The Rural Voice, 1999-03, Page 6Pertinent issue
Dear Sir,
I thought the February edition of
The Rural Voice was particularly
pertinent.
Gisele Ireland's column, which is
always humorous and enlightening,
was good to read in a somewhat
different way. I am sure that many
hard-pressed farmers appreciated that
message from "someone who was
there."
Keith Roulston's column was, as
usual, to the point. Farmers in the
eighties had a choice. They could
choose to have some real input into
how their product was produced and
marketed through effective marketing
boards or they could choose to
concentrate their efforts on
production and leave the rest to
vagaries of a somewhat nebulous
"marketplace". The red meat
producers chose the latter course.
We can now only speculate on
what would have happened if there
had been general acceptance of the
marketing opportunities which were
available at that time and which were
actively supported by Conservative
W. A. Stewart, Liberal Eugene
Whelan and NDP leaders of the day.
Farmers have traditionally been
price takers. To have any input in the
setting of prices requires much
organizing and co-operating. It
cannot be done by individual farmers
on their own. There is a natural
reluctance on the part of farmers to
follow that route. Some groups of
course have followed that route. To
name two, the dairymen and poultry
producers have taken a lot of
responsibility for marketing their
product for close to two generations
with quite satisfactory results.
2 THE RURAL VOICE
Feedback
I hope Mr. Editor that you
continue to keep reminding us of the
realities of the situation with regard
to the economics of agriculture,
especially as they impact the family
farm. It has suffered much.0
Cameron MacAuley
Ripley.
Unity is essential
Dear Editor,
We're deeply into yet another
depression -style pork cycle. Finger -
pointing between producers, packers,
marketers and others only hardens
stances while government support
programs are long months away and
another layer of honest, hard-working
family producers will likely be
stripped from our already weakened
rural community.
Underlying Ontario's plight is an
industry producing the most and best
pork ever into a local and global
market of chaos. Producers who no
longer market through a single -seller
agency but have splintered
themselves into independents,
contract feeders, company affiliates,
loops, and even vertically integrated
corporate farms, lack collective
monopoly power needed to market
effectively by capping production as
real democratic supply management
must.
Our colleges, businesses and even
governments still stubbornly push the
ethic of unbridled competitiveness —
globalization — deregulation
privatization ... as if there were a
true free market — poppycock! It
was a myth and is a myth now!
Canadians live in a mixed
public/private economy and are
slowly re -learning that governments
can do some things better and more
fairly still.
Producers were encouraged to
upgrade and expand to meet a
growing foreign market often
ignoring stable domestic
consumption. Neither market has
factored in all true costs of
production (profit, labour rates,
environmental impact, infrastructure,
capitalization, energy availability and
affordability ...) With no floor price
and production cap, we are
competing ourselves out of business.
Overcapacity of 10 - 15 per cent is
rumoured yet neighbours are waiting
for producers' auctions to buy up
their farms at fire -sale prices and
keep producing. Such predatory
opportunism only further weakens
our rural life, guarantees our kids will
exit, and leaves us with the same or
even more pork. It's time to manage
co-operatively.
What happened to the time -proven
alternate ethic of co-operation which
allows for collective democratic self -
regulated options for producers? It is
my guess many seasoned farmers are
now realizing it isn't worth running
harder just to stay in one spot. In
these days of impending deflation,
farmers still need huge technical
machines plus other assets just to
produce at all or the job can't be
done. Our cost/price squeeze grows.
Deflation can ruin retirement dreams
for many highly invested farmers
who can't liquidate.
Modern specialized farming is
light years away from formerly
common mixed farms and this
highlights the growing importance of
farmers' market control and support
mechanisms to ensure it.
Meanwhile, as market volatility
grows, our government support for
supply management boards is suspect
(remember Article XI). Producers'
subsidies have largely been erased in
Canada yet the European and
American government extend their
trade war with enormous subsidies
still. Protectionist sentiment is
growing in USA and this should be of
grave concern to our farmers.
Ontario producers struggled
through Christmas selling 38
cents/kg. live weight pigs at about
one-third their break-even cost.
Farmers unable to find "hooks" in
Ontario, shipped hogs to N.B. in
desperation. With Quality Packers on
strike, only Michael McCain's giant
Maple Leaf plant was left, if you