CONTENTED CONSUMERS
prescription only Antibiotic use must be curbed » PaGe 34
Defy critics of dairy/poultry policy » PaGe 25
November 22, 2012
SERVING MANITOBA FARMERS SINCE 1925 | Vol. 70, No. 47
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manitobacooperator.ca
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Regulations, farmer voice needed in post-CWB monopoly world Some industry observers say an open market isn’t necessarily a free one
By Allan Dawson co-operator staff
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wo vocal advocates for deregulating Western Canada’s wheat marketing are now suggesting farmers need a strong voice and new regulations to protect them from the open market. While free enterprise is the best economic system, it only works when transactions are voluntary and there is true competition, Paul Earl, a former lobbyist against the Canadian Wheat Board single desk for United Grain Growers and the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association, told the recent Fields on Wheels conference.
Earl, a PhD in history who is now acting director of the University of Manitoba’s Transport Institute, said market intervention is justified when there is a power imbalance. “The end of farmer control in the industry comes precisely at a time when we see economic and social forces within free enterprise today looking a heck of a lot like it looked in 1900,” Earl said. “In other words, very substantial imbalances of power (between farmers and rail and grain companies).” It was these “imbalances” in the late 19th century and early 20th that drove farmers to create their own co-operative grain companies — United Grain Growers (UGG), the Prairie Pools and ultimately the Canadian Wheat Board, to get some “power in the marketplace,” he noted. “It was a period when arguably free enterprise wasn’t working as it should.” “And of course they got it. The Pools and the wheat board were extremely powerful organizations. Lo and behold that power was not always exercised in the best way.” See POST-CWB on page 6 »
Now that the once-mighty farmer-owned co-operatives are relegated to the history books and museums like Elevator Row in Inglis, farmers are at a disadvantage in the marketplace, speakers at the recent Fields on Wheels conference said.
Think-tank report boosts farmers’ green credentials KAP president says this year’s combination of flooding and water scarcity shows it’s time for “a rethink” By Daniel Winters co-operator staff
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anitoba farm groups are lauding a report from a leading think-tank that backs the idea of rewarding farmers for their role in protecting the environment. The report from the nonpartisan Macdonald-Laurier Institute is further evidence “that incentive programs like ecological goods and services are
going to be much more effective at meeting society’s objectives than more regulation, oversight and hiring more enforcement officers,” said Cam Dahl, general manager of Manitoba Beef Producers. Recent events in this province have underscored the need for this approach, added Doug Chorney, president of Keystone Agricultural Producers. “There’s an opportunity here for people to do a rethink, given
the experiences of flooding and water scarcity in the same growing season, two years in a row in Manitoba,” said Chorney. Manitoba was a Canadian pioneer in this area, with KAP designing the Alternative Land Use Services (ALUS) program, which provides small payments for preserving riparian areas or fragile eco-systems, or providing other “ecological services.” Some pilot projects were initiated here but the idea has been
more strongly embraced in areas such as Ontario’s Norfolk County. The new research paper, titled “The Greening of Canadian Agriculture,” calls on government to take a closer look at the effectiveness of ALUS projects as well as other ecological goods and services projects undertaken by government and groups such as the Nature Conservancy Canada and Ducks Unlimited Canada. See GREEN REPORT on page 7 »
HUMMING: So far, so good for post-CWB grain movement » PAGE 7