CWB - my perspective

[kato]

We've been told over on the beef board that there is a bit of a debate going on here regarding the CWB.. ;-)

Don't usually hang out in here, but I posted this on the beef board.....

Whether you like the CWB or not, there is one thing about it that we would love to have in the cattle business. That it is a producer driven organization with enough power to actually do something to stop the total corporate takeover of our industry.

Like it or not, the CWB is probably the one thing left that stands between Canadian grain growers and the corporate muscle south of the border that's just raring to get at it and take over the Canadian grain industry like they have taken over the beef industry.

And guess what? It's some of the very same corporations. Surprise surprise! Why do you think they want the wheat board gone? Not for the good of producers, that's for sure. They want to be allowed to run rampant and plunder you guys like they did to us.

So before killing the CWB, grain growers should take a good long look at the state of the cattle industry in this country, and the problems we live with. We are a good example of what happens when big business is given free reins to do what they like with an industry populated by small independent operators.

And ask a few questions. Like, exactly who is driving this "kill the CWB" campaign? Is it really independent farmers? Or is it big agribusiness looking for opportunity and promoting the idea by influencing farmers? Always find the motives behind movements before you jump on board, especially when there is so much at stake.

Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. There is so much to lose that you can never get back. Please learn by what has happened to us.

Before it's too late.

[Fransisco]

1/ The CWB is not producer driven. It is a government bureaucracy that gives farmers a token say.

2/ You want to talk about plunder? The CWB has been plundering the west for generations. Below average returns and incompetence enshrined into law. Thanks but no thanks I'll take a buisness I can walk away from any-day of the week over this nonsense.

3/Nobody(okay almost nobody) is talking about killing it most want it voluntary so it actually competes for our grain.

4/The problem with cattle is not buisness it's government. Business didn't shut down the border due to BSE government did, buisness isn't passing COOL into law government is.

5/ Corporate conspiracies make for nice bed time stories but you're aiming your guns in the wrong direction.

6/ The best thing to ever happen to hogs was turning the provincial monopolies into competitors in the marketplace.

[highwayman]

Kato
Obviously there can be strength in numbers but not when those involved are shackled, leg ironed and stripped of their free will. The CWB's unwillingness to accept change and choice will lead to its own demise without any help from those big bad multinationals.

[TOM4CWB]

Katoe,

NICE TRY.

If the CWB ACTUALLY had a REAL 'single desk'... that didn't depend on:

CWB Act Part IV "46(d) to prescribe the terms and conditions on which licences described in
paragraph (c) may be granted, including a requirement for the recovery from the
applicant by the Corporation or any other person specified by the regulation, of
a sum that, in the opinion of the Corporation, represents the pecuniary benefit
enuring to the applicant pursuant to the granting of a licence, arising solely
by reason of the prohibition of exports of wheat and wheat products without a
licence and then existing differences between prices of wheat and wheat products
inside and outside Canada;"

Got this Katoe?

"of
a sum that, in the opinion of the Corporation, represents the pecuniary benefit
enuring to the applicant pursuant to the granting of a licence, arising solely
by reason of the prohibition of exports of wheat and wheat products without a
licence and then existing differences between prices of wheat and wheat products
inside and outside Canada;"


Sooo Katoe... the CWB price must be lower... than every where else on this planet... or there is no 'single desk'.

"The lowest price is the law" has a whole new meaning... if you actually understnad what the CWB is doing to grain growers.

NICE TRY KATOE... it does work out nicely to reduce barley and forage prices though...

[katoe]

Tom Get your eyes checked it's Kato not Katoe .2 different people.

[wilagro]

Trying to warn the bunch who hang out here about the American grain companies is futile. This bunch for the most part are willing to gamble it all away so that they can be FREE! FREE! FREE!.

Not bad enough with ADM in near control with their shares in Viterra (commonly referred to as Viagra), this bunch would like to add all of the remaining USA grain companies to ensure the absolute control of the grain trade.

The words "QUISLING", "BENEDICT ARNOLD", "MULRONEY", come to mind when discussing these anti-CWBers.

[Fransisco]

You're beloved freedom hating socialist marketing agency just gambled away $316 million after getting you below average prices and giving themselves fat, fat, bonuses.

But yah, the real problem is the American companies that year in and year out pay their producers more on the worst day than the board does on its best. Give the red kool-aid a rest already, and while you're at it Kim Jong il called he wants his blinders back.

[LWeber]

Wilagro:

What percentage does ADM own of Viterra that would cause you to state"

" Not bad enough with ADM in near control with their shares in Viterra"

Like the CWB debate, don't let the facts get in the way of idealogue.

When you find what percentage they own, please post it here so everyone can marvel at your wisdom.

[checking]

Wilagro - do you realize that if Benedict Arnold had been treated fairly by his revolutionary superiors while he was with them, that America today would have stutues of him as a war hero? What's fair about the CWB? I don't see that special priviledges in export licences for organics and seed growers is fair. You state two interesting words - trying and futile. Some might suggest that your support of the CWB is trying - indeed very trying. At least one other contributor would suggest, in this chat room, that the CWB puts out the message that, "resistance is futile". I wonder Wilagro, if the borg told you to go to sleep, would you comply?

[wilagro]

LWeber: My apologies. Perhaps I overstated that a BIT. When Agro-United and SWP joined up ADM had a 28% share in Agro-United.

I don't know if this still is so with Viterra. A company can have substantial and in some cases virtual control with enough stock proxies. In any event even with minority shares certainly some measure of influence depending on the company charter and/or amalgamation agreements.

[LWeber]

ADM tendered their shares to SWP before it became Viterra.

ADM owned no shares in SWP after the merger.

Keep spewing the left wing scare tactics bull shit - your best before date expired in 1995 - and today you still want to curtail the youth in agriculture by imposing what worked for you in the past because you know what is best for the future.

I don't know what is best either but am not going to hold back the talented because my great great grandpa got screwed by a grain company in 1929.

And you sir, are holding them back over you 160 acres of barley. That is not only selfish it is pathetic.

[kryger]

Nicely put, LWeber.

[classicalliberal]

Nice LWeber, Nice. As a matter of fact, the grain business in the US is a lot more competitive than the Canadian. There are way more local farm cooperatives and independent companeis. In the feed grain business, there are so many users of grain that no one can corner the markets and there is much competition from export markets, barge markets, rail markets, ethanol plants, etc. It is not like Canada where the big three or four grain companies won't buy anything from you at the export locations because they view you as competition.
I guess doing things in agriculture for a profit is a sin and a bad thing unless the farmer makes all the money right?