Mega farms

[ianben]

Strawboss

I like the idea of farmers co-operating like you describe. Remaining independant but realizing the true value of what we produce. Those multi-national corps can only make mega bucks from our endevours because we produce and sell.
How do we convince those guys who get a mind fix on the problem which blames everyone but themselves.
All we need to do is co-operate on pricing
Charge what the market will stand like everyone else
I see the soloution but how do convinse those guys in the coffee shop.
It will not work without them!

[cakadu]

Sadly, those guys in the coffee shop will likely take too much time and energy to convince from the start - later on when there is some success, they might join in, but until there is some success they would be an almost impossible sell.

Some people can never be convinced no matter what you do, so you go with those that are willing to take the risk and try something new. From there it grows and takes shape.

[StrawBoss]

Linda
I believe it has to be a democratic procedure with nominations and elections to choose a farm organization leader.
I agree, it shouldn’t be an ex-government person—like a ex- agriculture minister or bean counter, also a has-been farmer that didn’t make in the real world ( heaven forbid if we end up with someone like that ) but I can see subsidy oriented farmers voting for that type of a person.
I would hope for a successful farmer that is maybe semi-retired, open minded, but aggressive and has traveled so he/she can relate to the pros and cons in the farming industry in different parts of the world. Success and hands on farming experience is the key qualification for this position—contract wages.
I nominate Linda.

[cowman]

Well, I believe we have this joint farmer deal. It's called the National Farmers Union. So how many of you belong?

[StrawBoss]

Cowman
That is my point – there is no farmer cooperation no one wants to join – or maybe the reason is that the National Farmers Union is just a howling group lobbying the government for subsidies. I am a businessman not a welfare case.

[cowman]

Well I don't know why people don't join up and change the focus then? The ABP could be considered a fairly powerful group? And they are mandatory...you belong whether you want to or not. Every animal sold you have to pay $3. And how effective have they been? When they have a plebicite on raising the checkoff only 12% of eligible producers bothered to vote. How many producers bother to vote in the ABP elections?
The fact is farmers don't want to belong to these things. So there you have your answer...it's not going to happen! And I guess what that means is we will continue down the road to extinction and I guess we deserve to?
Quite a few years back I got elected as the representative for my local recreation board. The apathy was appalling and I soon found out the only one going to be doing any work was the dumbie who got elected! And then everyone bitched about everything I did! So I had my one small shot at politics and packed it in after my one year term. Who needs that sort of garbage? I suspect most farm organizations are just like that rec board.

[raymondb]

Cowman-I wander if you would have still been supported to be on the rec board if you tried? My guesses are that yes you would have been successful and that yes you would have done alot more good. I think all politics have a bunch of "bitchers" on the sideline. I look at Ralph. There are a whole bunch of complainers who are not doers complaining about what Ralph does and yet he wins a majority government every time. Its always easy to complain but it takes perserverance to succeed.

[cakadu]

A wise man once told me that you can't just come to the table with what is wrong, you have to be prepared to come with solutions as well. It doesn't take much to point out what is wrong, but it sure takes a lot to persevere for change.

Change is never easy and it is oftentimes hard to stay the course, which is probably why we don't have much in the way of effective leadership around.

It seems to me it isn't hard to get elected if you throw money in the right direction at the right time. Take the last Alberta election - before it took place money went to doctors and nurses - after the election the pot suddenly ran dry and everyone else had to do without. I'm not saying everyone should get all that they ask for, it's just that it seems as though different things happen at different times. Maybe some things needed to happen when they did in order to bring spending under control, but here in Alberta it seems as though some of the spending is done pretty freely now and with too much abandon and logic.

I am one that wishes we had a real choice in this province. I think we are long overdue for a change. I heard a fellow once say that if you put "Tory" on the back of a chair, it would likely get elected in this province. I'm not sure if that is 100% true, but sometimes I go hmmm.

[raymondb]

cakadu-A good alternative would be excellent and yet we never seem to get any in Alberta. Perhaps the alternatives just do not have enough imagination to appeal to the voters. I strongly believe that the voters in Alberta a really intelligent and seem to know what makes the province prosper at this time. The Tory Blue Machine in Alberta seems to know what the people want and therefore continue to be re-elected. If the few handouts prior to the election is all that guaranteed being re-elected, why didn't the alternatives come up with some promises that exceeded these few handouts and thus sway the popular vote?

[cakadu]

raymond - that's very true and I wonder how we can get the alternatives to appeal to more folks. The alternative parties don't have the access to the coffers - the doctors got a fairly substantial increase that wouldn't have been possible without a deep pocket, which many of the alternative parties don't have.

I don't think it matters where you go or what organization you're in or affiliated with, those that are at the top stay there, while the rest of us get pushed further down the ladder.

Cowman is right - these groups do exist and we need to get more people interested in true change into the organizations. I look at the Wild Rose Agricultural Producers here in Alberta as one group - and the other provinces have similar groups. Surely to goodness they aren't just there to complain about what we are not getting versus what we could be doing? Quite often when some help does get announced, these groups are out there condemning it right away - is it any wonder that the public does not look favorably upon that?

I really would like to see change effected in these groups - I think Cowman is right - we need to get people into them that can and do what to effect real change. Having said that though, it won't be an easy task because they are no different than anyone else in that change is not readily accepted or taken to. Oftentimes people who do want to do some good quit because their efforts are (a) unwanted if the change is too much or perceived to be too much (b) unappreciated because you want to change the status quo.

The one thing I know for sure is that there are going to have to be people willing to take up the leadership reins in a few years because many of the current leaders will be retiring. What will leadership look like then?