday, March 04, 2004
ADVERTISEMENT
Kirk and Ila Torkelson farm organically at Beaubier, Saskatchewan, and like all businesses, it's challenging. In Nov. 2002, two truckloads of Torkelson's wheat headed south for the American organic market.
He needed the sale.
If Torkelson lived in Ontario, he would have been granted the required Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) export license, but CWB policy denies licences to Western farmers. CWB policymakers use their licensing division to funnel grain into the CWB's Marketing Division, where it is pooled.
For Torkelson to legally cross customs, he needed to sell both loads of his wheat to the CWB and then, be damned, buy back the same two loads of
his own wheat from the CWB, coughing up a tidy $1,430 payout to it in
the process.
The CWB legislation, itself, doesn't specify this buyback requirement
for getting a permit, but the CWB bureaucrats do.
By having to sell his grain to the CWB, Torkelson was automatically plunked into the conventional CWB system, one which eats up Western organic farmers' profits, gives them a price based on a formula meaningless to organic farmers, and prevents them from competing with their Eastern
counterparts on a level playing field.
Out West, organic farmers want to be added to the CWB's privileged licensing list, which includes Eastern growers, kamut wheat growers, big
corporate feed mills, seed growers and others.
Each is automatically granted export licences, each bypasses CWB marketing and pooling, each downloads its licensing costs on the West and each puts the cash in its own pocket.
Adding organics to the privileged list is logical because the CWB can't even market organic grain since global organic markets require the CWB seller to be certified organic, which it is not.
The CWB was so confident in its selling ability during the 2002 bullish grain market that it actually predicted, in writing, that the CWB's
payment system should get Torkelson what amounted to a preliminary $8,900 payment at the end of the crop year.
The CWB's communication's
machine -- a $2-million farmer-funded operation -- was in full gear in every media outlet and farmers were inundated with the likes of CWB
analyst Peter Watt, boasting, "... the wheat board is in the driver's seat in terms of where we market the grain, when we market the grain and what price level we market the grain."
Prices were high and grain seemed scarce as CWB elections appeared on a
sunny horizon.
But the CWB pulled out of the hot market.
It should have spent more time marketing and less time going to Liberal fundraisers with tickets paid for by farmers, because the market dived and the board ended up selling into a falling market and swallowing a huge deficit, but not before it took a bite out of Torkelson.
Thirteen months after his buyback, Torkelson received a second dun, or
demand for money, from the CWB for $4,630, increasing his buyback cost
to $6,060, or 30% of the gross income from his sale, with the only service being rendered was to issue an export licence.
When his plight became public, the CWB claimed it was Torkelson's own
fault.
The CWB's organic marketing specialist (who doesn't market organic grain nor do organic farmers want him to), went after Torkelson in the Western Producer newspaper saying: "It appears that he wasn't following the pool return outlook and he wasn't keeping abreast of what the market was doing. If he had done that, he would have been more aware."
There was absolutely nothing Torkelson could have done. He had done business according to the CWB's terms.
The CWB's actions highlight the pitfalls of dealing with this government agency.
First, you can't trust the CWB's figures and projections to determine whether the buyback is affordable -- the second dun proved just how bogus the CWB's own figures can be. Second, although CWB experts stopped selling during a bullish market and although CWB profits turned so sour that the CWB ended up begging the federal government for $85-million of taxpayer's money, Torkelson -- the managing expert on his farm -- knew enough to sell into his niche organic market when prices were high; third, it reflects the CWB's attempt to download the blame for their lacklustre selling on to the backs of farmers who are critical.
Torkelson wasn't alone in suffering at the CWB's hands.
Organic producer Cyril Stott of Brandon, for example, calculated that he lost $13,500 from his 2002 crop in the bottomless-buyback-hole.
These kinds of losses happen all the time in organics, but you don't hear about them.
No less important, but often overlooked, are the organic sales that are actually lost.
Dwayne McGregor farms in Chaplan Sask., and he blames the CWB's high buyback as a contributing factor behind his lost sale to Japan.
Arnold Schmidt near Maple Creek lost his sale to the U.S. because
of the CWB.
Even though organic buybacks are gouging profits, strangling Prairie
sales and stopping contracting, the CWB continues to withhold licences.
Eastern Canadians and other countries then seize the Western farmers'
lost economic opportunities.
Most CWB directors refuse to acknowledge the disadvantage that Western organics face.
The truth is clear to others, including the Western Barley Growers, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, the Standing Committee of Agriculture and Agri-food, Agri-core United and the Grain Growers of Canada.
All have adopted policies supporting marketing choice for farmers.
The Alberta government is also firm in its stance for equal marketing choice opportunities. Economic hurt is embodied in Western alienation, and until each Westerner has the same economic opportunities that Easterners enjoy, resentment will grow.
Is there a solution? Yes.
Organic farmers have provided the CWB with an instant, no-cost solution. The CWB could simply grant export licences to Western organic farmers, the same as it already does for Eastern farmers
and others.
No changes in the legislation are required.
Carol Husband is an organic farmer in Wawota, Sask., and a member of
Organic Special Products Group, a voluntary, self-funded association of
organic grain producers that advocates marketing choice for farmers. © National Post 2004
UNQUOTE
Parsley
Comment