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The Rural Voice, 1999-08, Page 10WEST WAWANOSH MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY 1879 (0 1999 "neighbour helping 7eigh6ouT" 529-7921 / / Cnar.A 11 lake* wry nip r0 101.41l eecUn0, l0 NKOMO nelplev Clem Sur/ete 'lb In lbw,np prem 11, C' Vold OK • It can take Tess than three seconds to become trapped in flowing grain. Within another 10 seconds, you can be completely submerged. Avoid entrapment by making it a policy to never walk on a stored grain surface. If entry is essential, use a lifeline and "buddy" system. YOUR LOCAL AGENTS Frank Foran, Lucknow 528-3824 Chapman Graham &-Associates. Owen Sound 376-1774 Donald Simpson, Ripley 395-5362 John Nixon, Brussels 887-9417 Delmar Sproul Insurance Inc.. Aubum 529-7273 Clinton 482-3434 Goderich 524-9899 Lyons & Mulhern Insurance Brokers, Goderich 524-2664 McMaster Siemon Insurance Brokers, Mitchell 348-9150 Georgian Bay Insurance Brokers. Owen Sound 376-2666 Meatord 538-2102 Miller Insurance Brokers, Kincardine 396-3465 Southampton 797-3355 Owen Sound 376-0590 P.A. Roy Insurance Brokers, Clinton 482-9357 Banter, MacEwan, Feagan, Goderich 524-8376 Orr Insurance, Stratford 271-4340 Westlake - McHugh Insurance, Zurich 236-4391 John Moore Insurance Brokers, Dublin 345-3512 Hemsworth Insurance Ltd., Listowel 291-3920 Kleinknechtlnsurance Brokers, Linwood 698-2215 Gray Insurance. Seafonh 522-0399 Zettel Insurance. Stratford 273-3251 Craig. McDonald, Reddon Ins. Brokers, Walkerton 881-2701 Mildmay 367-2297 Hanover 364-3540 Durham 369-2935 Elliott Insurance Brokers, Blyth 523-4481 Seatorth Insurance Brokers, Seaforth 527-1610 Sholdice Insurance Limited. Brussels 887-6100 "INSURANCE FOR FARM, RESIDENTIAL, COMMERCIAL AND AUTO" • A Member Of The is Ontario Mutual Insurance Association • 6 THE RURAL VOICE Keith Roulston Corporations run the world Strategic partnership — it's such a wonderful term. It has been the buzz- word of the 1990s in agriculture. Agricultural economists, food industry leaders, even farm leaders have sung the praises of co-operation between the various sectors of the industry. The problem is it often seems to mean an uneven partnership favouring the bigger partner. Despite the -fine words, there are two opposing trends taking place. On the one hand, huge companies are merging to become so large even govern- ments must bow to them. At the same time industry leaders urge more independence from marketing boards for individual farmers. The message the companies are sending is "we must have more clout in the marketplace" while they're telling farmers that they're not being served by the clout their collective bargaining tools give them and they'd be better off in a "strategic partnership" with the company. The words might be a little more credible if not for the actions of some of the world's largest companies. First came the conviction of Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) and three other multi -national companies for price-fixing that held the price of lysine artificially high between 1992 and 1995. The lawsuits from that act hadn't been settled when a new case of illegal price-fixing among the world's largest makers of vitamins, including Hoffman -LaRoche, BASF and Rhone-Poulenc was uncovered. The revelations came about because of new vigilance from the U.S. government toward companies misusing their power to get an advantage in the marketplace. During the administration of George Bush, little support was given to such investigations. The feeling prevailed that anything good for big business would eventually be good for the country and so government trusted business to run its own show. At least the Americans have the ability, through their tough anti-trust legislation, to prevent this kind of abuse. Canada's anti -combines legislation is virtually toothless. When Loblaws and Sobey's were selling products at retail prices cheaper than the wholesale price an independent competitor was charged, the angry independent was told by competition investigators in Ottawa there was nothing they could do to help him. Our competition legislation is so weak that the department in charge has managed something like two convictions in 14 years. The message of mega -mergers like Sobeys and Oshawa Foods, Loblaws and Provigo and the prop- osal to merge New Holland and Case -International is that power is all important in today's marketplace. Certainly there may be some genuine cost savings. but the real gain is in amassing enough financial clout to dominate a market and reduce the power of suppliers to drive a better bargain. Anyone who has tried to gain access to the shelves of huge retailers knows who calls the shots. This amassing of power comes at a time when any counterbalancing of power is being reduced. Govern- ments, in the name of deficit reduction and cutting red tape, have neutered their own ability to offset the power of multinational corporations. As well, since companies increasingly operate beyond borders, it takes international diplomatic efforts on the scale of planning a Kosovos invasion to get a unified investigation into things like the ADM price-fixing case. At the same time labour unions have been humbled and farm marketing boards are being undermined. Big business is in a world all its own with no threat from anyone but other big businesses. And a nice little agreement like ADM's can handle that.0 Keith Roulston is editor and publisher of The Rural Voice. He lives near Blyth, ON.