Dairiblawg

The Canadian Press ... nasty stuff

2011-12-02T19:28:00.000-08:00

If you google "supply management" today, hundreds of article pop up.

Most of them would be grounds for legal action if supply management was a company.

As the media continues its relentless onslaught against the system of supply management, one has to wonder exactly who they are satisfying and why.

I thought I lived in a democracy with a free press. They are free all right, free to embellish, lie and ignore.

Why is it that not one reporter has sought to find out what the system really means to farmers? No one even seems prepared to tell their side of the story in spite of mountains of comments full of information that should make people pause.

The issues about the safety and security of our food supply (remember the China syndrome?) and the need for safe secure local food supply seem to have gone missing too.

If we cannot depend on our press and media to give us some reality and truth where can we find it? - cg

Chocolate BEVERAGE?? EH!?

2010-04-16T15:35:00.000-07:00

The issue of Canadian Dairy processing companies replacing (quietly) 1 % chocolate milk with chocolate beverage has been driving me slightly batty. In the usual fashion of the industry the farmers have been discussing this new wrinkle with the processors trying to get them to pay attention. Meanwhile, the consumer who has been buying this product with confidence has been cruelly tricked!!

I was roaming the web to see what I could see and came across this really good article from another website (Another Talking Head) " Chocolate Milk Beverage", WTF? This cheeky slightly irreverent title is the opener for a well done blog posting about this issue. Even better, this is another consumer who is not happy and wants answers. Even better than that, there are lots of comments posted about this messy business.

I was intrigued to see the Sealest/Parmalat response that claims the formulation change is a result of a federal regulation change. What hogwash!! They are saving mega dollars and can still discount this stuff in the stores. They don't have to use as much milk from Canadian Dairy farmers. Many consumers do not realise what the differences are. The packaging they are using is a blatant abuse. Shame on you Parmalat!

The author is quite right when he discusses the length of the listed ingredients fotr the 'beverage' versus milk. The company can source its Modified milk ingredients from the cheapest available product. It does not have to be Canadian product at all.

There is more...... Chocolate Dairy Beverage, Where’s The Follow-up (WTF)?? is the next round. More good fodder here, too!!! Better watch out Parmalat.

I have gone searching to find 'other' companies that DO provide us with the real thing. In particular I was looking for 4 litre bags of the good stuff.

I found 4 litre bottles of 1% Chocolate milk from Macs Milk and I found 1, 2 and 4 litres of the good stuff from Dairy Oh! a Neilsons Brand.

Macs Milk provides the 4 litre and 1 litre plastic bottles of the good stuff.

Someone needs to take the time to educate the public about what the differences are. Trying to fob off the changes as necessary to meet regulations is horse manure. The regulations state what can be called milk so if a processor wants to goof around with any milk or cream product they can not call it milk any more. This is the reason for the change. The regulation was intended to protect the public and standardize our products.

And apparently we need regulations more than ever........ look what they are trying to do with our chocolate milk.-CG

Feb 12th is Food Freedom Day!

2010-02-15T09:03:00.000-08:00

The article below is reprinted from Dairy Farmers of Canada's Feb Action FAX.

On February 12, 2010, the average Canadian will have earned enough income to pay his or her individual grocery bill for the entire year, making it Food Freedom Day!

Food Freedom Day occurs on the same day it did last year, due largely in part to the fact that Canada’s food costs have risen by less than 1% over the past year. This is very low, especially when compared to the United States and the European Union where food prices have gone up by 4% and in some cases over 5%.

Despite the low rise in food prices for Canadian consumers, the Farmers' Share, a recent study commissioned by prairie members of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA), showed that, on average, only 27 per cent of the cost of an entire week's worth of groceries for a family of four goes back to the farms where the food is produced.

To ensure that consumers are able to identify Canadian food products and support our agriculture sector, DFC supports the position of the CFA that they will continue to advocate for effective ingredient-based 'Product of Canada' guidelines that are both informative to the consumer and practical to the agri-food sector. Additionally, consumers know they can continue to support Canadian dairy farmers by looking for the 100% Canadian Milk logo on dairy products.

Products with this logo ensure that consumers are buying highquality, safe and delicious products made with Canadian milk ingredients. “Farmers are very proud of their role in providing high quality food produced at the highest food safety and environmental standards," - Laurent Pellerin, CFA President

This article is courtesy of information from the Candian Federation of Agriculture. For more information please visit cfa-fca.ca

Remebrance Day 2009

2009-11-10T20:16:00.000-08:00

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

Anti Farmer Articles Again

2009-09-21T19:07:00.000-07:00

The issues surrounding the mis-handling of Canada's Wheat Board were passed around again on various mail lists. The powder that touched it all off came from the National Post. No surpise there, either!

Lorne Gunter, National Post Published: Friday, August 14, 2009

What the Canadian Wheat Board calls "single-desk marketing" is, technically, a "monopsony" -- many sellers, but only one buyer; in this case the federal government. Prairie farmers are forbidden, by law, from selling their wheat or barley to anyone but the CWB, unless their grain is destined to be fed to animals. They face jail time if they defy the board.

In turn, the board claims it can take this huge inventory of grain and sell it internationally for much higher prices than individual farmers could on their own. It then promises to spread these gains around to all wheat and barley growers.

Never mind that there is no evidence this works. Indeed, a major study last year showed that even though the board is one of the largest grain sellers in the world, it still controls too little of the globe's total grain trade to have any impact on the final price.

The price the board receives is as much dependent on swings in world commodity markets as the price lone farmers could earn trading on their own. The trick to getting the highest price is the timing of the sale, not the volume being sold. The board's claim that by gathering together all prairie grain and selling it in bulk it will achieve a higher price is a myth, because even though it controls the output of around 60,000 farmers, it nonetheless still controls too little grain to push the price up by withholding wheat and barley from the market, then rushing it to the selling floor.

Occasionally (like last year), the board gets lucky. Once in a while, its slow, plodding, hulking sales machinery gets grain to market at just the right time and the price gets caught in an updraft. But more often than not, individual farmers could make as much or more by watching commodity trading carefully and pouncing faster than the board could on upward price spikes.

Unless the board's traders are better than private traders or individual farmers at predicting the best time to sell all the grain they have in inventory, it is impossible that theboard can produce greater returns simply by flexing its monopsony.

When Ralph Goodale, one of the smarter Liberals in the House of Commons, was the wheat board minister, I asked him why, if single-desk marketing was such a good practice, his government did not employ it for other industries -- auto parts, for instance. Why not make Magna and Ontario's other parts suppliers sell all their production to the feds, who in turn would then assure them all higher returns by selling their parts in bulk to the automakers?

After coughing and stammering for a minute, Mr. Goodale replied that historical differences in the two industries made them different.But history has no more influence over grain sales than it does over auto parts. Whether or not a trade makes economic sense is no more influenced by history than it is by Friday's CFL scores.

The myth, though, that grain is somehow different from other commodities -- peddled by Mr. Goodale and ministers before him and since -- is what sustains the board, so much so that when the current government has attempted to dismantle the board, the myth-swallowers who run it have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on publicity campaigns and legal challenges to stop the Tories.In 2006, the Tories ordered the board to stop wasting farmers' money on vain attempts to preserve its monopsony. The board balked and went to court to overturn the ban. It won in lower court, where a judge ruled the Tories' gag order amounted to an unconstitutional infringement on farmers' freedom of expression.This produced much clucking and glee among the board's supporters. Many columnists and letter writers across the Prairies crowed "what other laws have the Tories broken" and "Harper's undemocratic ways have finally caught up with him."

But in late-June, a three-judge panel of the Federal Court of Appeal unanimously reversed that decision. It said that the board is entirely the creature of the federal government and as such can be ordered to do by Ottawa whatever Ottawa pleases.

That's the way the Liberals set up the board when they restructured it in the 1990s. They gave it a facade of farmer-control, but retained real decision-making authority at Cabinet.

When the Liberals used this chimera to protect the board's dominance over prairie grain, its backers rejoiced. But now that this loophole is being used by the Tories to introduce real choice for grain farmers, the board's political supporters are aghast.

lgunter@shaw.ca

************************************
To: National Media
From: Joe Hueglin
Subject: Latest assault on Canadian Wheat Board an abject failure.

No change came about in the election of one-third of the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB), directors reported December 8th. Four of five Districts continue to be represented by directors supporting the CWB's single desk system.

Despite altering regulations to permit unlimited advertising by third parties such as the grain companies, disenfranchising thousands who were with a propensity to support the CWB and, as well, Conservative Members of Parliament not registering as third parties when sending out letters in support of candidates favouring their policy of dismantling the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) - all in order to capture enough directorships to be able to control the Board.

‘‘This is a huge victory for farmers. Farmers have stood up to (Prime Minister Stephen) Harper’s vow to ‘walk over’ any opposition to his plan to demolish the CWB,’’ said Stewart Wells, National Farmers Union president. ‘‘With 80 per cent of the farmer-elected Board members supporting the single-desk marketing advantages and a strong role for the CWB, it is time for the Conservative Party to back away from its attacks on the CWB.’’

Back away? Wishful thinking when neo-conservative principles are at issue. Agricultural Minister Gerry Ritz says the neo-conservative Harper Conservatives "remain committed to marketing freedom."

Joe Hueglin

***************************************

Subject: RE: "The Wheat Board's tall tales": Fact or partisan distortion?"

When Ralph Goodale, one of the smarter Liberals in the House of Commons, was the wheat board minister, I asked him why, if single-desk marketing was such a good practice, his government did not employ it for other industries -- auto parts, for instance.

Why not make Magna and Ontario's other parts suppliers sell all their production to the feds, who in turn would then assure them all higher returns by selling their parts in bulk to the automakers?"

I think this was a stupid question - There is a huge difference here between wheat and auto parts: Wheat is a commodity - auto parts are not. Grain of the same variety but from different farmes gets mixed together in a grain elevator - whereas other than nut bolts, auto parts are distint to each maker and specfic model of car.

Secondly, you are dealing with hundres or thousands of farmer producing the same crop - versus a small number of companies that are capable of producing the same autopart - few companies can make hydroformed pickup truck frames.

Individual auto parts makers have more of a one-on-one relationship with the user of their parts - whereas there are many middlemen between farmer and consumer. Next, without the Wheat Board, their role would largely be usurped by some big multinational companies like ADM.

The Wheat Board is Canadian and the farmers can have some influence over it - it is not out there to maximise profits at the expense of farmers. Grain production is also tied to the avaiablility of arable land - it is not a mobile industry - auto prts can be made anywhere on the contient, or around the world -heavy handed intereference could kill the industry here - and the manufacture of parts is often too complex for government to have any real understanding of the processes or way it is managed.

It is a complex issue and maybe the Wheat Board is not perfect, but this was a glib comment about auto parts that seemed to reek of anti-Ontario bias. Why not suggest oil, or lumber - why pick on the auto industry?

bt graff

The Great Canadian Moo!!!

2009-05-13T09:53:00.000-07:00

This is all about great Canadian fun AND innovative advertising to highlight Canadian milk products and a very familiar little blue cow. A friend told me about the "great Canadian moo". Since she works in Toronto and a lot of her friends are 20 something... well ... they are having a lot of fun with it. I am sure on the appointed day we all need to send those 'moos'!

After all, at the very least it should send profile through the roof.

I went to check it out though and was surprised to see that it is part of the promotion of the updated blue cow logo, from Dairy Farmers of Canada. The newest commercial is just great! Maybe the great Canadian moo, will send the YOUTUBE commercial viral. If every dairy farmer in Canada were emailing their friends and relatives, this stuff would be viral in no time.

Watch it now on YOUTUBE

Food Policy meeting?!?

2009-04-15T11:11:00.000-07:00

Many people,have long thought a National Food policy is critical to and for this country's future.

Before the blow-up of the economy, stock markets, global business and bank failures, not too many people were even interested in the idea. Our current government is NOT looking at the issue at all. But in the 'new world' that some economists and citizens, think may be the future, such a concept had better be on the table.

For one thing, if the food processing sector is one of the largest employers in Canada, not too many people are paying attention to THAT salient fact. It would seem that we should be ensuring our plants and processors are not for sale. Look what happened to one of the few remaining fruit & vegetable processors, once it's ownership was secured by an American company. They raided the brands and closed it down.

It looks as if the Liberals are moving forward on the idea of a National Food Policy.

Experts discuss food policy

April 15, 2009

Rob O'Flanagan Mercury Staff
GUELPH

The complexities of developing a national food policy in this country were made clear during a Liberal Food Caucus discussion in Guelph yesterday. see more at :http://delicious.com/dariblawg

I just hope agriculture is paying attention here. Dairy organizations should really be paying attention as this is exactly what some of them have been advocating for a long time. - CG

Calcium Confusion - Health Canada vs Research

2009-02-24T07:54:00.000-08:00

This morning on Canada AM, Dr. Shapiro gave calcium a boost. But this was not just any boost. She commented twice that the preferred source and her preferred source of calcium was food, ie) dairy products. WOW!!! See the whole video clip here.

So I went hunting. The rest of this posting tries to make sense of some of what I found.

I also found the print article at CTV which is much more cautious. The good Doctor also talks about 3 servings of dairy. Hmm I think the last rewrite of the Food Guide (Dairiblawg 2006) blew that one out of the water. She goes further and quotes the necessary grams as 1500 per day!

Well, those of us in dairy land who have been paying attention knew that one too, just another reason to blast the Canada Food Guide and the bureaucrats who wrote it!!! I am getting very tired of Health Canada and the simple things they do not do for our health.

In fact I believe it is time some of us reminded the media that Health Canada may have some really serious problems, the least of which is inaccurate dietary advice!!!! What do ordinary Canadians do now?

Other articles link the same study which was written up in the Archive of Internal Medicine. I found another good one at CBC.

While I was there I also found disparaging and very negative remarks by the Nutrition Sleuth! I also spent some time trying to find this person or group. There were some interesting comments on the site as well. One that that still thinks milk may contain rBST (Bovine somatotropin)!!!

Holy cow!!! This just goes to show that farmers and their organizations can never rest when it comes to trying to educate the public. I think they need to farther and take on Health Canada and at the same time keep the public informed about the battle.

One just has to wonder if Candaians are doomed to a litany of deficiency related diseases that our governement should be taking the lead on? -cg

Internet trolling-Guess What??

2009-02-15T12:40:00.000-08:00

I have had no time lately for poor old dairiblawg. To be fair though, there were a lot of really wild and unexpected things happening out there at the same time. The McCain's food fiasco, a possible 'coalition' government, economic collapse, the presidential elections .......

So today, I thought I'd troll around on the Internet. Sometimes really good stuff shows up and sometimes not.

Today I hit a bit of pay dirt. Terence Corcoran: The dairy farmers' annual price heist was not unexpected and I'm sure the dairy farmers and their organizations have seem this article, however, I was surprised to see all the anti articles listed so nicely on the Financial Post pages.

I went trolling some more and came up with: Keeping Canada's food safe from the Guelph Mercury and the thought provoking : How Safe is Our Food Supply? by P.J. Wade.

And if anyone from the food or farming sectors think Canadians or the Media have forgotten about the listeria outbreak, check out: What's next for food supply after deadly outbreak? from CTV.

And to round out your reading pleasure : The End of Food from the CBC.

Just goes to show you that vigilance is required to stay on top of the many, many issues that can have a detrimental impact on us, our food systems and our country. Have a great day!- cg

National Food Policy

2008-12-12T08:24:00.000-08:00

Liberals launch consultations on food safety

OTTAWA - The Liberal opposition announced today the beginning of a nation-wide consultative process to establish a comprehensive national food policy designed to protect the health of Canadians, Liberal Health Critic Carolyn Bennett and Liberal Agriculture Critic Wayne Easter said today.

“As we search for solutions to shore up our economic health, we must remember that health and social safety nets are essential ingredients to boosting the economy,” said Dr. Bennett. “Stephen Harper may have locked the doors on Parliament but the Liberal Party is continuing to work for Canadians.”

“Canadians are expecting us to work together to deliver a stimulus package that boosts the economy, creates jobs, and improves our social safety net. A comprehensive food policy for Canada is one way that we can improve our economic and social health,” added Mr. Easter.

In addition to Dr. Bennett and Mr. Easter, Associate Health Critic Kirsty Duncan and fellow MPs Brian Murphy, Lise Zarac, Anita Neville and Mike Savage will be instrumental in the consultative process.Liberal MPs and past candidates will be traveling the country in January speaking to Canadians and seeking input on various aspects of a comprehensive food policy, including:

the global forces of food security;
ecological threats to food security;
food production/distribution;
food safety and public health; and
food security and poverty.

“If we fail to include health and social issues in a stimulus package, we are destined to come up short in our attempt to help" said Dr. Duncan.

You have to give Mr. Easter credit for continuing to battle for what is best for Farmers and Canadians. It looks like he is getting more support for these ideas. Farmers and consumers need to be part of this process.-CG

Another Remembrance Day

2008-11-11T07:01:00.001-08:00

For Dad - citygirl

Someone IS paying attention....

2008-10-30T06:43:00.000-07:00

While researching for more material on the listeria outbreaks in Canada, I ran across an interesting Blog site on the topic. It is called : Marler Blog

In it he has many American articles but he also details outbreaks from Canada, as well. There are other links from the site to many,many other blogs and webs that discuss this issue in detail.

Food processors and producers need to pay attention here, this fellow is a LAWYER. Litigation over due diligence and plant and processing standards, regardless of the size of the processor (here I am thinking of those 'on farm' plants) is rampant. The media isn't talking bout this either.

Go and check it out.

Food Safety Disaster

2008-10-29T08:00:00.000-07:00

When I last wrote in Dairiblawg , the article that set me off had been buried deep in the back of newspapers. Changes to CFIA, the 5% cut in budget, etc, etc. Even though in my bones I felt this was the path to disaster, I didn't think we would see it happen so soon.

I have been reading and watching the news stories as the Maple Leaf Foods disaster, just keeps on growing. Worse, they are one of the few large plants left in Ontario to process pigs for farmers.

Again, consumers are probably shocked at how many brands were handled by that single plant. Our illusion of choice has disappeared and consumers are left wondering where to go.

I think they are flocking to farmers markets, and local butcher shops (if you have one) . Ontario better have its food safety guidelines and inspections up to snuff. There are not enough small processors or local suppliers out there to keep us all in fresh food. Things could get darn interesting.

Massive modern, distributions systems for food like we have, are very efficient. They have brought us food for a ridiculously cheap price, nation-wide. But they can also be deadly, spreading disease or food borne illness across massive distances and numbers of people.

This was always the Achilles heel of the food industry. I guess we just have been darn lucky it hasn't happened sooner!!

******

Since I first started this post, Maple Leaf has finally come back on line, Quebec has had its own food safety issue, this time surrounding cheese and China has had several more food safety scandals surrounding illegal additives in baby formula and other products.

These days, when I go into my local butcher shop, I hear questions like, "Who does your processed meat?" Maple Leaf anyone?

I will be detailing more on this issue as it continues to dominate consumer thinking. The larger problem is that the media has not followed through on this topic. It comes and goes as food safety issues hit the headlines. No one has asked why we should accept this level of risk in our food system.

Consumers are quietly doing what they have always done. Finding other places to buy or source their food.

Food Safety Anyone???

2008-07-16T06:51:00.000-07:00

Remember the BSE crisis in the dairy and beef industry? Remember that Canadian beef has JUST started to be acceptable in some export jurisdictions? Remember the devastation wrought in our breeding export industry? Farmers in these industries are far from recovery.

Now, place all of that struggle next to dead pets, contaminated imported toothpaste, vitamins, baby food and all kinds of 'other' issues surrounding the import of our food products. What is our federal government's on-going plan to help farmers and consumers? Take a look at these articles and weep.

No Risk From Mad Cow Case, Ottawa Says
Canwest News Service Published: Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Who pays cost for food safety?
Calgary Herald Published: Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Mad cuts?
The Edmonton Journal

In a time that calls for more regulation of our food from the front end or the imported stuff and THIS is what they come up with. Farmers and consumers alike should be outraged!!!!!!!!

The struggling agriculture sector does not need more costs downloaded to it. And a national program that pays for very expensive, necessary BSE testing, should be the LAST place the budget should be cut. Testing is the very crux of improving and maintaining consumer confidence. You know, that group of people who actually buy food to eat? The same ones who have been crying out for MUCH improved labelling on a number of fronts, from 'Made or grown in Canada' to transfats and other stuff on labels that basically confuses the heck out of us all.

The articles tell us plenty. BSE is not the only poison pill they are hoping to load onto unsuspecting Canadians.

In a world of rising fuel and food costs, food security is what Canadians are talking about. I never dreamed that this government would be so out of touch with what Canadians really want. It wasn't too long ago that the woeful LACK of Canadian Food Inspection Agency testing was a hot topic.

Better scream loud and long.

More Bad, Bad Food News

2008-04-29T20:26:00.000-07:00

I barely had the last post published and to-day, another longtime food processor is leaving town. This time it is the Campbell's Plant in Listowel, Ontario. The article refers to production going to 'other north American plants' read Mexico (?).

A bad news day in Listowel
By staff The Beacon Herald

What else is a consumer to think. So now Campbell's will expect you to still buy their products, even thought they are packing up their bags and leaving.

According to the CTV National News, the paramount reason is of course 'the high loonie'. Now come on folks we have and a high dollar before. This plant has been here for 50 years. There is something much more insidious at work here.

They are leaving for cheaper climes ......... because they CAN! The difference this time around is of course .... wait for it ....... FREE TRADE!!!

And Canadian consumers (so far anyway) have not said a thing. Now if they want these food companies to take notice of their concerns about food closer to home, they better make a very, very, loud noise.

Ottawa says there is nothing they can do. Wrong. There is plenty they can do. A bit of tough talk about what people in this country might like to purchase may make these guys think at least once.

Other wise they won't be the last one to keep moving on ..... to the next cheapest road show in town.

Just who will process your food then!!!!! The federal government should look at food plant losses as seriously as they would look at the loss of our oil reserves or our water.-CG

More 'Food Crisis' news

2008-04-28T19:07:00.000-07:00

The past few days my mailbox has been full of articles about the rising cost of food. A sampling is illuminating ...... but no farmers on those interview lists yet!!

As usual, our food retailers and processors are quick off the mark. The problem in this country is that very few consumers understand just what free trade has really done for them.

Destroying crops while others starve
Apr 26, 2008 04:30 AM Thomas Walkom

Note: This particular article exposes nicely, the weakness in globalization and economic theory that focuses on 'which country can produce the most efficiently';translation of course is 'cheapest'!!

Beef producers struggle in midst of price rise rumours

By HANK DANISZEWSKI, SUN MEDIA

Rising grain costs push Maple Leaf into loss

Reuters Published: Thursday, April 24, 2008

Bread prices on the rise, food reps say
Last Updated: Thursday, April 24, 2008 11:11 AM ET

Why grocery bills are set to soar
PAUL WALDIE
From Friday's Globe and Mail
April 25, 2008 at 4:01 AM EDT

Food companies warn of rising prices
Canadians can expect to pay more at grocery stores as higher feed costs advance through the food chain
Apr 25, 2008 04:30 AM
Dana Flavelle business reporter

This is just too much ...... it goes on and on. It is almost enough to have people digging up the yard for this year's garden. Don't laugh!!! Some articles have actually put forward that idea. It was 'tongue in cheek', but I am sure that some people took it very seriously.

In the land of plenty we go round and round and consumers are buffeted by articles, news stories, pundits and the food players. The Business News Network (BNN) even discusses our 'food' or commodities constantly.

Hmmmmm??! Maybe it's time to push the 'Food Security' idea much, much, harder. Woe betide the foolish politician who forgets about these headlines at the WTO.

It should NOT be hard to get some valuable air time for this one.-CG

Food Crisis .... a warning.

2008-04-25T07:22:00.000-07:00

I have been listening to and reading numerous articles and reports this week, about the 'Food Crisis' faced by many impoverished countries. There even is an article warning the 'crisis' could hit this country,too!

At the same time, we have Ontario beef and pork producers faced with their perfect storm and the depopulation of their herds as a solution to their crisis.

Meanwhile, grains and oil seeds farmers are just beginning to see the light of day, with the rise in prices for wheat, corn and soybeans.

Canadian supply managed farmers (dairy, turkey, chicken and eggs) are worried about their governments' goal at the World Trade Organization and what may happen to their stable system.

Something is terribly wrong with this picture.

For one thing, this country's food supply is dominated by a retail strangle hold. Their suppliers look for the 'cheapest' source of their food products for you (Walmartized).

Distributors and processors push backwards to their suppliers, the farmer. Processors of food for many products have been allowed to consolidate or have been sold off to foreign buyers. Large processors have way more political power and power over the farmers of many products who are forced to sell to them. With free trade agreements in force they are moving their products into this country at the expense of our own food supply.

Really bad agricultural policy ignoring "Made in Canada' labels among other national food issues and focused on the World Trade Organization and the globalization of food instead, are responsible as well. There have been all kinds of special Agricultural reports to Parliament that could have gone a long way to begin to solve the problems. They were ignored.

The result of course has been a reduction in produced crops, loss of farmers in production and loss of world stocks, pushed ahead by drought in many countries. This is just a tiny part of the result.

Agriculture has been such a pawn of commodity brokers, prices set by outside forces (not the farmers themselves) and government, including our own federal government, it is no wonder some have given up.

In all the attention the media has showered on the "Food Crisis" issue I have yet to see anyone focus on the farmers themselves and this country's own food price and source dysfunction. There are all kinds of 'reports' from our own members in Parliament that too many governments have ignored.

Our media could do us all a great service if someone would take an in-depth look at the whole mess. We have way too many ridiculous inconsistencies of supply of food, price of food and who controls it. It's time for CTV or Global or the CBC to try to get to the bottom of it all. Maybe now, there is an appetite to do it.

WTO Storm Clouds again?

2008-04-21T05:56:00.001-07:00

I haven't been paying a lot of attention to recent WTO activity. Besides, it's been kinda quiet out there. But when contradictory stuff appears 'out there' , wise citizens concerned about our ability to continue to feed ourselves need to pay attention. So too, do farm organizations for turkey, eggs, milk and chicken.

As noted in a Dairy Farmer's of Canada newsletter, last week, Supply Management (dairy) and the government's support for it, was detailed in question period. That was the first rumble.

About the same time the Ontario Farmer arrived and in it was a letter to the editor from former Senator Jim Tunney. This is the second rumble.

Entitled: 'Wheat Board Politics are of the worst kind', his letter gives some very interesting insights into the scanky and contradictory activities by the government, with regards to the Canadian Wheat Board. It is a quick history that all farmers and citizens should read. The last point in the whole letter is the part that made me pause:

Farmers want to trust our ministers, but have doubts when we see the results of a referendum and then hear another senior minister, David Emerson warn poultry and dairy farmers that they should prepare to find another way than with supply management to market their production.- Jim Tunney, Grafton

These are remarks Mr. Tunney, obviously knows about or has seen written, by the Minister for International Trade, the Hon. David Emerson.

Now Mr. Tunney has a respected background. He " was a director of the Dairy Farmers of Canada for 18 years and of the Dairy Bureau of Canada for 8 years. He was also a director of the Ontario Milk Marketing Board, representing farmers in six counties including his native Northumberland County. "[English]

During his term as Senator he was a member of the Standing Committee of Agriculture and Forestry. He is, as I would term it, "plugged in". His concern for supply management and the Dairy Farmers of this country is well known.

If farmers know what's good for them they need to have a hard look at the Hon. David Emerson and his government. No matter what they have said, are saying or will say, their track record with the Wheat Board is not calculated to inspire confidence in their activities with the WTO.

At the very least, supply managed farmers need to figure out what kind of options they may have to derail any stupidity coming from this government.-CG

R.I.P. !

2008-03-31T18:51:00.000-07:00

I thought it particularly important to mark this date. This is the day Cangro marked for closure of it's Ontario Fruit and vegetable processing plants. This has weighed heavy on my mind for weeks since I first heard about it. Today this article showed up in Sun Media.

Cheaper imports threaten the 752,000 people employed by Ontario's agriculture and food processing sector.

Fruitless labour
Hank Daniszewski Sun Media
March 13, 2008

The slogan is Good Things Grow in Ontario. But finding those good Ontario-grown products in your supermarket is getting tougher.

The rising value of the Canadian dollar means food manufacturers are finding it easier to go global when they buy and process products. It's a trend that threatens the 752,000 people in Ontario's agriculture and food processing sector, the second-largest employer in the province. ( see complete article...)

This is our last peach and pear processor. It is about time somebody in the media tried to let the public know just what is going on out there.

As a consumer looking for Ontario processed foods it does not matter to me why they were leaving. I was SURE the 'why' is all about the money. It usually is. According to the article the Canadian owned processor was purchased 2 years ago by an American company. It is obvious, now, why they are leaving.

With a huge increase in the 'Grow Ontario" advertising budget, Ontarians are going to be even more aware of those products that are NOT from home. Since this is such a compelling issue for many consumers and growing daily, one has to wonder why the food processors left in this province fail to take advantage of all that free advertising to promote their products!!!!!!

I wonder if NAFTA and free trade rules will impact our ability to label food sourced in this country? Maybe we better work on keeping our processors before we have to sort that one out.

It looks like is going to be a long summer .

Again!!?!?!

2008-03-30T21:03:00.000-07:00

I was doing a bit of trolling to-day and found a couple of interesting articles that I think merit posting on this site.

One refers to Loblaws and the infamous Pear Juice recall of late.

Tainted juices pulled from Loblaws' shelves
Arsenic in organic children's pear drinks puzzles investigators
Louisa Taylor , The Ottawa Citizen (see complete article ...)

While I was browsing that site I came across another one.... this time about Food Safety... again.

Safety at the table
The Leader-Post (Regina 2008) (See complete article..)

Things have been reasonably quiet of late but these articles and concerns about Food Safety keep popping up. The Tainted Juice story came along quick enough to just put the cap on the jug, so to speak.

The Leader-Post takes readers partway down the road of 'what if'. In my opinion this is just the beginning because far too few have thought that one out.

What if .. our border closes again? It is far from impossible... all it could take is a little bird flu epidemic in the wrong place. What if a major processor is shut down for contamination of some sort? What if we have more drought in the wrong county? What if ... gas becomes too expensive or in short supply?

How will we feed ourselves then? I really don't want to think about this one. It means one heck of a lot of HARD work. I have canned and preserved and stored food before. It is not an activity that I am keen to return to ... but like a lot of consumers out there if I must, I must and will. - CG

What do American Consumers Think?

2008-03-17T05:41:00.000-07:00

While Canadian consumers struggle to locate Canadian processors and their products on most retail shelves, a new book has been published in the U.S. to provide their consumers with hard information. The article below provides some surprising statistics from the book.

WASHINGTON - Would you be willing to pay a little extra for goods made in the USA?Join the club.

Polls show a majority of Americans willing to do the same. And with China charging Americans to ship its hazardous materials to line the shelves of Walmart, Roger Simmermaker thinks he has the answer - a guide to buying American."How Americans Can Buy American: The Power of Consumer Patriotism" is hot off the press, providing tips and listing thousands of retail outlets owned by Americans as well as manufacturers still operating in the U.S.

If you think Americans no longer care about where goods are made or have concerns about safety of foreign products, think again. Simmermaker has assembled some surprising statistics:

92 percent of Americans want country-of-origin labels on meat and produce;

68.6 percent of Americans check labels for information like manufacturer, nation of origin and ingredients - up from 52.9 percent a year ago;

86.3 percent of Americans would like to block Chinese imports until they raise their product and food safety standards to meet U.S. levels;

33 percent of Americans would be willing to pay four times as much for American-made toys;

63 percent were willing to join a boycott of Chinese-made goods in general

(see full article ...)

In the past, Canadian figures on issues like this, follow American trends and in some cases they are ahead of our American neighbours. I think food is one of those areas. Canadian consumers are generally even more knowledgeable than their American counterparts. After all, I am one of those consumers, too!

If I am right ..... then a lot of grocery retailers and processors will have to pay the piper for their lack of foresight.

Of note though, food retail giant Loblaws has another new commercial offering a dessert product (apple dumplings) made by Ontario farmers, which is a start. How about large, clearly identifiable signage for Ontario products?

Are they paying attention or are they just paying lip service? Only time will tell and consumers are watching.-CG

Tit for Tat?

2008-03-15T06:18:00.000-07:00

Just prior to the news release by the Minister of Agriculture, Gerry Ritz, this article showed up in the news wire:

MPs say time for feds to abandon barley campaign
Updated Wed. Feb. 27 2008 4:27 PM ET
The Canadian Press

OTTAWA -- Opposition MPs say it's time for the government to abandon its campaign to end the Canadian Wheat Board's monopoly on sales of western barley.
Liberal Wayne Easter says consecutive losses in the courts make it clear that the government can't go on.

He says the move to allow farmers the choice of selling their barley themselves or through the board threatens the existence of the marketing agency.

The Federal Court and the Federal Court of Appeal have both ruled that the government can't change the barley marketing rules through regulations and must follow a process set out in the Canadian Wheat Board Act.

Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz says western producers support the change and the government will bring in legislation to allow them a choice.

The opposition parties have said they'll fight such legislation.

Obviously, this was like waving a red flag to a bull and they are just as unpredictable.-CG

Where will YOUR Food come From?

2008-03-13T10:45:00.000-07:00

This sad little article I noted recently, is a sign of the times. Just one in another long line of food processors leaving this province. It begs the question; just where ARE they going TO?

CanGro to close; Local peach growers to make tough decisions
Posted By BOB BOUGHNER
Posted 5 days ago

The imminent closure of a fruit processing plant in St. Davids will leave nearly a dozen Chatham-Kent farmers without a market for their peaches and pears.

"It will leave me with little choice but to rip out my 17 acres of processing peach trees," veteran Cedar Springs farmer John McGuigan said Friday.

The owner of McGuigan Orchards said growers were informed a few weeks ago that the CanGro Fruit Canning Plant in St. Davids, near St. Catharines, will close March 31.

Both the company's St. Davids facility and another in Exeter are scheduled for closure unless a buyer is found. "That's highly unlikely," said McGuigan. "It's cheaper for processors to import peaches from China and Greece than it is to grow them here."

McGuigan said the plant closure would remove any market for clingstone peaches or peaches grown specifically for the processing industry. (more...)

It amazes me that a company one would hope is looking towards its future growth, etc., would make such a stupid move. Have they not been listening to Ontario consumers? Even our mainstream media have noticed something may be wrong with the food system. In a time when consumers are clamoring for "local" products it is insane, that Ontario's only remaining peach processing plants should be closing!!!

I don't want to purchase canned peaches from some other country!!! If the big food retailers in Ontario can't supply me with Ontario canned peaches, I may have to dust off the canning jars. I can guaranty a lot of other people will be trying to do the same thing too.

Are our local food supplys secure? If all the major food chains go looking for a 'local' supply, I am convinced that many people will be shocked at the state of affairs out there.

Any sovereign state/county/province wanting to safeguard it's citizens, MUST look at these situations in a different way than in the past.

Maybe it is time our provincial government started to take a hard look at what is going on out there.

Storm clouds gather again!

2008-03-11T20:22:00.000-07:00

Well, I guess we all have our answer about what the current federal government's next move would be , after the courts over-ruled their actions against the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB).

GOVERNMENT OF CANADA TABLES AMENDMENTS TO THE CANADIAN WHEAT BOARD ACT TO ENSURE BARLEY MARKETING FREEDOM

OTTAWA, Ontario, March 3, 2008

The Government of Canada today introduced amendments to the Canadian Wheat Board Act that would clear the way for barley marketing freedom and introduce a requirement respecting commercial dispute resolution. The announcement was made by the Honourable Gerry Ritz, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food and Minister for the Canadian Wheat Board. (more)

The continued soap opera from Ottawa has hit a new low. The issue of this legislation coming to Parliament puts to rest the fairy tale that they might just be putting on a show for their constituents over election promises.

They obviously will go to just about any lengths to get what they want. Oh, and if they make this one a non confidence motion everyone on the good guy's side will have some very hard thinking to do. When I suggested this scenario in an earlier post, I NEVER believed it could come to this.

Is it time NOW for the opposition to put this government out of it's misery? Because of course, if the legislation passes, the death throws of the Wheat Board struggle will be next.

I don't think agriculture can let that happen. Farm organizations and their allies better think about this one very, very hard. There are very few options left out there for agriculture and it would be a mistake of enormous proportions to let others destroy something that has worked so well for so long.

Just how many political friends does agriculture have left and does it even have the guts to take this one to the wall?

Somebody must really have a lot to gain on this one. My vote is for the big guns ADM and Cargill.

For a minority government to continue to flaunt it's disregard for the courts, the industry, the economy and what producers' want, reminds you of an arrogant bully, who is so convinced he is 'right' , he will do anything, anything, to get his way.

Because, of course, the rest of us are too stupid to really know what is good for us.

Meanwhile, Canada's wiggle room to salvage anybody or save anything has craftily and carefully been removed.

PM gradually 'tightening the screws' on gov't: ex-advisor
By Alexander Panetta, THE CANADIAN PRESS

OTTAWA - Perhaps the most significant act of the Harper government is being conducted so slowly, steadily, and silently that it has raised barely a whisper of public debate. (more)

I think I feel a very cold, cold wind blowing over us all. - CG

Free Trade Fiasco

2008-03-11T10:02:00.000-07:00

The Free Trade mantra, espoused by governments, policy makers, agri-businesses and foolish farmers is a failing model. The sooner all come to realise this, the better.

In the current climate of the failing American economy (the sub-prime mess), with the climbing euro and off-set by the devalued US dollar, strange things are happening out there. Canada is not the only country affected by this state of affairs.

The most recent hardly believable announcement is from Germany's BMW company.

BMW plans to increase US production while cutting workers in Germany

Published: Monday, March 10, 2008 4:46 AM ET
Canadian Press: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

COLUMBIA, South Carolina - BMW says it will cut 7.5 per cent of its work force in Germany over two years while increasing production in the U.S. by more than 50 per cent by 2012.

"This is completely driven by the plunge in the dollar," said Greg Gardner with Oliver Wyman, publisher of the Harbour Report on automotive manufacturing activity. "It is untenable to produce at a much higher cost in Germany.".... (see full article)

Who would have thought, even 18 months ago, that things like this would come to pass. A lot of us are familiar with the sight of plant closures and lost jobs, because for years, north American jobs have moved from Canada and the US to : Mexico, India, China and any other country that had a cheap workforce and could show the mega companies more profit.

The same sort of silliness had been happening to our food processing sector (The Smithville Hershy's plant is a good example).

Bizarre as it seems, the United States, with it's incredibly weak dollar, is now as good as any third world country, for plants to locate in.

Now I say that with tongue in cheek, because of course until recently, we had that fortunate or unfortunate position, depending on your industry and point of view.

There were also some voices in the wilderness that warned a low dollar (for whatever reason) was NOT a reliable strategy for survival in the long term. It places an indirect 'cost' out there to someone, somewhere, and that is a shaky building for any economy. Indeed, at one time the United States was accusing China of having pegged its currency artificially low and where threatening to have the IMF (International Monetary Fund) intervene.

If we stay locked into this ridiculous cycle of boom and bust, that allows companies to close and open plants anywhere in the world they can see an edge, no one will ever win. Sooner or later affected countries will slip into some similar cycle of economic down term (caused by the job losses,etc.) that has plants and companies coming back, only to see the same cycle for other countries affected by the new job losses.

Another way to look at things is to consider that jobs are being stolen from one country by the next and as each new country reaches some pinnacle of high currencyand strong economy, jobs leave, pushing said country over the edge.

Is this any way to run a world economy?

Surprise ... surprise!!!!

2008-02-29T19:43:00.000-08:00

I just received my monthly Macleans for March 2008. Now, I have been hard on Macleans on occasion, because, frankly, some of the articles deserved to be left unwritten, as they were so unbalanced and biased, it was a dis-service to all, including their urban audience, that they ever saw the light of day.

This month is a surprise, though and not a bad thing in my mind at all. Front and centre on the cover:

Rampant demand. Sudden shortages. Riots over prices. The world food crisis is starting to hit home.

YOUR GROCERY BILL IS ABOUT TO HURT

The article is written by Charlie Gillis and is a very in depth and thoughtful look into a number of issues. I'll leave it to you to decide on the level of importance you can attach to them. One very big surprise is the credit Gillis gives to the National Farmers Union. The Union did write to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and for that they should get major kudos. It was a piece of far sightedness we all could use.

Gillis also goes into some surprising statistics that our own farmers and farm organizations should be looking at and thinking about. Earlier this week reports from some interesting sources (prisonplanet.com) were speculating on similar announcements from the FAO. I am a bit surprised that the Macleans article even saw the light of day.

As well, this week CTV's Pat Foran reported at length about the increasing cost of wheat for pasta, although he used the term, food inflation.

As a consumer and parent the issues can be chilling. How many can grow their own food? What about preserving it yourself? If we are in fact, teetering on the edge ........ what is our own government doing to protect our people from such possible, frightening outcomes?

Many of us in agriculture are aware of the history around farming and food production. Society as a whole is not. It was only the efficiency and productiveness on the nations farms that freed society to pursue other avenues of wealth and built the societies we have to-day.

I hope you all take a long hard look at the article and use this profile to urge our government to take real Food Sovereignty very seriously. Perhaps you will have willing voices to help spread the word.-CG

Canadain Wheat Board Wins ..... NOW What!!!

2008-02-28T19:33:00.000-08:00

Consider the latest headlines about the Canadian government's blatant campaign to flout parliament and destroy farmer's bargaining power in these recent headlines:

Conservatives lose court battle over wheat board, showdown in Parliament looming

Battle over barley resumes

RULING CONFIRMS FARMERS’ RIGHT TO DETERMINE CWB FUTURE the National Farmers Union Press Release

MPs say time for feds to abandon barley campaign from CTV news .

So just what is propelling, compelling the government to push so hard to destroy farmer's marketing power? Free trade dogma or just the Alberta connection? Regardless, it is making them look a little ridiculous as they announce their latest salvo in response to the news above:

MINISTERIAL STATEMENT ON COURT DECISION ON MARKETING CHOICE FOR BARLEY

OTTAWA, Ontario, February 26 2008

The Honourable Gerry Ritz, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food and Minister for the Canadian Wheat Board, today issued the following statement in response to a Federal Court of Appeal decision on the Government of Canada's appeal of the Federal Court ruling which maintained that the Canadian Wheat Board Regulations must be changed through legislation.

"I am disappointed with the decision of the Federal Court of Appeal. We will carefully review the decision and decide on our next steps accordingly. "

This Government understands that farmers work hard to grow the grain they sell and they should get the best price possible for that work. As a matter of fact, over 62 per cent of Western Canadian farmers voted in support of barley marketing freedom last year.

We are committed to providing the marketing choice Western Canada's grain producers have demanded and deserve. Producers need market certainty and we will continue working to provide it to them.

This Government is committed to pursuing all avenues to deliver market freedom to Western barley producers. We will be moving ahead quickly with legislation to give them this freedom.

1-866-345-7972
613-759-1059

The Office of the Honourable Gerry Ritz

So, is it possible the next battle will be in the legislature? If so, farmers and supporters of collective marketing had better sharpen their swords.-CG

Don't they have Better Things To DO??

2008-02-07T19:07:00.000-08:00

I am completely fed up with the high jinks from the current 'new government' . Among a list of stupidities they have gone after the Canadian Wheat Board again. At least it appears that way.

This past weeks offerings include:

Opposition parties see interference in firing of agency official

Wheat Board fires official who criticized government

PM makes 'em gag-Harperites muzzle opposition beyond Parliament Hill

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - Ian White, a veteran of Australia's grain trade, will become the next head of the Canadian Wheat Board, one of the world's largest grain exporters, Canada's agriculture minister said on Wednesday.

I also found this article published last fall in the Western Dairy Farmer by Wendy R. Holm called 'Beware a Conservative Majority'. It is an issue dairy farmers need to monitor closely.

And if the PM has his way it looks like we will be forced into an election by hook or by crook. If it isn't Afghanistan ... they will make sure it's the Crime Bill or the Budget or...........-CG

The Silence is Deafening!!!

2008-02-04T17:35:00.000-08:00

One reader recently asked the question: "Which consumer groups would best represent the feelings of the consumer?"

So I decided that, I would do a little bit of research into our consumer associations, to see what popped up. Imagine my surprise when on the main page of the Consumers Association of Canada, I found a ridiculous article slamming the "extra fat" one may find in cheese once the new regulations come into force. This title may give you a clue: Federal Government Moves to Fatten up Canadians

It seems to me they should be far more concerned about the 'source' of Canadian food, the complete irrelavence of the "Product of Canada" label, the need for Canadians to retain their food producers and their processors (Did we learn nothing from BSE?) , among a few of the pressing issues about food that consumers want answers for.

Instead the CAC spent their time slamming Canadian dairy farmers for demanding regulations that will ensure the quality and components in cheese manufactured or shipped into this country. This means the label on cheese will actually mean something to consumers and that cheese that says it's cheese will taste like cheese and cook like cheese. How can that be a bad thing?

I don't think they are in much of a position to give us any help. Consumer associations do not seem interested in rounding out the public education at all. They are more likely to be attacking agriculture.

The whole issue of new regulations for cheese also has sparked some more nasty articles in our favourite national news rag (the Globe and Mail). Conveniently included is Mr. Reynolds e-mail so you can fire off a missive.

Entitled:

Sacred cows: Guess who's getting milked

NEIL REYNOLDS
nreynolds@xplornet.com

February 1, 2008

OTTAWA -- Except for nuclear power, Canada's dairy industry is perhaps the most intensely regulated industry in the country - and perhaps the most discreetly regulated, too. When the federal government quietly promulgated radical new restrictions on Canada's cheese makers in the Canada Gazette last month, it did so on Boxing Day.

At the heart of the new edict is a requirement that cheese contain a higher proportion of whole milk - as opposed to milk byproducts - a change that cheese makers say would increase the cost of production. In its commentary on these protectionist regulations, the government noted in passing that the dairy industry has been getting smaller, "with typically static or declining growth," for 15 years. The only significant exception, it observed, was cheese. From 307,000 tonnes in 1994 to 379,000 tonnes in 2005, Canadian cheese production has increased by almost 25 per cent -- most of it in the form of innovative "specialty" cheeses that give consumers the illusion of access to the cheeses of the world. read more...

If you want real information about cheese and the new regulations, check my post 'Campaign to Keep Cheese Real' and the Real Cheese website.

Oh, and don't forget to speak to Mr. Reynolds.

Local Milk ??

2008-01-14T06:46:00.000-08:00

The Canadian consumer is upset but they are not screaming at their MP's or sending volumes of letters. This would be a helpful response for the farm industry in this county. It might wake legislators up. However, don't hold your breath.

Instead, busy consumers are doing other things to protect themselves from the onslaught of imported foods. They are freezing fresh vegetables they bought this season from markets and stores, that they know are local/regionally sourced. Fruit cellars and root cellars are topics of interest again. The Local food movement is growing by leaps and bounds.

So what about milk?

In discussion with just about anyone who supports local food movements it becomes very clear they have no idea how milk and milk products are supplied to plants in this province. They also don't seem to realize that the farm down the road is the supplier of their product and his milk could go to any of those plants.

According to Dairy Farmers of Ontario, this province has 76 milk processors. They list 10 of the largest and most well know on their links page. Why not on their "Comsumer page" too?

Somehow though, the dis-connect between even dairy farmers and consumers remains. The average guy is just not going to go looking for this info. They assume 'organic' is local, because for decades it was!

For the rest of the ag industry, less well funded and less focused on this issue, virtually NO information is getting to THEIR consumers about the issues in their industry that they need the buying public to understand.

Farmers are in despair and consumers are looking for local solutions. Meanwhile the largest, most efficient distributor of food products (the food retailers), is bringing food into their stores that I and many other consumers do not want!!!

It is in with-in the power of farmers to act. It will not be cheap. The buying public MUST find out what is going on. For many of them the major source of their information is the local media.

If newspapers and television will not provide the public with the information they need, then farmers and their organizations need to do much, much more to solve this problem.

A 'Grown in Canada' label is a good thing for us all. However, without pressure from the public, this is a slow road to salvation and I don't believe we have the luxury of time on our side.

Farmers and their organizations have all the information the public needs. They need to share it.

'Tis the Season.....

2008-01-06T19:03:00.000-08:00

Sigh .... Christmas IS over and here we are barely into the new year and the attacks have already begun.

Dairy farmers have attracted some very powerful enemies, as I have mentioned before. Take the recent article in The Toronto Sun .

Land of milk and money

Canadians are paying more while drinking less of it, as other nations clamour for a sip -- so why aren't we exporting any?
By THANE BURNETT, NATIONAL BUREAU

The world is skimming the bottom of the milk bottle.
But, to the disappointment of some Canadians, we're not about to sell full glasses to others.
In countries such as Canada and Australia, the most natural drink next to water is fighting hard for dwindling fridge space.

Canadians are drinking less milk and eating far less butter than they did two decades ago, while in the land Down Under, the drop in dairy sales is almost three times as much.

Our market gets smaller, while beyond our borders a thirst grows, leading some to wonder why Canada is not following Australia's lead and changing its protected system to meet a global demand -- something which could cut prices here at home. read more....

This one has quite a twist in it as of course Canadian dairy farmers could send more milk out there into the world IF the World Trade Organization (WTO) and certain other countries would let them.

The article , of course fails to point this out, leaving ordinary Canadians think that Canadian dairy farmers don't get it. We don't have to look too far for the slanted source of this doggerel.

The writer quotes the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association(CRFA). Committed enemies of Canadian dairy farmers, they even have a plan they would like the government to follow.

Of course this would benefit them and recent events have shown, would not benefit dairy farmers at all. Continued reliance on the dollar and exports have nearly destroyed the beef and pork sectors.

Retail prices have nothing to do with farmers and everything to do with the strangle hold our food retailers have on the industry. I am disappointed that the writer pays lip service to dairy representatives and only puts forward those statistics in favour of his view.

I would not be surprised if those had been given to him by the CRFA, too!

The article is full of stats which have been successfully countered many times. Just good enough to leave people wondering. A rather unique twist though on the "shortage" side.

These people are just not going to let up. I checked their web page just to see what they are up to and dairy figures prominently on their website.

Under Menu Price Parity they have a number of beefs. Here is one:

Canadian consumers and restaurant owners pay among the world’s highest prices for supply-managed dairy and poultry products.

Canadian restaurant owners report paying up to 40% more than their U.S. counterparts do for supply managed dairy and poultry products.

Dairy products such as milk, cheese, butter, yogurt and ice cream are among the most widely used food items in a typical restaurant, but Canadian restaurateurs are forced to pay some of the world’s highest prices. They are prohibited from buying these products outside of Canada, with import tariffs of up to 300%. Similar restrictions are in place for chicken, turkey and eggs.

This antiquated supply management system doesn’t exist in the U.S., where restaurant operators are free to source their products from their supplier of choice and negotiate a price that’s fair to both parties. It’s important to note that Canadian restaurateurs rely on fresh, high quality Canadian food products, and they want to work with producers to expand their markets. But they also need those products to be competitively priced.

You can also check out their slanted complaints about milk prices here...

Hmmmm... they might even have this claptrap posted in their restaurants.

The dairy industry needs to pull up it's bootstraps and plan a serious long term counter attack! Time to call in the experts, boys.

Rickets?!? In 21st Century North America?!!!!

2007-11-28T08:48:00.000-08:00

This just popped up on my computer! I am stunned! In this day and age how something we had conquered so many years ago is again appearing in our society is mind boggling. It shows me that the more we think we know in our society, the less we really do know. How can society lose the lessons so hard won from the recent past?

Every action has an equal and opposite re-action.... should always be front and centre in our governments mind. If parents have lost the knowledge, it has to be up to public health and the government of the day to get it RIGHT!!!

In my mind this also calls into question the new Health Canada Guidelines. I have always been concerned they are relying less on valid science and far too much on something else.

Too little milk, exercise, sunshine hurting kids
Updated Mon. Nov. 26 2007 2:49 PM ET
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- Too little milk, sunshine and exercise: It's an anti-bone trifecta. And for some kids, shockingly, it's leading to rickets, the soft-bone scourge of the 19th century.
But cases of full-blown rickets are just the red flag: Bone specialists say possibly millions of seemingly healthy children aren't building as much strong bone as they should -- a gap that may leave them more vulnerable to bone-cracking osteoporosis later in life than their grandparents are.

"This potentially is a time-bomb," says Dr. Laura Tosi, bone health chief at Children's National Medical Center in Washington.

Now scientists are taking the first steps to track kids' bone quality and learn just how big a problem the anti-bone trio is causing, thanks to new research that finally shows just what "normal" bone density is for children of different ages. more.......

Food for Thought?

2007-11-25T19:10:00.000-08:00

With all the discussion about 100 Mile Diets and NOT "Made in Canada" labelling....... someone out there needs to stitch this all together for the Canadian public. What does the continued importation of of our food needs really mean for Canadians? What possible connection can the World Trade Organization (WTO) have to the public when it comes to our food?

It doesn't take long for those in the industry to make a mental leap forward. Of course many in Agriculture know this is about the sustainability of agriculture in general.

Recent high profile shows like Marketplace and W5 have sent the public a jolt but I don't think they (the public) have put the picture together.

I spent over an hour and a half looking for sites within agriculture that would give the consumer what they need to propel their outrage about "Made in Canada" into the next step. I failed to find one site that would help them. I found long term solutions ie) the Green Label concept from the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, the GO5 and Farmgate 5, among others. All of these are focused on the Government or specific to the WTO.

If you Google 'domestic food supply' or 'sustainable food', you see a collection of results that talk about the feeding world's poor, organic food production and other broad, dry material, perhaps suitable for governments and intellectuals but not for the public.

Worse, often the answer appears to be Organic food production. This totally discounts the enormous gains made by traditional ariculture. Local food shows up as well. Most of the public think of this as the Farmers Market or the guy down the road who supplies local restaurants or stores.

Not one thing that would help the public understand the immediate and long term danger for ourselves , our food supply, our country or what they can do about it. Not one thing about our food system in this country, what we should keep and celebrate and what they need to ask our governments. Nothing about local or regional foods like dairy products that are here AND in their stores fresh everyday.

The question the industry needs to ask itself is this: "If you have a government that has failed to demonstrate any concrete, positive action for the industry (dairy or others) just what will it take to make them pay attention?"

All the organizations I checked agree that the real power is in the hands of the consumer (public).

It is time someone sat down and put together something for them!!

There are many, many ways to get that to them but if it is NOT in a form they understand and can relate to, the message will be lost.

Supply management and agriculture in this country have struggled for years to mobilize their public. Most of the time it is the WTO and pushing the government of the day, that is the focus.

The industry's biggest challenge to do this would be to agree on the message. If it is the Green Label for "Grown in Canada", all the presentations in the world will not lead to success if the public is not educated about it and brought on board in a big way.

So how about it guys..... let's get going!

Nov 11, 2007

2007-11-10T10:24:00.001-08:00

In Flanders Fields the cannons boom,

And fitful flashes light the gloom;

While up above, like eagles, fly

The fierce destroyers of the sky;

With stains the earth wherein you lie

Is redder than the poppy bloom,

In Flanders Fields.

Sleep on, ye brave! The shrieking shell,

The quaking trench, the startling yell,

The fury of the battle hell

Shall wake you not, for all is well;

Sleep peacefully, for all is well.

Your flaming torch aloft we bear,

With burning heart and oath we swear

To keep the faith, to fight it through,

To crush the foe, or sleep with you,

In Flanders Fields.

~~By J.A. Armstrong.~~

Follow this link for a look at last year's Rememberance Day Tribute.

A Watershed Moment??

2007-10-28T13:13:00.000-07:00

On CTV National news last night a segment of W-5's season opener: "Safe to Eat?", was aired as 'news'. Hot diggity.. maybe now the government will pay attention.

So, just for fun I visited our friendly neighbourhood CTV W-5 sites and CBC Marketplace to see what has been happening since both these shows aired.

Certainly the CBC site has more to offer in visible feedback from the consumers who viewed the show. Comments on the site are growing by leaps and bounds. Most consumers are shocked. Many seem to view to current state of affairs on "Made in Canada" as a government betrayal of a public trust!! Hmmmm. This sounds promising.

The comments do cover a wide range of thoughts on the issue, from alternate strategies to protect themselves to complaints about the choice of food retailers and processors. All of them are wonderfully illuminating.

Taken together, they point to the massive disconnect the public has with the source of their food. This is not their fault. The struggles farmers have had with WTO policies and the results, processors and their bottom lines and a lot of other stuff, just isn't 'out there'. If it does hit the media, few make the connection to themselves and their futures or their food. They just don't have enough information to do that.

Agriculture must help them understand what the risks are, what is going on out there and what we might need to do to 'fix' this current state of affairs. But if they come up with something, it must get media exposure. Somehow, it is to be hoped that their messages are heard.

CBC's Marketplace, Too?!

2007-10-27T11:05:00.000-07:00

While the buzz about the up-coming show for W-5 has been spinning out there in Internet land, this came back in!

CBC's Marketplace did a show this week too! Aired on Wednesday evening they deal with the Made in Canada label and consumer's feelings both before and after their investigation. The headline reads: It says "Product of Canada" on the package, but the food is really from China. Or New Zealand. Or...

CBC also has extensive written information on how to ensure you really get domestic food AND a comments section that is quite revealing. If you have Facebook connections DO pass this around. As consumers we need to know and be educated about this farce in labelling.

Two networks on the same topic on investigative shows in ONE week. WOW!!!!

Watch CTV's W-5!!!

2007-10-25T08:57:00.000-07:00

This Saturday evening, CTV's W5 has it's season opener. They have been advertising it all week. The topic should have every farmer in the country glued to the set. 'Safe to Eat?' should wake up and help to educate consumers. From talking to many of them I know that the average shopper still doesn't understand how little protection they have or how exposed they are by the inadequacies of the "Made in Canada" label.

The missing backbone in the "Made in Canada" legislation has also exposed many of our domestic farmers to ruin as processors take advantage of the "holes" in the labelling guidelines that allow them to import vast quantities of cheap food, simply to re-package it. The poor consumer thinks they are being protected by our pitiful "Made in Canada" label.

I can hardly believe that someone has finally picked up this issue. So far, mainstream media has skated around the edges of this one.

Farmers are being handed a prime time springboard and they better be prepared to leap!

On the Public Radar-Not Yet!

2007-10-16T06:27:00.000-07:00

In the past few months, as environmental issues take over the public imagination, the term "Local Food", has become widely used. But our governments' and indeed many of the farm organizations in this country, have paid little heed or have been ignoring the immediacy of this issue.

There have been 'baby steps'. Ontario has pumped millions of dollars into it's Foodland Ontario program to help Ontario residents identify and look for Ontario grown produce and fruit. It has had some impact in that retailers were paying attention and put those products front and centre with the logo. So far it falls short of the mark I believe it needs to hit.

Consumers need more than that during the winter months when imports are rampant.

Quebec farmers have taken another road to raise the profile of the concept of 'food sovereignty', which ultimately should be any governments bottom line. A declaration has been signed on the issue by more than 40 Quebec organizations. The GO5 ( Coalition for a Fair Farming Model)intend to raise the profile with the Quebec government and other farm organizations in Canada.

Ontario supply managed farmers have a program as well. Not as well supported as it could be, never the less, it is supportive of the Quebec concept. Known as the FarmGate 5 , it has the attention of the Ontario Liberal Government caucus. Many individual MPP's have signed it too.

Dairy Farmers of Canada has started to talk about and discuss food sovereignty too.

Unfortunately, none of these groups have come to the realization that their consumers must howl, to really get some government attention. They have taken the slow road. A many pronged approach with big bucks is imperative. Consumers must go to their grocery stores and be angry they cannot get or identify, clearly marked, real Canadian food products. They need to understand the incredible danger current global food policies have exposed them to.

They need to be reminded that our border was closed in the not too distant past (BSE). It can and will happen again. It is only a matter of 'when'. They need to know that their food supply in this country is at risk because many food processors have moved (along with everyone else) to greener pastures off-shore. They need to know that this has not happened with supply managed food because of it's domestic focus.

This is a large undertaking and several levels of advertising support will be needed. It is the only way to empower consumers, who need to understand their own food system much, much better than they do now.

With environmental issues so high on the radar screen, there is a good news story to tell and an urgent warning to all Canadians. The land has to be preserved. The farms must survive. Domestic food processing is an imperative. We ignore these issues at our peril. Farmers must find a way to educate their base support, Canadians who care. They DO, in much larger numbers than anyone realizes. -CG

Cheesed Off!!!!

2007-09-16T19:25:00.000-07:00

I was very surprised last evening to see an extensive report on the CTV National news about the new cheese regulations. CTV covered the story but to me the most important part of the issue for the public was either missed or ignored by the media.

They had quotes from several organizations, none who are happy about the new regs. All were referring to the old saw about increased consumer prices. Their new twist is this is bad for consumers because the additon of milk will make it harder to provide 'low-fat' cheeses!!! Back to the 'fat attacks'!!!!

There was a brief clip of the Chair of Dairy Farmers of Canada talking about this 'consistency' being good for consumers.

The real issue and message seemed to disappear in all the hyperbole. This is of course the fact that many ingredients in use now can be from Canada but are not necessarily from Canada. Expediency, amounts available and of course price, all impact the country used as the source of the stuff.

In my consumer mind the only thing I want to know is that the stuff IS from Canada. Period.

Not China, the USA or Europe or Asia or India ....... Canada. Until cheese manufacturers can answer that question, they need to get off the pot. Label the stuff so I don't have to guess. Lots of others do. The public wants decent labelling and 'made in Canada' laws that give us real information.

Sigh ...Not Again!!?

2007-08-27T18:56:00.000-07:00

Well just like clock-work, we are back to WTO discussions. And just like the summer's heat I expected something from our famous right wing think tanks. To-day I got it.

The Montreal Economic Institutes latest offering is entitled: Supply Management of Farm Products: a costly system for consumers, it comes complete with a media release. It was a snippet on to-days noon news.

Here is a sampling:

$300 per family – Supply management of farm products: a costly system for consumers Montreal, August 23, 2007 -

As the commission on the future of Quebec’s agriculture and agrifood sector begins its hearings, the Montreal Economic Institute is estimating that supply management of milk, eggs and poultry costs at least $300 extra per year for a family of four. This amounts to $575 million for everyone in Quebec.

In an Economic Note published by the Institute, Marcel Boyer, its vice-president and chief economist, explains that astronomical customs duties and the setting of high prices for these food items constitute a particularly regressive tax on low-income consumers. “This system, motivated by protectionism, operates largely as a cartel and is obsolete, costly and unfair,” Mr. Boyer says. “The food and agriculture sector must adapt to international competition and stop penalizing consumers, as well as farmers themselves in the long run.”

(see more...)

Now I have to give them points for trying. But after some of the interesting articles lately, about the real cost of cheap food policies, I don't think they are going to resonate with the public. I do think the feds are willing to use this same old doggerel for their own purposes. That IS the part of this clap trap that bothers me the most.

For last season's effort see Dairiblawg's The Big Leagues Weigh In !!

A love affair with ice cream

2007-08-27T18:05:00.001-07:00

The Star has been doing an amazing job of trying to educate it's consumers. This article deserves a re-print because it is specific about various ice cream makers and the fact much of the ice cream out there is NOT made from cream. I am positive many consumers will be shocked and the dairy industry had better be prepared for their next question: "So where does it come from?"-CG

Husband and wife team Martin deGroot and Ineke Booy operate a dairy farm, as well as an organic ice cream bar, near Elora, west of Guelph.

A love affair with ice cream

June 27, 2007

TheStar.com -We seem to associate it with good times, so it's no mystery why we love the creamy stuff

Katherine Elphick Special to the Star

When it comes to ice cream, Doug Goff is always "on the lookout for weird and wonderful" flavours.

"If there's a strange one on the list, I'm the guy who will try it," says Goff, a University of Guelph professor of food science who specializes in dairy, specifically, in ice cream.

Bizarre entries to his flavour inventory range from salmon and lobster to jalapeño pepper.
Sampling could be considered research for the ice cream expert. He's penned a textbook, published various studies on ice cream and taught courses on the subject for 20 years.

With such credentials, it seems only fitting to ask this ice cream guru: Why do we have a love affair with the stuff?

"It's a fun, social product, and people associate it with good times like vacations, family outings and birthday parties," Goff says. "It also satisfies a great number of taste needs and craving sensations. It's creamy, smooth, sweet and cold – and it comes in a wide variety of flavours."
Canadian per capita consumption is about 10 litres per year, but in the U.S., it's 22 litres per year.

Ontario is the hub of ice cream manufacturing in Canada, Goff says, with about 90 per cent of the national production. The three biggest players in Canada's market are Chapman's, Nestlé and Unilever, which has brands such as Breyers.

But there are smaller, independent manufacturers, often attached to dairies, throughout the province, such as Kawartha Dairy in Bobcaygeon, northeast of Toronto. Once exclusive to cottage country, the dairy's popular brand is now available across central Ontario.

Despite its expanding market, Kawartha Dairy's vice-president and general manager Blake Frazer says its premium quality hasn't been compromised.

"We still make ice cream the old-fashioned way," says Frazer, whose marketing strategy recognizes that cottagers might need that Kawartha fix during the off-season. "If you look at the ingredients, the first two items are fresh milk and fresh cream."

On hot summer days, customers can wait up to 30 minutes for an exceptionally creamy cone.
Other company-owned retail outlets are located in Minden, Bancroft, Lindsay, Uxbridge and Huntsville. This year, the company will churn out about 2 million litres of ice cream.

While Kawartha Dairy is sticking to old-fashioned methods of production, a growing number of manufacturers are abandoning the popular milk and cream formula. Several are now using mixes or, imported butteroil-sugar blends. Nearly half the butterfat used in ice cream comes from imported blends, according to industry estimates. In short, it's a substitute for Canadian-based dairy fat, an issue that angers some Ontario dairy farmers.

"The larger players are doing this for cost savings," says Frazer from his office overlooking the dairy, which has been owned by the Crowe family for 70 years.

A good cone can still be found at Mapleton's Organic Dairy near Elora, west of Guelph.

Traditional favourites and specialty flavours, including dandelion, are offered at this scooping shop, located on a 240-hectare dairy farm. Mapleton's products are also sold at health food stores and higher-end supermarkets.

"My wife's really creative," says Martin deGroot, who owns and operates the farm and dairy with his wife, Ineke Booy. "She's always coming up with new flavours."

Mapleton's processes its own milk (from 70 resident cattle) into certified organic premium ice cream, frozen and fresh yogurt.

"Our products really are farm fresh," says deGroot, while relaxing at the dairy's ice cream café and organic grocery store. Dressed like a scientist, in a white lab coat and hair net (he just finished making a batch of cappuccino ice cream), he stresses the importance of bringing people to the farm.

"It's a great way to reduce food miles," he explains. "The more we can sell off the farm, the better it is for the environment."

Ice cream aficionados should also check out Steen's Dairy in Erin, northwest of Toronto.
"We're a real old-fashioned kind of place," says Marie Maltby, 68, who has been the manager of the dairy bar for 31 years. "It's like stepping back in time when you come here."

The 60-year-old dairy bar features 16 bar stools where customers can indulge in a dish of handmade ice cream. The Steen family also runs the on-site dairy, which processes organic milk.
"Our ice cream is very creamy," says Maltby, who readily admits to doing lots of quality control. But the dairy bar is most famous for its homemade milkshakes.

Regular customer Robert Turnbull agrees. "The chocolate milkshakes are fantastic," he says, while waiting for his order. "They just have that small-town dairy taste, and nothing else can match it."

Maltby says that the best part about ice cream is its universal appeal. "You're never too old to enjoy it."

Katherine Elphick is a Barrie-area writer and recipe developer.

More Food News ?!?!

2007-08-20T08:20:00.000-07:00

Lately, there has been almost too much information on the subject of imported food. I was sure this was affecting the average grocery shopper. The following article tells me I am on to something, here.

"Majority fear imported food unsafe, poll finds" from August 2nd Globe & Mail.

In addition, the Star, has been focusing on many local farmers help educate their readers about local food, many by Catherine Porter .

Toil and trouble, down on the farm

Strawberry fields not forever

The hopeless blight on our strawberries

Radishes and rutabagas and a bit of razzmatazz

'Eat local' message never goes out of style

And lately.......

Our fool's paradise of cheap products

Made in Canada?

Labelled in Canada

The wave of concern has become a crashing storm as more China scandals unfold. The latest of course involves our children and their toys. Our food and our children....... if I were a food retailer or processor in this country I would WANT to label my products, just to be safe.

What's going on here?

2007-08-12T14:02:00.000-07:00

It looks like the PM and Minister Strahl have really caught the media's attention on this one ....finally! On Aug. 5th, Question Period was focused on the handling of the Canadian Wheat Board issue and the eventual, last minuet reprieve via the federal courts. I reiterate that this IS the big time.

It certainly helped that major political annalist's had been ejected from the hotel the Conservatives were at for their summer caucus meeting. Big mistake!!!

To-day on Question Period the discussion was about the upcoming Cabinet shuffle but later they again discussed the Canadian Wheat Board and the conservative handling of this event. The Prime Minister's reaction to the court ruling was also raised.

Two weeks in a row on Question Period raises the whole thing to another level.-CG

I hate to say.........

2007-08-11T20:01:00.000-07:00

I have been raving on this site for a while about the 'local' food movement, about the concerns consumers have over the source of their food and the profile the pet food poisoning has provided. I even pointed out that consumers don't spend time complaining about these issues to food stores. They don't have the time and they don't know who to complain to.

The signs are there, the big boys are nervous. Some smart cookie is starting to think about some of the ramifications of all of this stuff. Farmers better start pushing them even harder. They can't forget frozen foods or meats! What about milk products? Shouldn't they be under this 'banner' too?

I hope someone is paying attention out there.-CG

Loblaw Loves Local!
“Ontario Grown – Picked at its Peak” Produce Program arriving in Ontario Stores Today

Brampton, ON – July 28, 2007 – Leading the growing movement towards buying local and satisfying consumer demand when it comes to sourcing food, Loblaw Companies is proud to launch its “Ontario Grown- Picked at its Peak” produce program across all Ontario Loblaws, Fortinos, Zehrs, Valu-Mart and Your Independent Grocer stores.

Loblaw Companies are avid supporters of Ontario grown produce! Shoppers will find stores overflowing with large selections of farm-fresh produce. The vibrant colours, freshness and mouthwatering taste pops during peak season. Loblaw works closely with farmers in maintaining high standards of excellence to ensure consumers get the freshest and most flavourful fruits and vegetables possible. “Ontario Grown – Picked at its Peak” produce program will have a positive impact on local economies and help revive and support Ontario’s family farms. Loblaws Companies is committed to this relationship – to consumers and to farmers!

Arriving today, shoppers can look for special “Ontario Grown – Picked at its Peak” signage and farmers market displays in produce departments. To learn more about farmer families, food guides, recipes and produce specials visit: www.loblaws.ca, www.fortinos.ca, www.zehrs.ca, www.valumart.ca, www.yourindependentgrocer.ca.

About Loblaw Companies Limited

Loblaw Companies Limited is Canada's largest food distributor and a leading provider of general merchandise, drugstore and financial products and services. Through its various operating banners, Loblaw is committed to providing Canadians with a one-stop destination in meeting their food and everyday household needs. This goal is pursued through a portfolio of store formats across the country. It also offers one of Canada's strongest control label programs, including the unique President's Choice® and no name® brands. Loblaw is one of the largest private-sector employers in Canada, employing over 139,000 full-time and part-time employees.
-30-

For more information or to arrange an interview with a spokesperson, please contact:
David Primorac
Director, PR Formats
Loblaw Companies Limited
Office: 905-459-2500 ext. 3634
david.primorac@loblaw.ca

All Canadians Win with the CWB !!

2007-08-02T08:45:00.000-07:00

There has been a fair amount of reporting on the events of July 31st, 2007. That is the day the Canadian Wheat Board won a decision against the federal government regarding the method it employed to try to dismantle the Canadian Wheat Board.

Although it has been high on the radar of farm organizations, farmers themselves and many regulated marketing boards, I was unsure how the rest of the country was viewing the disgracful events of the last 6 months.

What does it mean for us all, if a minority government can ignore the law of parliament with impunity and do what it wants? For many, it means there is no democracy. This is why we MUST have a judiciary that is separate from politics. The current government has stated it's intention of changing this, too. We do not need a court system at the mercy of our politicians.

Other thoughtful Canadians are saying similar things. The government's mis-handling of the issue has resonated with far more Canadians than I was aware of. They have seen through the smoke thrown by the Harper government.

For some very interesting reading see the comments at the end of the article entitled:

Court slams Ottawa over Wheat Board
DAWN WALTON
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
August 1, 2007 at 12:02 AM EDT

The Canadian Wheat Board Wins........

2007-08-01T16:09:00.001-07:00

This was an important decision for all farmers and their regulated marketing boards or agencies. The Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) received a ruling yesterday from a Federal Court Judge, that effectively stops the beginning of the end. Kudos to the CWB for having the fortitude to take this battle to the courts for a ruling.

This is a valuable lesson for us all. Farmers are to be congratulated for their elected members taking the Government to the wall on this one. I would consider this an important legal test of the legislation itself. They have endured much. Shame on this Government for forcing them to take these steps to protect their industry.

Judge rules against gov't in wheat board battle

Canadian Press

Updated: Tue. Jul. 31 2007 11:04 PM ET

OTTAWA — A court decision has derailed, at least temporarily, the federal government's plan to strip the Canadian Wheat Board of its monopoly on western barley sales.

From the article:

"Well, obviously, I'm very disappointed," Strahl said in a telephone interview from Charlottetown. "The Federal Court has made a decision I'm very disappointed with."

Strahl said he never expected the case to end up in court in the first place.

'Nuff said!! -cg

What Can a Consumer DO!!!??

2007-07-28T19:27:00.000-07:00

There's no doubt about it. The food processors in this country have done the consumers of Canada the greatest dis-service ever. I have more than a little knowledge when it comes to identifying Canada sourced food in the grocery stores. But it looks like not only have our processors run off to Asia, our regulators have made the "Made in Canada" label a joke and worst than useless!

In conversations with consumers (that means 'shoppers' boys) everywhere, the topic comes up. People are frustrated and angry that their ability to make choices on the food available in their grocery stores, has been taken away from them.

I feel qualified to find good local, fresh foods now, when they are plentiful and real farmers markets are supplying a wonderful array of fresh locally grown vegetables and fruit.

I am very concerned that this winter I will have no choices that provide any comfort about my family's food sources.

I do believe that customers of these large retailers will leave in droves. They are only buying now because no sources with good labelling are readily available but I believe that the demand is there and it is growing.

Consumers don't complain about things in stores like they should, they leave and find alternate sources for their food. THIS is what is behind the growing demand for organic foods. I know that I can go to small organic stores and find local Canadian foods all year. If I have to this is what I will do.

Now, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has handed the Organic movement the single thing it needs to equate quality and CANADIAN with a label. Oh, and they have helped publicized it to boot! Where does this leave the 'other' farmers in this country?

As a group, they have been asking Ag Canada to develop a label or regulations to identify grown in Canada foods for a long time. The government continually avoids this final step because they believe they will hit the trade barrier wall with anything that smacks of Country of Origin Labels!

Why was this not the case for Organic foods which are being imported at an unprecedented pace? The new Certified Canadian Organic label will definitely act as a country of origin barrier to many imported food items.

I saw a commercial for Natrel Milk the other evening and flashed on the screen at the beginning is the statement: "Natrel milk does not contain rBSt or anti-biotics like all milk produced in Canada".

As a consumer education effort it is a baby step, but someone out there understands what I do. Food shoppers are avoiding products when they cannot identify them as Canadian and we better give them the tools in a hurry, before their hard won confidence in our food products is lost.

They do not know that the majority of milk is produced and processed here. Better tell them quick. I can't think of a better use for the blue cow... but boy, you'd better back that up with some fast, high profile info to educate them.

Wheat Board Latest.....

2007-07-26T19:34:00.000-07:00

I have to give the Canadian Wheat Board credit. They are fighting hard to stop "Canada's New Government", from imposing something on them they never asked for and that their producers appear to NOT want. I have followed this particular battle for quite some time.

Note:As all my archived posts from Dairiblawg's former site have not been entered here, yet. Not all older posts will be available for the interested reader. When time permits they will be posted here.

I wish them well in their battle. Many of the other sectors of agriculture should be hoping for this as well.-CG

AGRICULTURE
Battle heats up over barley monopoly

Canadian Wheat Board takes Ottawa to court this week over Conservatives' move to open up market

JOE FRIESEN
July 23, 2007

The Canadian Wheat Board is taking the government to court this week in a last-ditch attempt to preserve its monopoly on barley sales.

Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) Good news for all of us!

2007-07-17T06:59:00.000-07:00

The July issue of the (Ontario) Milk Producer had a lengthy article that all of us should be paying a lot of attention to. Entitled: "CLA:milk's emerging miracle fat" , it is full of information about Conjugated linoleic acid ( CLA) , the CLA Network, some of the research results and the many modern health ills that CLA may be able to defeat.

The dairy industry is to be commended for their assistance in forming this collaborative network of scientists and research. As the article mentions, Health Canada is notoriously slow in allowing health claims for food products. Having a large body of science and research in one place, should improve the odds, when the time is right. A large clinical trial in the human population is likely the next step, if the industry wants the word to get out to the public.

Witness the explosive results from Vitamin D research results, earlier this year. Before Health Canada could act, the Canadian Cancer Society,was already advocating its increased usage for the public! If the industry is really lucky, the same result could happen with CLA. Having the best information and removing the 'saturated fat' stigma from my favourite food group, will result in better information to the public about the value of dietary dairy fat.

From the CLA Network website:

Health sells, but who's buying?

February 12, 2007

Consumer survey gauges prospects for CLA-enriched dairy products.

Download the PDF file

Faster than you can say Omega 3, specialty dairy products that showcase nutritional content and health benefits are rapidly becoming the major drivers of growth in the dairy sector.
Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) is one of the latest and arguably the most promising dairy component to show potential in this area. But with a complex and ever-shifting environment of consumer attitudes regarding health value, the success of potential CLA-enriched dairy products will depend heavily on understanding the customer.

To help kick-start that process, the CLA Network conducted a major telephone survey of consumers in Alberta and British Columbia. The survey was designed not only to gauge potential attitudes and acceptance of CLA-enriched products, but to unveil consumer perceptions that can assist in the development of successful marketing strategies.

Campaign to Keep Cheese Real

2007-07-05T11:37:00.000-07:00

OK, guys... this website is great! I checked it out and it is chock full of really good information about the whole regulation-standardization issue. The only problem is, WHO is seeing it?

Apart from agricultural circles, I am betting NOT many.

This campaign needs to engage the larger cheese buying public or it will NOT be effective! How about a full page ad in the more prominent national dailies? Dairy Farmers of Canada (DFC) has done this before in a battle between butter and margarine. I would think that this particular fight needs the public involvement to be really successful.

They are only going to find out about it if we tell them. So let's tell them .

See the Real Cheese!

At Last!

2007-07-05T09:17:00.000-07:00

As a consumer in this country and a female, I have despaired for years, about the attitude in agriculture over "what consumers really want". I was shot down time and time again by a mostly male dominated industry, who were convinced the only issue was price!!!!

But if any of them had taken the time to wade thought the confusion of misleading labels, the ridiculous "made in Canada" labelling guidelines, or try to find Canadian grown "anything" in food products, perhaps something would have happened sooner.

Our consumers represent a vast, untapped resource to support what agriculture is trying to do when it fights to save processing, ensure Canadian ingredients, save farm land, fruit farms, ensure Canadian ingredients in cheese or what-ever!

The Canadian Federation of Agriculture has finally taken some action on this issue. They commissioned a poll to find out what consumers would do or not do and what they wanted.

Some of the results:

95 per cent said they would buy Canadian products that are competitively priced and of equal or better quality to imported.

90 per cent felt Canadian agricultural products should always be easy to identify at the store.

83 per cent felt a branding system based on three criteria - grown in Canada, produced to high environmental and food safety standards, and providing a fair return to farmers – is a good or a very good concept.

46-50 per cent of consumers were willing to pay premiums for “labeled” fruits, vegetables, poultry, beef, pork and grain products.

Canadian processors are disappearing faster than you can say 'gone". We are losing 'pick your own' farms. If someone doesn't do something soon, even those of us who want to, will be hard pressed to find fresh, local, anything, without going to extra-ordinary means. Many time crunched consumers will be unable to afford the time to do this. I believe it has to be available in our grocery stores or we are lost.

Get going guys before it's too late for us all.

They are At IT Again!!!

2007-06-19T06:51:00.001-07:00

It's time again for the annual Doha Round emergence of Right Wing extreme editorial comments! I can't believe I missed this one! Neil Reynolds, writing for Report on Business has come up with another editorial that targets dairy farmers and their system of supply management.

This one is entitled: "Make dairy farmers an offer they can't refuse" June 15, 2007. Reading through the article just makes me very angry. Many of the same old assumptions about the industry are rife, through-out. Not only doesn't he 'get it' about supply management ...... he doesn't 'get it' about the whole issue of the dangers surrounding imported foods, period.

The best way to protect consumers is to continue to support domestic food production and a decent standard of living for domestic farmers!

'Save the Doha round'.... indeed. If Canada is stupid enough to even consider this, with what has been happening lately and the eye opening scandal around imported foods, we are doomed.

But with ideas out there to 'integrate' North America.... it would be a good way to even that playing field in a hurry. Simply apply the New Zealand model asap and you are set.

God save us all from fools and economists. -CG

A Ray of Hope?

2007-06-13T06:14:00.000-07:00

Just as I was thinking there was nothing happening out there, something appeared on the CBC. The story was good but in my mind, anyway, it needs to be developed and expanded further.

As much as I love the CBC, you haven't really made the news until all National media are putting forward their own elements of the same story.

After all, it is the consumer here, who is being hosed over "made in Canada" labeling and the food processors who are buying that 'least cost' stuff from China. The food retail industry is also not without blame. Their drive for higher profits and lower cost suppliers is all part of the package. Since they purchase much of their fresh stuff from the 'Food Terminal', they are the problem here, in spades!

See 'Product of Canada' labels misleading, consumer group says

Check out the video cast under "related stories" for the full CBC National story from Monday, June 12, 2007.

In the meantime, consumers are still being exposed to risks and the 'Made in Canada' label is worse than useless.

Time for Dairy Farmers of Canada to put some real media weight behind efforts to educate their consumers. As one of the few farm organizations with a large media budget this opportunity needs to become full blown.

The proposed new standards for cheese are also part of this story. I fail to see why processors do not understand how the "China" issue affects them too. They are also missing an opportunity to get media buzz by voluntarily offering to comply for the benefit of their consumers. This would definitely be newsworthy and garner millions in free publicity. They could even list those cheeses they would be applying these new standards to.

Instead, they are locked in a battle to keep their cheap products and put all of us at risk.-CG

Agriculture is missing this boat!

2007-06-06T06:25:00.000-07:00

I just cannot resist hammering this message home. Farmers just do not understand how to get their message out there!!! They have been so quiet on this issue it is almost embarrassing! With all the hoopla regarding China,the time has never been better to expose more of the imported food issue, to the public. Along with it, major media attention is theirs for the asking!!!!

The industry has always struggled to be relevant. This is relevance with a vengeance. While Canadians were busy doing their thing, the food processing industry in this country has headed for cheaper pastures. Canadian consumers will not soon forget this one. Farmers had better make sure they don't!

Along with that, governments had better get the message that they are part of this problem and they cannot abdicate their responsibilities in the matter.

If you do not believe that farmers and their organizations are missing this boat just have a look at this sample of head lines from the past two weeks alone. -CG

Consumers hungry for locally grown food, struggling Loblaws told

Food import tests sought Former federal agriculture minister Ralph Ferguson is leading a campaign for such tests.

Bringing country food to city-Two groundbreaking new farmers' markets in Toronto prove that local really is the new organic

You can practically smell the good Ontario earth
With the opening of Liberty Village market under the FMO seal of approval, you can trust your produce is grown locally

Seafood imports from China raised in untreated sewage Fish products consumed by Americans treated with dangerous drugs, chemicals

Chinese authorities investigate sale of fake blood protein to hospitals

Is the Food Fight Flourishing or Floundering?

2007-05-25T15:20:00.000-07:00

When I spoke about the "Golden Opportunity" available for dairy farmers, I wasn't alone in my thinking. The recent week has provided a HUGE number of related news stories surrounding the issue of tainted food AND the concept of Local food.

I am impressed that it seems some action is taking place. But on this exploding issue, I have not seen anything in the media about the labelling and proposed, new regulations for cheese. That is not good. I sure hope dairy farmers are taking advantage of this window of opportunity, while it lasts!

There is a lot at stake. Much more than even I thought. We met with friends this week, who happen to live in Stoney Creek. (That is part and parcel of the Hamilton-Niagara belt, home to millions of people.) My friend has been subjected to my wrath about the whole China import issue as it pertains to our food. I wasn't sure she was listening. It turns out she was!

At a recent gathering of professional women, the issue of the cost of fresh local food came up. The subject was asparagus but it could have been any food grown in this country.

Apparently, for much of the winter asparagus was available, imported from the USA and Mexico for $1.49 a lb. The first local asparagus has hit the stores and the price is $2.79 a lb.! This is what generated the discussion she related to me.

So, as the discussion continued, my now very educated friend stated support for the locally grown asparagus, even with it's current price. She also told the other women her reasons ( food safety and not from this country). The conversation then turned to labelling and it turns out that NONE of those women had a clue about Made in Canada!!!! They thought that the "China" label on some frozen vegetables meant the plastic wrapper! I remind you all, that these are well educated, intelligent women. I knew the problem was bad but this blew me away.

Labelling and made in Canada regulations and import labels are obviously not well understood!

I rest my case. If the government can't/won't educate consumers, farmer MUST! It is imperative or they will drown under the imported products coming from other countries.

This also speaks to the issue of labelling for cheese. Dairy farmers must educate their consumers or they will not succeed with their battle on labels and regulations. There must be some profile to this or the message will NOT get out there.

How about fighting fire with fire? The processors have sent an 'open' letter to the Minister. Dairy farmers should emulate them and go one better... a simple, clear cut ad explaining to the public "why" they need this too!

Golden Opportunity Part II ????

2007-05-11T09:08:00.000-07:00

I wrote the previous article about 5 days ago. My delay in publishing it has allowed events to over take this article but in an even MORE timely way! I feel very strongly about this issue and see the recent events as a way to make the concerns of supply management, the same concerns the public SHOULD have.

Clever marketing people or a good PR Firm should be able to package this stuff in a way to make the media and the public sit up and take NOTICE!!!!

Don't think I'm on the right track?

Take a look at these headlines AND articles from the last few days:

Environment Hamilton starts program to support area farmers, protect Ontario's Greenbelt

Chinese workers admit lacing pet food

China arrests food managers

Food Safety at issue, local farming praised (Panel of experts stresses need for more locally grown, organic products in U.S. food supply)

Farmed Fish Fed Tainted Meal Same contaminate prompted pet food recall

120 fish farms sent contaminated feed

States Introduce Bill to Support Local Food Systems

U.S. legislators could side-swipe Canada with measures to protect food supply

U.S. puts Canada in firing line after food safety scare

Toxic Dyes and Preservatives Are Often Key Ingredients; Export Worries Widen

Nutrition Labels Not Accurate, Researcher Says

Shanghai to use mobile tests in food- safety blitz

Certainly the level of interest AND concern has gone way, way up. The story keeps on getting wider and other issues, including those important to dairy farmers, need to be connected to this widening public concern.

This week's Ontario Farmer had an another article that should be of interest to the public!

"Cheesed Off" Campaign launched against new cheese regs- Francis Anderson. The Dairy Processors Association of Canada (DPAC) is beginning a high profile battle against changes to the regs. This is just another side of the same food safety coin, as far as I am concerned. I WANT to know where it's from and what it is, if it is going into my food!

I do not believe that THIS TIME, Dairy Farmers of Canada (DFC), should let sleeping dogs lie.

DFC is the organization for producers who DO market milk! Research has shown they (farmers) are considered to be MORE trust worhty than business (processors or importers). They do take principled stands (BSE). The public needs to hear their voice on this issue!

Millions of dollars in free PR could be theirs for the taking, to advance "made in Canada" labeling and 100% Canadian dairy products. I have never seen a climate so perfect to raise the spectre of 'free trade" and it's ultimate impact for farmers and the public, than this one. -CG

Golden Opportunitiy For Dairy Farmers??

2007-05-11T08:15:00.000-07:00

The recent pet food poisoning disaster has provided agriculture with a GOLDEN opportunity!! Every farm organization should be monitoring the news reports and finding ways to plug in.

I am blown away by the fact it was the death of pets that broke the story! Major food recalls and human illness has NOT exploded into the media like this story has. Perhaps it has more to do with the fact that the company imported something they could have bought in North America, that started it all.

Certainly, the almost daily exposure of the widening product list that was tainted with melamine is part of the issue. Articles and news stories about the government and the CFIA are starting to hit the air ways as well. Just last week, CTV had a major story about the issue and touched on the CFIA , the lack of standards for imported product and the fact that Canadian farmers must adhere to a higher standard for domestic food than imports from other countries.

This issue has been upsetting farmers for a long time. Every time the government has been questioned about this glaring in-equity, responses have been luke warm, at best. "Equivalency standards" for imported food has never been good enough, in the view of farmers. The public, however, did NOT understand this part of the issue and agriculture never seemed to be able to or want get that message out there!

A quick check of news stories on the CTV site brings up a lot of stuff, including some 'Special Reports' in the works. The subject matter is Food Safety and Food Security!

Since Dairy Farmers of Canada has been discussing this issue and trying to focus the political interest on this important topic, they need to start talking to CTV asap!

Currently, CTV is focusing on the 'Local" food movement and one man's attempt to inform Canadians about this issue. More needs to be done with the groups that represent farmers and the importance of keeping Canadian farmers viable in Canada, the crisis in some industries, the problems with the border and imports like MCP.

Milk Protein Concentrate (MCP) is in a dry form and so was wheat gluten. Without confirmation of sources, labelling laws, appropriate tariffs and standards, no one can confirm what this stuff is, in ice cream, cheese and who knows what else. The issue could & should receive front and centre media coverage.

After all, the pet food mess is all about consumer education and understanding of the problems ultimately involved with free trade. The cheapest source can have a cost people are not willing to pay.

The government reacts to public pressure and anything that will raise that bar, right now, is critical.

For more articles about this important issue, see Dariblawg del.icio.us

Uh OH! Cheese in the news?

2007-05-06T06:34:00.000-07:00

I can always tell when somebody has cranked someone else in the dairy business. Something shows up somewhere in the Globe & Mail! You really know you've hit a nerve when it shows up in the ROB section.

Even more instructive is the comments link at the bottom of the editiorial. Follow it and see for yourself.

Somebody goes to a great deal of effort to talk about the Belleville Cheese Exchange and the old days. Someone else is pretty upset and certainly doesn't understand the quota system in Supply management.

Mr. Strahl, it's not the Canadian whey

NEIL REYNOLDS
From Friday's Globe and Mail

E-mail Neil Reynolds
Read Bio
Latest Columns

May 4, 2007 at 5:53 AM EDT

OTTAWA - Like Little Miss Muffet, Canadians have been consuming their curds and whey - and helping the environment at the same time. By choosing "light" cheeses at the supermarket, products that recycle whey, Canadians have exponentially increased the country's consumption of a waste product traditionally bereft of commercial uses. Since residual whey is a significant industrial pollutant, this marketplace adaptation has produced a fine symbiotic relationship. Fewer calories for people. Less wastes for industry.

In this allegorical construct, the next character we encounter should be the Spider. Enter Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl as Spiderman. When Mr. Strahl addressed a convention of dairy farmers in February, he announced that he had directed federal food regulators "to launch a regulatory process related to the compositional standards for cheese." He had taken this action, he said, "to protect consumer interests and to promote choice in the marketplace

For the complete story see....... Mr. Strahl, it's not the Canadian whey -CG

China's Food Issues Just Keep On......

2007-05-02T16:27:00.000-07:00

Here we go with more stuff in the mainstream media. Some of the players are the same here in Canada. These are just glimpses into the complicated food system that has developed in North America. I think that is the largest shock to most consumers. They had no idea.-CG

Production trumps quality Apr 28, 2007 04:30 AM
China faces growing concerns over its exports in wake of tainted pet food, milk

Ariana Eunjung Cha
Special to the Star

SHANGHAI–Something was wrong with the babies.

The villagers noticed their heads were growing abnormally large while the rest of their bodies were skin and bones. By the time Chinese authorities discovered the culprit – severe malnutrition from fake milk powder – 13 had died.

The scandal, which unfolded three years ago after hundreds of babies fell ill in an eastern Chinese province, became the defining symbol of a broad problem in China's economy.
Quality control and product-safety regulation are so poor in this country that people cannot trust the goods on store shelves.

Until now, the problem has not received much attention outside of China. In recent weeks, however, consumers everywhere have been learning about China's safety crisis. Tainted ingredients that originated here made their way into pet food that has sickened and killed animals around the world, with nearly 4,000 deaths reported in the United States.

Chinese authorities acknowledge the safety problem and have promised repeatedly to fix it, but the disasters keep coming. Tang Yanli, 45, grandaunt of a baby who became sick because of the fake milk but eventually recovered, said that even though she now pays more to buy national brands, she remains wary.

"I don't trust the food I eat," she said. With China playing an ever-larger role in supplying food, medicine and animal feed to other countries, recognition of the hazards has not kept up.
By value, China is the world's No. 1 exporter of fruits and vegetables, and a major exporter of other food and food products, which vary widely, from apple juice to garlic to sausage casings.
China has been especially poor at meeting international standards.

The United States subjects only a small fraction of its food imports to close inspection, but each month rejects about 200 shipments from China, mostly because of concerns about pesticides and antibiotics and about misleading labelling.

Since 2000, some countries have temporarily banned whole categories of Chinese imports. The European Union stopped shipments of shrimp because of banned antibiotics. Japan blocked tea and spinach, citing excessive antibiotic residue. South Korea banned fermented cabbage after finding parasites in some shipments.

As globalization of the food supply progresses, "the food gets more anonymous and gradually you get into a situation where you don't know where exactly it came from and you get more vulnerable to poor quality," said Michiel Keyzer, director of the Centre for World Food Studies at Vrije University in Amsterdam, who researches China's exports to the European Union.

Chinese authorities, while conceding the country has many safety problems, have claimed other countries' assessments of products are sometimes "not accurate" and have implied the bans may be politically motivated, aimed at protecting domestic companies that compete with Chinese businesses.

China's State Food and Drug Administration, Ministry of Health and Ministry of Agriculture – which along with other government agencies share responsibility for monitoring food and drug safety – this week declined to answer written questions sent to them via fax.

In the United States, more than 100 brands of pet food have been recalled since March 16 because of a spike in animal deaths, generally from kidney failure. The recall, one of the largest ever, included mass-market brands sold in stores like Safeway and Wal-Mart, as well as pricey brands sold by veterinarians and specialty retailers.

The FDA and a manufacturer in South Africa have found that several bulk ingredients shipped from China, including wheat gluten and rice-protein concentrate, were contaminated with an industrial chemical called melamine.

Last week, concern about animal safety transformed into a concern about risk to people.
California state officials said the industrial chemical melamine had been found in livestock feed at a hog farm and could pose a "minimal" health risk to people who ate pork from there.

The investigations are unearthing details of the food chain that were previously a mystery to most Americans, including the international dealings that determine how ingredients make their way into the food supply. U.S. companies are under relentless pressure to cut costs, in part from consumers who demand low prices, and obtaining cheap ingredients from China has become an important strategy for many of them.

In China, meanwhile, the government has found that companies have cut corners in virtually every aspect of food production and packaging, including improper use of fertilizer, unsanitary packing and poor refrigeration of dairy products.

William O'Brien, president of Hami Food of Beijing, which transports food for the McDonald's restaurant chain and other multinational companies in China, said in some of his competitors' operations, "chilled and frozen products very often come in taxi cabs or in vans – not under properly controlled conditions."

The Chinese government has undertaken a major overhaul of its monitoring system by dispatching state inspectors to every province.

The Myth of Free Trade

2007-05-01T19:45:00.000-07:00

This film is making the rounds. I found an invitation to it in my mailbox. I am no fan of free trade, but I was truly shocked by some of the statistics and claims.-CG

From the Hoodwinked website:

All statistics are subject to interpretation, but our dependence on trade with the United States is regularly and deliberately exaggerated. Even an op-ed piece in the Globe and Mail by TVOntario's Dan Dunsky repeated the often-cited false assumption that "trade with the U.S. constitutes 52% of our GDP."

Here's a brief "reality check."

How dependent is Canada on exports to the United States?

Over 80 per cent of the Canadian economy is generated by internal, domestic transactions - Canadians producing, buying and selling among themselves.

Exports to the U.S. represent less than 17 per cent of Canada's economy and over 50 per cent of that is in oil, gas and raw materials.

After hundreds of years of trying to develop value-added industries in this country and get away from the "hewers of wood, drawers of water" dependence on extracting natural resources, NAFTA, through the proportional sharing clause, has encouraged a structural change in our economy, back to the old resource-dependent model.

"In 2005, for the first time in a generation, more than half of our total merchandise exports from Canada once again consisted of raw materials and natural resources." - Jim Stanford, Ph.D. economist.

Hoodwinked: the Myth of Free Trade

A film by Bill Dunn and Linda West

Guest speaker: David Orchard

Why Food Security ?

2007-04-27T05:58:00.000-07:00

For several decades our Agriculture policies and by extension, Canadian Trade Policy, have been heavily influenced by economic concept of 'comparative advantage'. This IS the basic premise for the old GATT(General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) and the current life form of this agreement, the WTO.

Is this a sustainable model for agriculture and for Canada? I have never believed this model, which supports the 'least cost' theory, was a direction for ANY country to take.
Factor in the recent "China" mess with the pet food disaster and you have a recipe for disaster!

For consumers who are just beginning to see what type of hydra has been developed in the food industry, the following article is just the tip of the iceberg:

Tainted-food exports a global worry

Pet deaths focus fresh scrutiny on China's chronic food safety woes
Apr 13, 2007 04:30 AM, Christopher Bodeen, Associated Press

SHANGHAI - The list of Chinese food exports rejected at American ports reads like a chef's nightmare: pesticide-laden pea pods, drug-laced catfish, filthy plums and crawfish contaminated with salmonella. Yet, it took a much more obscure item, contaminated wheat gluten, to focus public attention on a very real and frightening fact: China's chronic food safety woes are now an international concern.

In recent weeks, scores of cats and dogs have died of kidney failure blamed on eating pet food containing gluten from China that was tainted with melamine, a chemical used in plastics, fertilizers and flame retardants. While humans aren't believed at risk, the incident has sharpened concerns over China's food exports and the limited ability of U.S. inspectors to catch problem shipments.

"This really shows the risks of food purity problems combining with international trade," said Michiel Keyzer of the Centre for World Food Studies at Amsterdam's Vrije Universiteit. Just as with manufactured goods, exports of meat, produce, and processed foods from China have soared .

Chinese agricultural exports to Canada and the United States surged nearly 20-fold over the past 25 years, to $2.26 billion (U.S.) last year, prompting outcries from foreign farm sectors feeling pinched by low Chinese prices.

Worried about losing access to foreign markets and stung by tainted-food products scandals at home, China has in recent years tried to improve inspections, with limited success. The problems the government faces are legion. Pesticides and chemical fertilizers are used in excess to boost yields while harmful antibiotics are widely administered to control disease in seafood and livestock. Rampant industrial pollution risks introducing heavy metals into the food chain.

Farmers have used cancer-causing industrial dye Sudan Red to boost the value of their eggs and fed an asthma medication to pigs to produce leaner meat. Shoddy infant formula with little nutritional value has been blamed for causing severe malnutrition in hundreds of babies and killing at least 12.

With China increasingly intertwined in global trade, Chinese exporters are paying a price for unsafe practices. Excessive antibiotic or pesticide residues have caused bans in Europe and Japan on Chinese shrimp, honey and other products. Hong Kong blocked imports of turbot last year after inspectors found traces of malachite green, a possibly cancer-causing chemical used to treat fungal infections.

One source of the problem is China's fractured farming sector, comprised of small landholdings that make regulation difficult, experts said.

Small farms ship to market with little documentation. Testing of the safety and purity of farm products such as milk is often haphazard, hampered by fuzzy lines of authority among regulators. Only about 6 per cent of agricultural products were considered pollution-free in 2005, while better quality food officially stamped as "green" accounts for just 1 per cent of the total, according to U.S. figures.

For foreign importers, the answer is to know your suppliers and test thoroughly, industry experts said. Only a tiny percentage of the millions of shipments entering the U.S. each year are inspected, yet shipments from China were rejected at a rate of 200 per month this year, the largest from any country. "You just have to hope your system is strong enough and your producers are careful enough," said Todd Meyer, China director for the U.S. Grains Council.

To protect its foreign markets, China is trying to set up a dedicated export supply chain, sealed off from the domestic market, said Keyzer. Systems for tracing vegetables have been set up, although doing so for meat products is harder.
>

Food Safety Anyone?

2007-04-20T20:12:00.000-07:00

The latest issue on food safety to hit the airwaves, was ironically NOT about food for humans but food for pets. Many of you have been following or at least are aware of the deaths, recalls, lawsuits et al, that have been the inevitable results. Finding the contaminant took weeks, recalls impacted at least two major companies, who sourced their 'wheat gluten' form the same importer/distributor.

The issue of the melamine contaminant is not so important in the short term as the country the product originated from. As consumers of food, this should give us pause. The product could have just as easily been sourced for human consumption. On this occasion at least, family pets have become societies' 'canaries in the mines'.

Proponents of the 'least cost' theory of economics failed to take issues like food safety equivalence into account. This doesn't surprise me at all. Most economists live in a theoretical world, where a number of 'assumptions are just part of the 'equation'. Governments tell us they have examined food safety standards of other countries and found a way to determine comparable standards, in order to let trade proceed and traders to profit. This is supposed to comfort us all because then Canada profits and in the trickle down theory of economics...we all will eventually profit....somehow. "Trust us!", is the implied message.

I imagine this week's feature article in MacLeans will give people food for thought. It might even give those of you in agriculture pause. I knew many manufacturers of no name brand products often were the same ones who supplied the high end stuff in the stores. But I was blown away by the thought that even a companies' whole line wold be outsourced to the big boys as is done by Iaams. Menu Foods was producing their entire line until the recent debacle hit the airwaves.

The MacLeans article goes in depth and into the history of Menu as it pursued the lowest cost supplier of a component of its products. It outlines its products and the companies it supplied. The impact was huge.

This IS just the tip of the iceberg in our modern food distribution system. Like an iceberg 3/4 of it lies hidden and secret, waiting to do irreparable harm. The miserable labels on our products fail us daily as we try to figure out just what IS in our foods.

I am certain the pace of damage, as well as the scale, will simply get larger. No one is suggesting fundamental changes to our food systems and that is exactly what we really need. Consumers may have something to say about that.-CG

Is This The Beginning?

2007-04-19T20:19:00.000-07:00

I am always, always, blown away by our species' arrogance. Man has always been driven to mold his environment. And we just have not been able to resist a variety of initiatives, that have stirred our curiosity and made life easier perhaps, but certainly not simpler!

What if our civilization is struck down, by something we are not able to solve? Has anyone really thought about the implications of this new concern that has been in the papers a lot lately. I am referring to Colony Collapse Disorder.

About a month ago this issue began to hit the press, as the American States began to notice a problem with their bees. It has since seemed to spread to other countries. A variety of potential causes have been suggested and our provincial Ministry of Agriculture has even partnered with the University of Guelph to see if they can come up with any answers. If we are really lucky, someone might. What if we are not lucky? Have any of us really thought about the repercussions?

Do think about it, long and hard.-CG

From to-days news:

Scientists claim radiation from handsets are to blame for mysterious 'colony collapse' of bees
By Geoffrey Lean and Harriet Shawcross
Published: 15 April 2007

It seems like the plot of a particularly far-fetched horror film. But some scientists suggest that our love of the mobile phone could cause massive food shortages, as the world's harvests fail.
They are putting forward the theory that radiation given off by mobile phones and other hi-tech gadgets is a possible answer to one of the more bizarre mysteries ever to happen in the natural world - the abrupt disappearance of the bees that pollinate crops. Late last week, some bee-keepers claimed that the phenomenon - which started in the US, then spread to continental Europe - was beginning to hit Britain as well.

The theory is that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees' navigation systems, preventing the famously home loving species from finding their way back to their hives. Improbable as it may seem, there is now evidence to back this up.

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) occurs when a hive's inhabitants suddenly disappear, leaving only queens, eggs and a few immature workers, like so many apian Mary Celestes. The vanished bees are never found, but thought to die singly far from home. The parasites, wildlife and other bees that normally raid the honey and pollen left behind when a colony dies, refuse to go anywhere near the abandoned hives.

The alarm was first sounded last autumn, but has now hit half of all American states. The West Coast is thought to have lost 60 per cent of its commercial bee population, with 70 per cent missing on the East Coast. CCD has since spread to Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece. And last week John Chapple, one of London's biggest bee-keepers, announced that 23 of his 40 hives have been abruptly abandoned.

Other apiarists have recorded losses in Scotland, Wales and north-west England, but the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs insisted: "There is absolutely no evidence of CCD in the UK."

The implications of the spread are alarming. Most of the world's crops depend on pollination by bees. Albert Einstein once said that if the bees disappeared, "man would have only four years of life left".

No one knows why it is happening. Theories involving mites, pesticides, global warming and GM crops have been proposed, but all have drawbacks.

German research has long shown that bees' behaviour changes near power lines.

Now a limited study at Landau University has found that bees refuse to return to their hives when mobile phones are placed nearby. Dr Jochen Kuhn, who carried it out, said this could provide a "hint" to a possible cause.

Dr. George Carlo, who headed a massive study by the US government and mobile phone industry of hazards from mobiles in the Nineties, said: "I am convinced the possibility is real."

The case against handsets:

Evidence of dangers to people from mobile phones is increasing. But proof is still lacking, largely because many of the biggest perils, such as cancer, take decades to show up.
Most research on cancer has so far proved inconclusive. But an official Finnish study found that people who used the phones for more than 10 years were 40 per cent more likely to get a brain tumour on the same side as they held the handset. Equally alarming, blue-chip Swedish research revealed that radiation from mobile phones killed off brain cells, suggesting that today's teenagers could go senile in the prime of their lives.

Studies in India and the US have raised the possibility that men who use mobile phones heavily have reduced sperm counts. And, more prosaically, doctors have identified the condition of "text thumb", a form of RSI from constant texting. Professor Sir William Stewart, who has headed two official inquiries, warned that children under eight should not use mobiles and made a series of safety recommendations, largely ignored by ministers.

Food Miles?!

2007-04-13T11:22:00.000-07:00

This week's MacLeans has an article in it that surprised me. "It's All About those peas from China", i s full of interesting and to some degree, slightly shocking material about the frozen produce we consume on a regular basis all winter. As the major shopper in the household, I have been more and more depressed about the surprises I have had at my local grocery stores. From my perspective, they haven't been pleasant ones.

For years, I have been able to buy frozen vegetables, with relative confidence. As an Ontario resident, it was important to me to have that locally grown produce in the cold of the winter. Somehow, the latest practices of our retailers and food processors, slipped under my guard, while life happened.

I guess I shouldn't have been so surprised, manufacturers of everything else are 'outsourcing ' in droves.

This brings me to the concept of the Food Miles, also mentioned in the article. I think it is a idea the public needs to hear more about. I believe they want to but 'local' and Canadian, but no one, not farmers, governments and certainly not processors, are making it easy. What foolishness, to import products like frozen vegetables, milk powders or whatever, that can be grown here. The cost in terms of 'food miles' and the environment, is enormous and wasteful, not to mention the financial devastation seen in agriculture.

Now add in the incredible disaster facing pet food companies who 'sourced' a product like wheat gluten, incidentally, from China and got way more than they ever expected! This stuff could easily have been for human consumption. See what some believe is the root cause.

It would seem to me, that smart agriculture groups, should be having a good hard look at harnessing the enormous power of the public. Standards like the ones proposed nationally for cheese and have processors screaming, should be important to consumers, if they knew about it!

Considering the continuing food fiasco's from offshore, I certainly have no confidence in ideas like 'comparative' or 'similar' standards, forced on an unsuspecting public, by our governments, businesses and the WTO.

With the environment and global warming hitting the levels it currently is, perhaps Food Miles, are an idea whose time is come.-CG

Nothing is Clear....

2007-03-29T11:36:00.000-07:00

The results of the Barley vote are in and the controversy does not appear to over. There have been a number of press releases complaining about the process, scrutineers (or lack of) and so on, leading up to the results of the vote becoming public. However, the results are being disputed, vigorously. This past weeks' offerings............

OTTAWA, Ontario, March 28, 2007 - The Honourable Chuck Strahl, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food and Minister for the Canadian Wheat Board, today announced that Canada's New Government has listened, and will deliver, to Western Canadian barley producers who voted in favour of marketing choice.

A clear majority of the farmers who cast votes in the barley plebiscite indicated they wanted to end the Canadian Wheat Board's monopoly on barley and have the freedom to market their own product.

"We have delivered on our promise to give farmers a voice on the future of barley marketing in Western Canada," said Minister Strahl. "Their decision in favour of marketing choice is clear and we intend to give them that that opportunity in the coming crop year."

Minister Strahl said that nearly 30,000 producers participated in the plebiscite and a majority has provided the Government with a mandate to move ahead.

"Over 60 percent of producers want to decide how to market their own product. We will now begin work on the appropriate amendments to Canadian Wheat Board regulations to remove barley from the Canadian Wheat Board's monopoly," said Minister Strahl.

"We will move forward decisively because producers and the sector need clarity and market certainty. I will be consulting with the directors of the Canadian Wheat Board about the changes we will be making," said Minister Strahl. "It is the Government's intention that marketing choice for Western Canada's barley growers - including an option to continue to sell to the Canadian Wheat Board - will be reality by August 1 of this year."

For the results and more information on marketing choice, please visit
www.agr.gc.ca/cwb.******************************

For Immediate Release March 28, 2007

Agriculture and Food
FLAWED PROCESS SKEWS WHEAT BOARD PLEBISCITE RESULTS

Saskatchewan's Agriculture Minister said today that his federal counterpart has no mandate to change the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB).

Mark Wartman said federal Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl was repeatedly warned about the need for clarity in the plebiscite on barley marketing, but refused to listen.

"We told the Minister that there would be problems with the results if he followed the process that he did," Wartman said. "And now, we have 45 per cent of producers in Saskatchewan favouring the CWB single desk and less than 13 per cent wanting the CWB out of barley marketing. I can get no clarity from this result. Those choosing the option to have both the CWB and an open market did so for a variety of reasons."

Wartman said he is not surprised by this outcome, given the three option plebiscite design and the inclusion of the impossible "best of both worlds" second option.

"We warned Minister Strahl that this would confuse the issue and we now find ourselves with no clear result," Wartman said.

Wartman added that the plebiscite was designed to produce the result the federal government sought. It was not designed for farmers to have a real say on the marketing systems they support. He posed several questions for Minister Strahl:

1. The federal government's own Task Force noted that it would be
difficult for the CWB to operate in an open market and the CWB yesterday indicated that it could provide no value in an open, multiple-seller market.

What has changed to make this a viable option?

2. Will the Minister pursue a similar approach on supply management, asking producers of those commodities if they want supply management and choice? Will he give them a similar three question plebiscite?

3. Why is Ottawa not prepared to respect the direction provided by the
producer-elected directors of the CWB?

Out of the Mouths of ...Consumers?

2007-03-19T11:55:00.000-07:00

This article simply points out to me the lack of disconnect we have with our customers. They want to buy from Canadian farmers. Canadian farmers want to sell to these consumers. Somehow, the stuff is NOT making it to the right market.

The culprits are large retail food chains, government policy or the lack thereof and farmers who imagine their issues and their products will somehow (by osmosis perhaps?) be available or even recognized by the buying public. This disease is endemic in all sectors of agriculture.

Processing capacity disappears, consumers are being hoodwinked and farmers are unable to compete, as Canada spirals into the status of a nation that may not be able to feed herself!-cg

Produce tasty policy we can munch all winter
Mar 16, 2007 04:30 AM
Joe Fiorito

My interest in Canadian food policy begins with breakfast and continues throughout the day. As you also know from previous columns, we are on the verge, as a nation, of developing new food policy.

Oh, momentous occasion.

I went to one of the public consultations a while back. There were many farmers in attendance; also many food processors and crop marketers, and a surplus of farm bureaucrats. But there were no home cooks and no supermarket shoppers.

That's a shame because we are the end users of Canada's agricultural policy.
Oh, I am sure Ag Canada knows that most of us can't take time off work to go to policy development meetings, but if they took us seriously, they would be asking questions up and down the aisles of my local supermarket.

You get what you pay for, I suppose.

I got a ton of mail from two previous columns on this subject. To summarize: We want good Canadian food at a fair price and we want our farmers to make a decent living.

Allow me to pass along some of my own urban observations, and to draw some city-boy conclusions.

Our growing season is short, but a winter-long diet of cabbage is out of the question. We therefore need tender lettuce, ripe tomatoes and sunny fruit; this is our reward for living in darkness half the year; we will always import oranges and kiwi fruit.

But how do we lessen our dependence on foreign growers? And how do we keep our own farmers in business?

Most of us, if given a choice, would happily buy Canadian produce. Oh, turn that on its head: buying Canadian ought not to be a choice, it ought to be the default position.

Alas, the big supermarkets seem to prefer to sign long-term contracts with foreign suppliers, even for foods that keep, like potatoes and garlic and carrots.

Our farmers suffer as a result.

Because we live in a harsh climate, you and I suffer at the table in the winter because perishable foreign produce must be picked before it is ripe so that it can be shipped; food picked before it is ripe does not taste good.

What to do?

It ought to be easy for us to eat well and locally in the summer. We are a smart and nimble people with a network of roads and rail lines. We should have no trouble getting our best seasonal stuff into stores when it is at its freshest.

An aside: Why isn't the last car on the GO train packed with fresh fruit in the summer and the fall?

What about the winter?

The priciest frozen berries and vegetables in my supermarket this past weekend were from Mexico, Chile and China. Do we not know how to freeze food in the land of ice and snow?
A nice woman spoke up at my table during one round of the consultation.

She is a member of the Toronto Food Policy Council. She said, "I have plum tarts in my fridge from when plums were in season." Good for her.

But most working people I know don't have the time – and few have the expertise any more – to put up a dozen tarts and store them for the winter. And yet the woman is onto something.
Our food processors should lock up all the surplus summer plums – not to mention the peaches and the raspberries – and add value by producing exceptionally high quality, reasonably priced frozen tarts, providing us with sunny comfort during our long and ugly winter.

Another woman at my table – she grows asparagus – said, "There were growers throwing away their asparagus last year. We were sending stuff to Michigan for processing." I rest my case.

As for the winter table, if the Dutch can grow the best and sweetest tomatoes in the world in their greenhouses, why on earth can't we do the same here?

Incidentally, I listened to four hours of talk about food policy and I never once heard anyone talk about juiciness and crispness, nor did anyone wax poetical about the sheer pleasure of the taste of the good food grown here.

Make a policy out of pleasure.

And be industrially creative. I rely on a premium brand of pasta, Rustichella D'Abruzzo. Inexplicably, it sells for the same price here as it does in Italy. This is not just wrong, it's wasteful and foolish, and it may be good for my belly but it is bad for the environment.

A modest proposal:

We grow the best wheat in the world; the Italians import our grain by the ton and they sell it back to us as priest-stranglers. Why can't Rustichella D'Abruzzo be enticed to set up a pasta factory here? If Toyota can turn a profit making cars in Ontario ...

Speaking of which:

The corner store went out of fashion when the car gave birth to the supermarket. We need a more efficient network for the distribution of produce throughout the city. Let the big grocers think small. Let them resurrect the corner store.

These are my modest thoughts on food policy.

Joe Fiorito usually appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Email:

jfiorito@thestar.ca

So You Really Don't Get It?!??- Part 2

2007-03-03T19:18:00.000-08:00

I had to do a bit of looking, but this second Article by Brewster Kneen , is the long article I was referring to in my earlier post. This one is also about the wheat board. As another in-depth look at the whole sorry situation, Mr. Kneen brings his vast historical knowledge about Cargill and the gradual weakening of farmers' power over the last 30 or so years. He stitches together the many seemingly , unconnected events, into something we had all better begin to think about very, very, hard.

Note to Internet Beginners: the blue colour means that is a link to the complete story/article or whatever.-cg

Canadian Government Seeks to Throw Grain Farmers to the Corporate Dogs

Written by Brewster Kneen
Friday, 26 January 2007

“Plans to end the Canadian Wheat Board single desk will be done in conjunction with changes to the Canadian Grain Commission, Canada Grain Act, grain transportation, and variety registration.” --Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl, 6/11/2006

This autumn Canadians have been treated to a crude horse opera starring Chuck Strahl, Minister of Agriculture in what the Prime Minister insists we call “Canada’s New Government."............

A Food Movie....

2007-02-27T18:33:00.000-08:00

To-day I was referred to this site: http://www.informationstation.livedigital.com/
I had no idea what the "Information Station was about. So I went for a visit. The movie currently open on the site is interesting. Some of it makes sense. The main focus is the 'Green" Revolution and now the "Gene" Revolution. Commentary about the patenting of nature or life forms is thought provoking at the least.

The clip takes about 10 mins. to view. Worth a look.-cg

I've Been Thinking ...... ?

2007-02-23T18:12:00.000-08:00

Ever since our esteemed Minister of Agriculture announced to Dairy Farmers of Canada, that the Government would pursue Article 28 for the dairy industry.... I have been concerned. It is just something I would not and cannot believe the Conservative Party would do. I bet they have not spent any time explaining to farmers any real downside or fallout that may accrue to dairy farmers.

So, what might really be going on...? I do still believe that keeping DFC happy until the Government can find a way to force an election is something the government has figured out. I now believe that it is just a little side benefit in this Grand Game the Conservatives are playing. One must remember that they have been and still are demonstrating some very elegant strategy. They have been consistently outmanoeuvring the other parties from day one. So far, they have manged to keep it up. What are they up to?!?!?

Well, I think it goes like this.
..............

Once Upon a Time ....... there was a group of dairy farmers that wanted Article 28 really badly. They worked hard to convince several Ministers of Agriculture to agree to this idea. They thought it would stop the bleeding across the border of MPC and other protein powders that were being used to alter the composition of the cheese being sold to consumers. Now, standards that would benefit everyone (especially the public) would be the BEST way to do this, but many of these dairy farmers didn't really believe this was a solution. That's really too bad, because it WOULD stop the bleeding and keep the product more palatable for the consumer. I digress.

So dairy farmers continued to demand Article 28 from their Ministers. At the same time, the WTO had fallen off the rails. The Minister of Trade and the Minister of Agriculture were quoted in public with diverging views of how the WTO should play out for different farm groups and the Minister of Trade was NOT friendly to dairy.

Other groups (who do really HAVE the EAR of the Ministers) think the dairy farmers must lose so they will gain. No one has been able to convince them differently. And large enemies of farmers (ADM and others) have supported these groups. This time, their views have fallen on fertile ground (remember the comments of the Minister of Trade).

So how do you put a spoke in the dairy farmers' lobby power and yet not seem to do so? How do you get what you really want to do at the WTO and not seem to do it? Hmmmmmm? The same strategists who are hoodwinking Canadians AND other political parties though very hard.

It goes like this. First you have to cut dairy farmers and their friends off from the discussions, so they don't know what is really being discussed! That leads to 'How'? Well, if you gave them the ARTICLE 28 process, that might make other countries ticked off enough that they would freeze you out of the discussions. Gee! I think Mr. Verheul has told farmers before that that might be the case! Wow!

Which is the game you can win the biggest on? Gosh! I think that the big win would be the WTO. If you started Article 28 and then an election is conveniently called , the whole process would be toast! Why, boys...THAT would be great!! It might not take that long at the WTO, if you were willing to give up something big. After you have finished dairy off in the WTO, you can tell those farmers you gave them what they wanted (Article 28) so they can't blame you. Your pals in the other farm groups are really happy. Conservative dairy farmers will not want to believe they were snookered and will still support you. They will blame their leaders. Dairy won't be able to stop the WTO process. Someone else calls an election and blows Article 28 out of the water. You have the good spin to defend yourself and THAT is THAT. Fait à compli!

The end!

MORE Dirty Tricks!?

2007-02-23T18:00:00.000-08:00

FYI everyone.-CG

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FEBRUARY 22, 2007

ATAMANENKO ASKS PRIVACY OFFICER TO ADDRESSBARLEY PLEBISCITE CONCERNS>
OTTAWA – NDP Wheat Board Critic Alex Atamanenko (British Columbia Southern Interior) sent a letter to the Privacy commissioner and the Ethics commissioner, asking that concerns over voters’ privacy and ethical concerns are addressed.>
“There are some very serious questions about how serious the Ministry of Agriculture is about the privacy of farmers’ who are voting in the plebiscite,” said Atamanenko.”Minister Strahl must explain why he feels that farmers’ votes should not protected by stringent privacy rules contained under the elections Canada Act.”
******************
Conservative MP’s Using Discredited Information to Attack CWB
Fri 23 Feb 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

OTTAWA – NDP Agriculture critic, Alex Atamanenko, MP – BC Southern Interior - is criticizing the Conservatives for misleading the public in their communications. “Conservative MP’s are using discredited information in flyers to their constituents, on their websites and in media interviews to attack the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB)”, stated Atamanenko.

The Conservatives claim that Algeria receives preferential low prices from the CWB at the expense of Canadian farmers was first made by the US Wheat Association (USWA) who misquoted an Algerian Official as the result of an inaccurate translation. “The USWA has since retracted and apologized for this error and Conservative M.P.’s should stop repeating this false allegation and apologize to the CWB”, demanded Atamanenko.

Atamanenko says Conservatives should also stop using spot barley prices from the US market in their communications to imply that farmers could get higher prices without the CWB. “A good analogy can be found by comparing spot barley prices with what occurs in the stock market. As we all know not everyone is able to access a high price on a stock in one particular day,” stated the NDP Agriculture critic.

The CWB prices reflect a pooled price made up of sales made last spring averaged with some sales being made at the current high spot prices.Atamanenko points to an article in the Star Phoenix by Richard Grey, Professor of agricultural economics at the University of Saskatchewan, who writes about the results of an extensive study which found that the posted daily U.S barley prices have little to do with the price actually received by farmers. Professor Gray says that without the CWB’s single desk powers the high premiums farmers now receive for malting barley prices would quickly fall to prices close to feed barley levels. Atamanenko recommends visiting www.kis.usask.ca to access this study.

Atamanenko is also concerned about several anti-CWB websites sporting similar domain names to the official barley plebiscite that have been created to intercept people looking for information on the internet. “Even the official barley plebiscite website, which should be providing links to information on all sides of the debate or none at all, only directs them to the government’s point of view,” said Atamanenko. “In a fair fight the CWB would be able to defend itself against all the false information being issued, but they have been muzzled by the Minister of Agriculture’s gag order”.

Farmer organizations have put together a website called www.savemycwb.ca to counter the websites offering false information on the barley plebiscite. “I urge everyone to double check their information sources and make sure there are hard facts behind information that affects how they are choosing to vote in the plebiscite,” concluded Atamanenko. “The marketing future of ordinary farmers absolutely depends on it”.
****************
Some farmers worried barley vote won't be private
Last Updated: Friday, February 16, 2007 7:56 AM CT
CBC News

Some farmers say they're worried about the confidentiality of ballots in Ottawa's barley plebiscite.

The federal government is asking Prairie farmers if they want to change the way barley is marketed and has sent out ballots with identification numbers that match numbers on voter declaration forms.

Bill Kruzko, who farms near Maple Creek, Sask., is among those who say they're not comfortable with the system.

"They'll know exactly how every producer in Canada voted because it has the identification number at the bottom of the ballot," he said.
There must be other ways of cross-checking information without putting identification numbers on the ballot, Kruzko said.

However, the accounting firm handling the plebiscite insists it's a good system and farmers have no reason to worry about the confidentiality of their votes.

KPMG spokesman Jeff Thomas said the vote is secret, even though there is a number on each ballot that identifies the farmer to whom it was sent.

Thomas, one of several accountants at KPMG who developed the form which allows farmers to declare their eligibility to vote, said it was imperative to have a system that verifies the authenticity of the information.

The firm had to have a way to trace the ballots of those declared ineligible to vote, but even with the identification number, the vote remains secret.

"Certainly with a combination of the information technology controls, the physical access controls, and the procedures that we are using, we can maintain that confidentiality and still provide for an efficient process and a timely tabulation," he said.

Meanwhile, voting for wheat board directors is handled somewhat differently, an official says.
Peter Eckersley, the election co-ordinator for the wheat board's director elections, says they used computer bar codes on the return envelopes.

"The Canadian Wheat Board Act and its related regulations specifically prohibits there being any mark on the ballot which could be used to identify the voter," he said.

However, the act does not apply to plebiscites so the rules could be different, Eckersley said.
The plebiscite asks barley farmers if they want to keep the existing system where the wheat board has a monopoly on barley exports, to stop the board from marketing barley, or to have a choice of marketing their barley through the wheat board or others.

The Conservative government says it's committed to giving "marketing choice" to farmers so they can get the best grain prices, but some farmers believe they already get the best prices from the wheat board and are worried change could hurt their bottom line.

Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl has said a plebiscite on wheat could be held at some point, but not any time soon.

Barley ballots were mailed out Feb. 7 and must be returned by March 13.

Notes & Notions

2007-02-13T18:39:00.000-08:00

Well now... it looks like the current government has risen to the occasion, at least for dairy farmers. Minister Strahl made a major announcement at the Dairy Farmers of Canada Annual Meeting last week. The subject was Article 28, which DFC has been demanding for quite some time. The real issue of compositional standards for cheeses was left blowing in the wind, the Minister imposed no decisions but again asked the players to come back to the table to continue their discussions. So, the prospect of an all out lobby war by one of the most vocal and well organised farm groups in Canada, has been avoided.

But what did DFC really get? I believe they got sidelined very neatly. Since Article 28 involves a lengthy process, notifying the players (at the WTO), providing for a comment period (sounds like the rule in the BSE dispute) and other bureaucratic stuff, it is highly unlikely that this issue will be addressed in any concrete, measurable manner, any time soon.

But in appearing to give the dairy farmers what they have wanted on the Article 28 issue, I am sure the Minister has been able to calm the fears of Canadian processors by reminding them how long it can take for any of these things to grind their way through the twisted corridors of the WTO and it's related agreements. The single largest issue to remember is that this process has been implemented by a Minority Government!!! It is very likely the government will fall, long before Article 28 sees any concrete results for dairy farmers.

The Minister has also now given DFC a reason to keep a low profile on the Canadian Wheat Board issue. Hmmmnnn?!?

Meanwhile, rumours are rife, that the government is actively trying to find a way to force/direct/contrive an election issue. One joke has it, that the new nasty commercials about M. Dion might be all about making the Liberals angry enough to force an election.

In their obvious desire to find a way to lull Canadians into voting in a majority Conservative Government, much of the government's activities have been all about stall, stall, stall. The exception is the Wheat Board issue, which they are actively trying to rush through! It makes no sense to me that this government would want to make any progress for dairy, when on every other major portfolio, they obfuscate!

Whomever designed this cute little smoke screen for the Minister must be smiling..-cg

E-Brief to Liberals Across Canada

2007-02-03T19:00:00.000-08:00

The following is significant in that the Liberal Party is keeping the issue of the Canadian Wheat Board, high on it's list. A portion of this months e-brief:

LE FRANÇAIS SUIT

Liberals Defend Canadian Wheat Board

As the CWB barley plebiscite begins this week, Liberal Agriculture Critic Wayne Easter is continuing to expose the Conservatives’ manipulative tactics to dismantle the Wheat Board.
"The Conservatives are trying to manipulate this plebiscite because they don't want to give barley producers a real say on the CWB," said Mr. Easter. The Conservatives’ plan to create so-called “marketing choice” will effectively collapse the Wheat Board, causing members to lose their collective clout in the international market and introduce wide price fluctuations for their crops.

“The Conservative government is not only seeking to destroy this important institution, but is doing so by duplicitous and undemocratic methods,” said Mr. Easter. “This attack has got to stop now before it is too late.”

Les libéraux défendent la Commission canadienne du blé

Étant donné que le plébiscite sur l’orge et la Commission canadienne du blé commence cette semaine, le porte-parole libéral chargé de l’agriculture, Wayne Easter, continue d’exposer les manœuvres manipulatrices des conservateurs visant à démanteler la Commission canadienne du blé.

« Les conservateurs essaient de manipuler ce plébiscite parce qu’ils ne veulent pas donner aux producteurs d’orge leur mot à dire sur la Commission canadienne du blé », a déclaré M. Easter. Le plan des conservateurs de donner un soi-disant « choix du mode de commercialisation » va sûrement détruire la Commission et faire perdre à ses membres leur poids collectif dans le marché international, et cela va créer de grandes fluctuations de prix pour leurs récoltes.

Non seulement le gouvernement conservateur veut détruire cette grande institution, mais il le fait en utilisant des moyens hypocrites et non démocratiques, a dit M. Easter. Ce travail de sape doit cesser immédiatement, avant qu’il soit trop tard. ».

So You Really Don't Get It!?!?

2007-01-30T19:30:00.000-08:00

Just in case this long drawn out battle with the Wheat Board has been too hard for you to understand, analyze or care about. Perhaps you need to see it from a slightly different point of view.

Another gentleman who has been trying to educate us mainstream ag guys for decades, and getting mostly ignored, has been Brewster Kneen, editor and author of the Ram' s Horn. He has recently written a lengthy, but illuminating article about the whole sorry affair.

It's length precludes my posting it here but I'll start you off with a taste. If you really want to understand this struggle, I believe Brewster has the history and the knowledge to make it clear for you.

A SAMPLE:

Ideological Individualism: “Choice”

The business government we are currently saddled with in Canada is busy dismantling the structures which have been built by farmers to protect themselves from The Market. While our focus in The Ram’s Horn is the food system, we must also note the other ways in which this government displays its ideological individualism, lack of morality and contempt for the public.

Lack of morality: unqualified support of Israel’s extraordinarily vindictive and destructive assault on Lebanon, its people and its infrastructure (roads, bridges, power stations, water supplies, schools etc).

Contempt for the public: acting on behalf of its special-interest supporters and right-wing ideology regardless of its minority status.

Individualism: offering tax benefits (which don’t help poor and working-class people) to deliver a ‘child benefit’ rather than the promised public funding of quality child-care facilities.

Certainly there are those farm businessmen and organizations (Canola Council, Canadian Agricultural Trade Alliance, Western Canadian Wheat Growers, etc.) who support the Harper government and the grain companies, as they have for years, in calling for an “open market,” the end of agricultural subsidies (but not until Europe cuts its agricultural support programs) and “choice” in how they market their grain.

Ah Ha!!!!

2007-01-15T18:47:00.000-08:00

The most recent Environics Poll showed Conservative support was down generally across Canada with the biggest losses coming in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Hmmmm?!?! One might think the people in those two provinces have a reason for loss of faith.

AND

I finally found the elusive Western Farmer article..... from the Frontier Centre for Public Policy..... however, at this point it appears to be the same article and everyone is referencing it twice (?) -CG

2007-01-04
Supply Management Days Numbered: Minister Barry Wilson, Western Producer, December 21, 2006
Canada's supply managed sectors are being put on notice by trade minister David Emerson that their protectionist interests cannot continue to limit the ability of Canadian trade negotiators to win stronger concessions.

He said Canada for too long has pulled back from signing trade access agreements if the trade-off was to open sensitive sectors like dairy, poultry and eggs to greater import competition.
"We've got sector sensitivities and we've always deferred to this industry or that industry that felt that they couldn't cope with free trade and so we tended to put aside agreements that were largely in this country's best interests but because of narrow sensitivities, we just didn't bite the bullet.

"I'll probably get hell for this but I can envisage a time where we are just going to have to say to some resistant sectors that there is a national interest and we should work with sectors to see if they can, with some modest support from government, transition to a globally competitive stature or we're going to just have to go through the painful adjustment."

Emerson made clear he included supply management as a system that has dictated a Canadian defensive trade negotiating policy at the expense of competitive exporters.

"We cannot for long sustained periods of time be defensive traders or we will wither and die the death of 1,000 cuts. And we won't win. We can protect but we won't win."

The official Canadian position for several decades, including by Emerson's Conservative government, is that the country can maintain a balanced trade position - winning market access for exporters while also protecting sensitive sectors.

So far, Emerson's views notwithstanding, Conservatives have insisted supply management protection will not be threatened.

What About David Orchard?

2007-01-07T10:37:00.000-08:00

How many people have followed the activities or know much about Mr. David Orchard? He is an interesting man.

I happened to come into contact with Mr. Orchard about 14 years ago, when I happened across his material, just as the the first real concerns over the WTO/ GATT discussions, were heating up. His book, entitled: The Fight For Canada- four Centuries of resistance to American Expansionism is a fascinating read. In my view it is a MUST read for anyone seriously interested in trying to maintain Canadian Sovereignty.

I believe that the survival of supply management and producer power, is dependant on the survival of Canadian Sovereignty.

From his book flyleaf: David Orchard, a fourth generation Saskatchewan farmer, is National Chairman of Citizens Concerned About Free Trade, a nonpartisan organization that has conducted large public meetings across Canada on the Agreement and that mobilized citizens to convince the Senate to block it in 1988. CCAFT also played a major role in opposing both the Meech Lake and Charlottetown accords.

Over the years this determined man has: set up a website and group called Citizens Concerned About Free Trade; written the above book; fund raised to go on speaking tours; has visited countless small venues all over Canada; been interviewed on television (never really very high profile); enlisted volunteers to call for donations or to hear him speak; been very active and vocal during any free trade(NAFTA) or WTO event threatening Canada and agriculture; came out of nowhere to place second to Joe Clark in the 1998 Progressive Conservative leadership race; had the second highest number of delegates to the 2003 Progressive Conservative leadership convention; was kingmaker at the last Conservative leadership event; was purloined and betrayed by McKay (this was his highest profile activity to date); joined the Liberal party of Canada and now quietly, carefully, delivered for Stephan Dion at the last Liberal leadership convention.

I have always wondered why, supply management isn't working with this man hand and glove. His single minded goal has at its heart, the survival of Canada, her institutions, resources and her food systems, as chosen by her farmers. To me, it is a mind blowing example of what one, very determined person can do.

Of course we are at war, it is just a very different kind of war. Any student of history should be able to give you examples of American Imperialism/Expansionism. The problem is that not many of us value this history and the past for the warnings or lessons it can give us.

While reading some of the available material at Vive le Canada, I came across this article about David Orchard:

The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon), Friday, December 8, 2006

Orchard's strategic influence
by Randy Burton

If delivering support to the winning candidate means anything in politics, then David Orchard's star must surely be on the rise in the Liberal party.

The longtime critic of free trade, two-time candidate for the leadership of the Progressive Conservative party and new Liberal can be credited for playing a significant role in Stephane Dion's rise to the Liberal leadership.

Exact totals are unclear at the moment, but Orchard's organization managed to deliver close to 150 delegate votes at the Montreal convention -- 32 of which came from Saskatchewan.
In fact, every Dion delegate from Saskatchewan but one was part of the Orchard camp.
Some were prior Liberals, but many were personal supporters of Orchard from past campaigns. The Orchard camp helped many of them raise the money to go and most of them stayed together at the same hotel, where they had booked a block of rooms.

If Dion was the outsider from within the Liberal establishment, then it seems somehow fitting he should have the support of a consummate outsider like Orchard.

Their partnership could not have been more successful. As the record shows, Dion garnered 854 votes on the first ballot, beating out rival Gerard Kennedy by just two votes on the first ballot. As a result of their prior agreement, Kennedy wound up throwing his support to Dion, which sealed his win. Had the first ballot gone the other way, Kennedy might be the leader today.
There were many reasons why Dion won, but he obviously would not have had the horses to overtake Kennedy without Orchard's support.

Once again, the man many dismiss as a political gadfly has proven it's a mistake to underestimate his influence.

Through organizations dating back to the mid-1980s, from the free trade wars to two runs for the Progressive Conservative leadership, Orchard has built a huge list of contacts. His chief organizer, Marjaleena Repo, estimates they now have some 39,000 names in their databank.
There may have been other people supporting Dion with this kind of reach, but certainly no one who reaches the variety of people who tend to support Orchard. Some are environmentalists seeking pesticide bans; others want to promote organic farming and the Canadian Wheat Board. Still others believe Canadian foreign policy is tilted too far in favour of Israel.

What they have in common is that they see Orchard as a means of empowering ordinary people. In an era where party affiliation means little, Orchard has managed to construct a portable power base that has now influenced the outcome of three different national leadership campaigns.

This turn of events raises some very interesting questions about Orchard's future. There's no doubt he intends to remain active in Liberal politics, and there are a number of issues he intends to press.

The Canadian Wheat Board issue is one of those, as is tighter controls on pesticides and the ongoing problem of low farm income. At the convention, Orchard was rubbing shoulders with former agriculture minister Eugene Whelan, and he's now in conversation with John Turner's former ag minister, Ralph Ferguson, who wants his help on farm policy issues.

If Dion should eventually become prime minister -- and every elected Liberal leader since 1896 has -- Orchard will be well-positioned to play a role in a Liberal government.

How intoxicating the prospect must seem for him. The perpetual outsider who had so much difficulty gaining the respect of the Progressive Conservative hierarchy now finds his opinion sought out by players in the Liberal party.

Should he decide to run for the Liberals and actually win a seat, he might even have a shot at a cabinet post.

Many will blanch at this prospect, but stranger things have happened.

Orchard is noncommittal at this point, but admits he's considering running.
In an interview this week, he said he has had invitations to run for the Liberals in a variety of ridings across the country.

"I have to take a look at all of them and decide where to go," he said.
However, his farm and his history are in Saskatoon Wanuskewin, where he recently celebrated the 100th anniversary of his family's farm.

Wanuskewin remains firmly in the grip of Conservative MP Maurice Vellacott, but Orchard is clearly tempted by the prospect of running against him.

Whether it's the Conservatives' efforts to undermine the wheat board, or Vellacott's "whole-hearted support for the bombing of Lebanon," Orchard says his current MP leaves plenty to be desired.

As other high-profile candidates such as Chris Axworthy have learned, Vellacott is not easy to beat. But there's a certain symmetry to the idea. Who better to take on the ideologically driven Vellacott than the equally hard-nosed Orchard? It would pit Vellacott's disciplined group of evangelicals and pro-lifers against Orchard's coalition of greens, anti-free traders and social democrats.

In many ways it would be a microcosm of the national campaign, right here on our own doorstep.

You could sell tickets to a contest like that.

2007...?!?

2007-01-03T06:17:00.000-08:00

What will it bring? If our climate IS changing , certainly the challenges of the weather will be there to plague us. For farmers, this could be and many times is, a cross to bear. One more thing to make a difficult job, harder. This green Christmas and the warm temperatures, while grudgingly welcomed, is eerie..

What about world agricultural issues? Excluding the WTO and the extraordinary evolution and influence of the 'developing' countries, does agriculture in Canada think about what is happening out there? I sure hope so.

The North American Union (NAU) is set to become an issue for all. The only portion of this discussion I have heard anything about is the SPP ( Security Protection & Prosperity ). Many bureaucrats and business leaders are working on this. Ostensibly begun to improve our security after 911, the big picture is being ignored by Canadian Media.

These include Regulations and Agriculture and Food related issues. The documents are long and many, but several groups in the US and Canada are certainly viewing this agreement and many of it's elements with alarm.

If you examine the list of people who are doing this work and the Manufacturers and businesses involved, I am troubled by the fact that agriculture, more specifically, those affected by any 'harmonizing' discussed (like Supply Management) are not at this particular table.

In September 2006, one enemy who has worked tirelessly to undermine Supply Management was there: Mr. Thomas d’Aquino Canadian Council of Chief Executives . This was an invitation only, event. See: Deep Integration Planned at Secret Conference Ignored by the Media
A Canadian group called : Vive le Canada has a warehouse of information that agriculture should be sifting through. If you are tempted to put this one off, remember the struggles the industry had with NAFTA as it was being developed. Complacency is NOT a tool for survival.

View a complete history and time line.

Hello? Now What?!?!?

2006-12-25T06:15:00.000-08:00

Christmas Day hadn't even officially arrived, when the article below hit my mailbox. The MP concerned has been a friend and advisor to Supply Management for a long time. Issues brought to the fore by this MP need to be taken very seriously! I give his comments and the warnings issued even more weight, after reading this week's Ontario Farmer. In an article entitled: 'Supply Management off WTO's Radar', Mr. Liam McCreary suggests " they can relax because they aren't on the table these days".

That's like the Devil telling you Hell is a great place to live. Mr. McCreary is heavily involved in an organization known as CAFTA . If HE is telling supply managed farmers to relax..... you better start working your contacts hard. Something is up!

It's not like people haven't been trying to warn supply management about the agenda the current government has.. Too much has happened out there in recent months. This Conservative party is not the traditional one, rural Ontario or Canada is used to. Much of their philosophy (and their agenda) smacks of the Alliance Party of old. The views espoused by the Trade Minister, in a western setting must be taken seriously.

8888888888888888888888888888888888888

International Trade Minister Admits Supply-Management on the Chopping Block-December 21, 2006Hunter River, PEI

International Trade Minister David Emerson is sacrificing Canada's supply management system to appease the Bush administration at the expense of Canada's farmers, particularly in Ontario and Quebec, Liberal Opposition Agriculture Critic Wayne Easter said today."We have seen this coming with the Harper government's attack on the Canadian Wheat Board. We knew that the dismantlement of the Wheat Board was the first step to killing orderly marketing systems and now Minister Emerson has admitted it," said Easter.

Minister Emerson told The Western Producer that producers of dairy, poultry and egg products must prepare to be open to free trade in their sectors for the "national interest."In the same article, Mr. Emerson claims that supply management has forced Canada into a "defensive trade negotiating policy at the expense of competitive exporters.""What Mr. Emerson has done is a public service. Unlike the Minister of Agriculture, Chuck Strahl, who has said repeatedly that the Conservative government has no intention of undermining supply management as it has the Canadian Wheat Board, Minister Emerson has put the lie to those statements," Mr. Easter said."

Mr. Emerson has finally confirmed that farmers, regardless of whether they are working through the Canadian Wheat Board or involved in one of our successful supply managed commodity sectors are under direct and immediate threat by the Conservative government.

The direct threat to supply management from the Harper Conservatives has been around as long as the party itself," Mr. Easter said."Canadians are getting yet another clear look at the hypocrisy of the Harper government," Mr. Easter added. "Liberal governments have been long-time defenders of supply-management and this Liberal Opposition will continue to fight to defend that system against whatever attacks Mr. Harper and his cabinet have in store."

The supply-management industries in Canada are doing well compared to others and it is prized as a tool that enables producers to gain some power in the marketplace. Without supply-management, dairy, egg and poultry farmers will not be able to recover their cost of production or compete with international markets.

Combined, the Canadian egg, dairy and poultry sectors generate over $6.8 billion in farm cash receipts or 20 percent of total primary agriculture, more than $39 billion of economic activity, and over 215,000 jobs in Canada.

"What our supply management system and the Canadian Wheat Board have achieved is that both have contributed to the empowerment of farmers in the marketplace. Unfortunately, the Harper Conservatives have an agenda which will remove that power from our primary producers and their agenda will and must be challenged," Mr. Easter said.

Mr. Easter said supply-management provides high quality products at reasonable and stable prices for consumers, while ensuring price increases are in line or lower than that of other commodities, such as beef, pork and bread."

Compared to the rest of the world Canadians spend less on their food than just about any other country," he said. "This treachery is the Harper government's gift to the United States and the E.U., both of whom have attacked Canada's supply-management system and the Canadian Wheat Board at the WTO for years.

"This is a complete sellout of Canada's farmers to our giant international competitors."Mr. Easter said this betrayal comes on the heels of months of undemocratic and unprincipled attacks on the Canadian Wheat Board, which culminated this week in the firing of the Board's President and CEO.

"This is a government that has consistently misled and attempted to manipulate the public to achieve its ends. What is now clear is that farmers from Prince Edward Island to British Columbia, from Saskatchewan to Quebec and every province and territory between, have one thing in common: a justifiable reason to ensure the Conservative government is defeated and removed from the office they do not deserve to hold."

:::::

And then we get damage control. Issued later the same day:

December 21, 2006 (6:50 p.m. EST)
No. 163

CANADA’S NEW GOVERNMENT HAS PROVEN TRACK RECORD ON SUPPLY MANAGEMENT

The Honourable David Emerson, Minister of International Trade, and the Honourable Chuck Strahl, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food and Minister for the Canadian Wheat Board, today said Canada’s new government will continue to support our supply-managed agricultural industries in the World Trade Organization (WTO) Doha Round and other negotiations.

“Our supply management system is not on the negotiating table. This government has consistently defended our supply-managed sectors at the WTO,” said Minister Emerson.

“Agriculture has become the main focus of the Doha Round. In these negotiations, Canada strongly supports the supply management system used in the dairy, poultry and egg sectors, just as other countries have been supporting their own sensitive sectors.”

“This government strongly supports Canada’s supply management system,” said Minister Strahl. “Our party policy supports it, we campaigned on it, and we have gone to the wall to defend elements important to our supply management system, during international negotiations.”

Minister Emerson said Canada continues to believe that an ambitious outcome to the Doha Round is in the best interest of the Canadian economy as a whole. Negotiations have been stalled but will hopefully resume in the new year.
- 30 -

TA DAAAAA!!!!!!

2006-12-21T06:14:00.000-08:00

Hello to all my readers!!!! To-day is a special day, indeed. If Dairiblawg was a store.... we'd have a prize of some sort for ...... wait for it..... the 2000th page view!!! Even though you guys are not much in the conversation department.... you sure are pretty faithful readers. I have tried to encourage you to use the blawg as a sort of forum, however to date, no such luck. It is good to know though, that at the least, I have your attention.
The Holiday season is approaching, so I do want to wish you all a Happy, healthy, merry Christmas. -cg

The NFU speaks...

2006-12-21T06:08:00.000-08:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DECEMBER 19, 2006

FIRING OF CWB PRESIDENT LATEST ANTI-DEMOCRATIC ACT BY HARPER GOVERNMENT

The firing of Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) President and CEO Adrian Measner, whose record at the helm of the $4 billion farmer's marketing agency has been exemplary , is the latest in a string of anti-democratic actions by the Harper Conservatives, says National Farmers Union (NFU) President Stewart Wells.

"For the first time in my life I am genuinely concerned about the future of this country," stated Wells. "Watching the Harper Conservatives engage in what amounts to a reign of terror against the CWB has shattered my notion of Canada as a safe country that is based on democracy."

Wells characterized the firing of Mr. Measner as "a vicious and savage act' that has already hurt Canada's international reputation. Letters of concern have recently been pouring in to the CWB office from such major companies as COFCO (China's largest grain purchaser), Warburton's (Europe's largest single end-user of western Canadian wheat), Grupo Altex (Mexico's largest wheat milling group, and Canada Malting (Canada's largest barley maltster). The market turbulence generated in the wake of the government's attack on the CWB has undermined years of market development efforts.

"Mr. Measner is a friend of the farmer and a true Canadian hero for not knuckling under to the ideological lunacy coming from the Harper Conservatives," stated Wells.

The Harper Conservatives engaged in election tampering during the CWB Director elections; purged CWB Directors who supported the single desk and replaced them with appointees who will toe the party line; and imposed gag orders on the CWB. "This is the same government that claims it will bring 'democracy' to the Senate," said Wells. "Canadians who understand what true democracy is will see through this Jekyll and Hyde routine."

Wells concluded that if they truly believed in democracy, Conservative MPs would follow the lead of Manitoba MP Inky Mark, who is honestly representing his constituents by supporting the CWB single desk.

He pointed out that David Anderson, MP for Cypress Hills Grasslands, represents a constituency whose boundaries closely align with the boundaries of the CWB District in which incumbent CWB Director Larry Hill , a supporter of the single-desk - won by a landslide majority.

- 30

Contact: Stewart Wells, NFU President (306) 741-7694
Terry Pugh, NFU Executive-Secretary (306) 652-9465

Another viewpoint......

2006-12-21T06:05:00.000-08:00

December 19, 2006
Canadian Wheat Board boss axed

By STEVE LAMBERT

Adrian Measner. (CP/Tom Hanson)

ST. FRANCOIS XAVIER, Man. (CP) - The federal government moved a step closer to ending the Canadian Wheat Board's marketing monopoly Tuesday by firing board president Adrian Measner, who had spoken out against the plan.

"We issued the letter to him, just saying that his position . . . was no longer his, that thanked him for his service," Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl said after making the announcement at a farm west of Winnipeg. "It's time to make a change."

The Conservatives are following through on an election promise to give western farmers greater freedom to choose whether to sell their wheat and barley through the board or independently, he said.

Strahl appointed Greg Arason, a former board president, to fill the vacancy on an interim basis.
He said Arason supports the government's position and will focus on "selling grain for farmers, not engaging in political activity".

Measner said Strahl never spoke with him directly about his firing.
"It isn't a very professional way to operate, but it is the method of operation that the minister has chosen," he said from his home near Winnipeg.

Measner said Arason will have to choose between listening to the board of directors, most of whom oppose the government's plan, or to listen to Strahl. "It's a no-win situation. I guess that's what I've been through."

Supporters of the board say scrapping the monopoly would effectively kill the farmer-run organization and result in lower prices.

"Mr. Strahl's approach to things has been to ignore . . . the wishes of farmers," said Bill Toews, one of the wheat board's elected directors.

Carl Siemens, who grows grains and oilseeds near Rush Lake, Sask., said Tuesday's announcement could cost the Conservatives votes in the next election.
"Although a goodly number of (farmers) actually voted for the Conservative government in the last federal election, they did so with no knowledge that this government was going to move in this fashion to remove the Canadian Wheat Board," he said.

But other farmers have been waiting a long time for what they see as a competitive alternative.
They say producers can get better prices if they're allowed to choose how they sell what they grow.

"If the Canadian Wheat Board is the best marketing agency in the world, they can prove it by competing for the farmers' grain," said Charlie Anderson, who farms in northeastern Saskatchewan.

Liberal agriculture critic Wayne Easter called the firing undemocratic and an act of intimidation.
The board, backed by the Saskatchewan and Manitoba governments, the federal Liberals and NDP and several farm groups, says the Canadian Wheat Board Act requires the government to hold a plebiscite before taking any steps to remove the monopoly.

Strahl, who has the support of the Alberta government and some farm groups, has said he'll hold a non-binding plebiscite on barley this winter, but hasn't committed to a date for a similar vote for wheat.

After Measner spoke out against the government plan in November, Strahl sent him a tersely worded letter giving him 14 days to change his stance or face dismissal.

Measner further irritated Strahl last week when the CEO stood beside Stephane Dion as the new Liberal leader made a campaign-style promise to support the wheat board.

Strahl has not had an easy time selling his new vision of the wheat board to Prairie farmers. Earlier this month, individuals who support the monopoly won four of five district elections for the CWB's board of directors.

Alberta Agriculture Minister George Groeneveld suggested that limits what Strahl can do in the way of reform. But he added he wasn't surprised that Measner was dumped.

"I think that Mr. Strahl was forced into that position," Groeneveld said in Edmonton. "When you start opposing the minister that's in charge of the show, your shelf life is probably quite limited."
Groeneveld's Manitoba counterpart, Rosann Wowchuk, said Strahl should not make any changes without allowing farmers to vote on them.

"I'm disappointed in him that he has so little respect for the producers and is prepared to subvert democracy so he gets his own agenda forward," she said.

Controlled by western Canadian farmers, the CWB is the largest wheat and barley marketer in the world. One of Canada's biggest exporters, the Winnipeg-based organization sells grain to over 70 countries and returns all sales revenue, less marketing costs, to Prairie farmers.

Measner, who was raised on a farm in Holdfast, Sask., has worked for the board since 1974, including nine years in charge of grain marketing and transportation. He became its second president and chief executive officer in January 2003.

What's Wrong with This Picture?

2006-12-21T06:04:00.000-08:00

Strahl fires president of Canadian Wheat Board

CTV.ca

News Staff Updated: Tue. Dec. 19 2006 3:43 PM ET

The federal agriculture minister has fired Adrian Measner, president of the embattled Canadian Wheat Board.

Officials with the board say Chuck Strahl gave Measner a termination notice today.
Strahl made his announcement at a staged rally west of Winnipeg. Farmers who oppose the wheat board's current monopoly on wheat and barley sales surrounded him.

He appointed Greg Arason, a former wheat board president, as interim president. Arason supports the government's plan to end the board's monopoly. "Arason will focus on selling grain, not engaging in political action," Strahl said.

In late November, Strahl sent Measner a fax saying he was considering terminating him.
Ken Ritter, chairman of the farmer-run organization, said the letter amounted to two week's notice. The board sent Strahl a fax imploring him not to fire Measner.

The Conservative government wants to end the board's monopoly over the sale of western wheat and barley -- a promise made in their 2006 election platform. Their plan would allow farmers to sell either to the board or independently.

Critics of the plan say ending the board's monopoly would effectively cripple the organization and result in lower prices for most farmers.

Measner had been one critic of the plan. He said the government should hold a plebiscite among farmers before proceeding with ending the board's monopoly.

Strahl has promised a non-binding plebiscite on barley this winter, but hasn't committed yet to a similar vote for wheat.

Federally, the NDP and Liberals both support the board. Measner stood beside Stephane Dion when the new Liberal leader promised to restore the board's monopoly if elected.

The NDP provincial governments in Saskatchewan and Manitoba support the status quo.
Alberta's Conservative government would like to see changes. Groups like the Western Canadian Wheat Growers and Western Canadian Barley Growers have always supported ending the board's monopoly.

In recent board elections, the ratio of board members favouring the status quo versus those who want to end the monopoly was maintained.

"You either have single-desk selling or you have don't have a CWB and they have presented no evidence that would counter that contention," said Mark Wartman, Saskatchewan's agriculture minister, the wake of the vote. "Clearly, the majority of farmers are not buying that nonsense about dual-marketing."

Strahl begged to differ.
"Other people would counter that in the federal election, 85 per cent of the MPs elected in wheat board country were Conservative,'' he said on Dec. 11. "And Conservatives campaigned openly and aggressively on moving to marketing choice. "People make decisions for all kinds of reasons, but the input that's going to be most valuable as far as changes to the board goes is going to be the plebiscite."

Strahl came under fire earlier this fall for striking the names of some farmers off the voting list for such a plebiscite.

The board was established by the federal government in 1935 to help give prairie farmers more marketing clout. An elected 15-member board administers it on behalf of more than 85,000 farmers.

The CWB is the world's largest wheat and barley marketer, controlling more than 20 per cent of the global market.

The board sells grain to more than 70 countries and returns all sales revenue to farmers, less marketing costs.

However, proponents of change say that in an era in which market pricing information is instantly available via the Internet, farmers could earn better returns by marketing their own grain.

With files from The Canadian Press
© Copyright 2006 CTV Inc.

The First Cracks?

2006-12-16T05:58:00.000-08:00

The actions of the new Conservative Government will NOT be without consequences. I think this article pretty well says it all.-CG

Prairie growers gather in Winnipeg in last-ditch show of support for CEO

JOE FRIESEN 15/12/06 Globe and Mail

WINNIPEG -- Hundreds of prairie farmers travelled to the heart of the Canadian grain trade yesterday to demand that a $300,000 a year CEO be allowed to keep his job.
The wheat producers, carrying placards rather than pitchforks, staged a last-ditch protest aimed at saving the job of Canadian Wheat Board boss Adrian Measner.

Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl told Mr. Measner two weeks ago he was considering firing him for refusing to back Ottawa's plan to dismantle the board's monopoly on grain sales.
As the crowd chanted his name, the quiet, unassuming CEO from Holdfast, Sask., climbed onto the back of a pickup truck and looked out over signs that said "CWB -- Our board, our business" and "Strahl -- Keep your hands off our CWB."

Mr. Measner, his eyes looking tired and his voice at times choked with emotion, vowed to stay in his job as long as possible.

But moments before he emerged from the board's Main Street head office, he faxed a four-page letter to Mr. Strahl that will almost certainly seal his fate. In the letter, Mr. Measner said he cannot support the direction the Conservative government has taken.

"Based on my 32 years of experience, and based on the direction given to me by the farmer-elected board of directors, I will continue to support the single desk [model of selling]," his letter says. He asked Mr. Strahl to stop meddling with an organization that he believes should be at arms-length from government, run by farmers, for farmers.

In an interview in his office yesterday morning, Mr. Measner outlined his thoughts as he faced what could well be his last day on the job.

"This isn't how I wanted to end my career," he said. "It's a bit hard to understand, because I'm caught in the middle of an issue that I personally can't resolve. "I will continue to work for the farmer-elected board. There's no option in my mind."

He arrived at the board as a computer programmer fresh out of the University of Saskatchewan and rose through the ranks to eventually run the $4-billion-a-year organization. His staff holds him in high regard for his honest, straightforward style.

But he is clearly uncomfortable in the spotlight, and sought yesterday to deflect attention from his imminent dismissal. "I don't want us to get sidetracked on me; I want us to focus on who's in charge of this organization and who should be charting its future.

"I think farmers need to stand up and say, 'No. This is our organization, and you're not taking it.' "
Mr. Measner said Ottawa is trying to impose its will on Western Canadian farmers by refusing to follow the rules that require a plebiscite before any change to the monopoly.

Mr. Strahl has promised to hold a vote on the barley monopoly, but has not said whether he will do the same for wheat.

The Conservatives campaigned on a platform of marketing choice in the last election and swept nearly every seat on the Prairies.

Mr. Measner said that after what he has seen in the last two months, he has no intention of running for Parliament, but he intends be a thorn in the government's side.

He was overwhelmed to see several hundred farmers, many wearing jeans and baseball caps, protesting on behalf of someone who wears a suit to work every day.

"It's very unusual but very appreciated. It's a tremendous thing. If farmers can work together and speak with a single voice, they're a lot stronger and they'll have a lot more impact."

Marty McNabb, a farmer from Minnedosa, 210 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg, said he supports the board. "We've got to make the government listen," he said, with a toothpick dangling from his mouth. "An open market might be good for some, but not for everyone."
Ernie Michaleski, a farmer from Dauphin, Man., said opposition to government plans is growing among farmers, who have recently been loyal Conservative voters.

"It's so far out of touch with reality and common sense," he said. "There are Conservative voters who aren't going to be able to vote Conservative after this."

And the Minister's next Move is....... ?

2006-12-15T05:57:00.000-08:00

All my rants, over the shoddy treatment farmers have received in the last few months from this new Government, would NOT be complete if I did not report the latest response from farmers. They held elections last week. In spite of the interference from Minister Strahl and his strategists and supporters, 4 out of 5 positions on the Canadian Wheat Board , were filled by pro-wheat board representatives.

In the one position that failed to do so, 50% of the voters were dis-qualified from the vote by Government manipulations.

As reported:

Election proves farmers support wheat board, critics tell Tories

Terry Pedwell
Canadian Press

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

OTTAWA (CP) - Supporters of the Canadian Wheat Board are warning the federal Conservative government to back away from sweeping changes to the board in the wake of a vote by farmers.
The Tories want to end the board's monopoly on wheat and barley sales - a move that critics say would effectively kill the farmer-run organization. Pro-monopoly directors won four of five elections over the weekend to a new board of directors, maintaining the balance of power that existed prior to the vote.

Saskatchewan Agriculture Minister Mark Wartman said the result sends a message that most farmers support keeping the board's marketing monopoly. "Clearly, the majority of farmers are not buying that nonsense about dual-marketing," Wartman said Monday.

"You either have single-desk selling or you have don't have a CWB and they have presented no evidence that would counter that contention."

New Democrat MP Alex Atamanenko said the vote should be a "wake-up call" for Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl. "Farmers made a clear choice this past weekend and chose the wheat board."

The Tories maintain that they want to give producers choice in how they sell their grain. But that's not what farmers have indicated they want, said wheat board chairman Ken Ritter.

Strahl suggested critics are reading too much into the board elections and it's wrong to conclude that the vote means farmers want Ottawa to back off with changes. "Other people would counter that in the federal election, 85 per cent of the MPs elected in wheat board country were Conservative," he said. "And Conservatives campaigned openly and aggressively on moving to marketing choice.
"People make decisions for all kinds of reasons, but the input that's going to be most valuable as far as changes to the board goes is going to be the plebiscite."

Strahl plans to hold a vote among barley farmers by February on "marketing choice," but he has not committed to a plebiscite by wheat farmers.

And Strahl insisted that the wheat board would survive without a monopoly.
"Everytime someone says that the wheat board's in jeopardy or the wheat board might not exist ... whenever they cast doubt on the wheat board, there's no doubt it hurts the board internationally. They should stop doing that."

But Wartman said the only way to maintain a strong wheat board is for Strahl to stop tampering with it.

Meantime, Strahl has threatened to fire wheat board president and CEO Adrian Measner for opposing the government's position.

The wheat board, which is governed by a 15-person board of directors, was established by Parliament in 1935 as a producer marketing system for wheat and barley.

Ten of the directors are elected by grain farmers in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The remaining five are appointed by the federal government.

Some farmers have argued that selling grain through a single government agency no longer works in an era of globalization. But defenders say that without the board, grain prices would fluctuate day-to-day and farmers themselves would have to negotiate their own prices.
Still others support a dual market system, where farmers could sell their crops either on the open market or through the board.

© The Canadian Press 2006

Dairy's Enemies Get Sophisticated

2006-12-13T05:55:00.000-08:00

Well now, look what showed up this week! I certainly hope Dairy Farmers of Canada and all their farmers are aware of THIS! The page below represents the output of some very sophisticated enemies, who just keep ramping it up. Unfortunately, in the current political climate, there are people in power who will look at this and re-act just as they have with the CWB. Certainly, it is someone with more power than farmers who have caused the Conservatives to try to destroy the Board.

Probably, a group with money and power similar to this bunch. After all, they usually have the most to gain. The beef is always about money and much of the stuff seen below is seriously twisted. Observers outside the industry will not know this, without some serious educational activity. And even that may not been seen objectively. -CG

http://www.dairyplanet.ca/

Mootropolis, Canada

Thursday, December 7, 2006

Canada holds on to world record for high dairy prices!

When it comes to high prices, the Canadian dairy industry wins the international gold medal. But it's a hollow victory. Artificially high prices mean the industry is losing market share in Canada as consumers cut back on dairy and look for more affordable alternatives. International studies show that Canadian dairy prices are among the highest in the world.

Canadian dairy prices have soared 53 per cent since 1994. That's nearly twice the rate of inflation. At the same time that prices skyrocketed, the cost of producing milk fell by 3.8 per cent. This cost of production formula was created by the dairy industry and has a built-in profit for producers. * To view a bigger version of a chart, click on the chart.
return to home

Profile at Last?!

2006-12-06T05:54:00.000-08:00

Dion promises to reinstate Canadian Wheat Board
CTV.ca

News Staff Updated: Wed. Dec. 6 2006 2:12 PM ET

Stephane Dion stood alongside his agriculture critic and the outgoing CEO of the Canadian Wheat Board and pledged that if he becomes prime minister he will reverse any decision by the Conservative government to dismantle the Canadian Wheat Board.

Dion, the newly elected leader of the Liberal Party, said Prime Minister Stephen Harper has effectively trampled on the board by firing its leader and muzzling the board against defending itself. "If Prime Minister (Stephen) Harper succeeds in destroying the Canadian Wheat Board ... I as a prime minister will reinstate the board," Dion told reporters.

The Conservative government has said it wants to end the decades-old monopoly and make grain farmers' participation in the body voluntary -- a move that some farmers say will kill the organization's effectiveness.

Farmers are divided on the issue, but a majority of the CWB's members, who are voted into office by grain producers, prefer the current framework laid out in the Canadian Wheat Board Act.

Adrian Measner, Wheat Board CEO, has opposed the plan arguing that it will kill the organization. As a result, he was given two weeks notice by Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl.
"It's a serious issues for the farmers of Western Canada because we feel it is being undermined and has to be addressed," Measner said at the news conference, noting that the plan has made the future uncertain, and international investors have become wary as a result.
"It is causing some concerns internationally. We would like to get clarity on this issue as soon as possible."

CTV's David Akin, covering the news conference, suggested the Conservatives could argue they were elected with a strong majority in Saskatchewan and Alberta, and therefore have a mandate to follow through with the plan.

Easter disagreed. "Can you the media stand here and look me in the eye and say an election in which an issue that represents 2 per cent of the population -- and that's all farmers not just grain farmers -- should actually be seen as a referendum on the board? I should think not," Easter said. "In fact the Act itself states ...there should be consultation with the board and a vote of producers and that hasn't been happening."

Meanwhile, the Manitoba government will spend $80,000 on a non-binding vote on the future of the Canadian Wheat Board in an attempt to send a message to the federal government.
Wheat and barley farmers in Western Canada are required to sell their crops intended for human consumption, or international sale, only to the board.

The board, which is based in Winnipeg, doesn't handle the grain itself or own rail cars or elevators, but the CWB's staff negotiate deals to sell the grain at a single fixed price which it sets.
The board used to be a crown corporation, but since 1998 it has been run by 15 directors. Ten of the directors are elected by farmers, and five, including the president, are appointed by the government.

The federal government guarantees to cover any financial losses the Board suffers.

© Copyright 2006 CTV Inc.