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The Rural Voice, 1988-10, Page 14lir�il VICTORIA. GRAIN BINS • COMPLETE AERATION SYSTEMS • ERECTIONS SERVICES & EQUIPMENT • AUGERS • DRYING SYSTEMS HANOVER, ONTARIO (519) 364-1880 Collect Insure With Confidence GERMANIA FARMERS' MUTUAL FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY incorporated — 1878 — Now offering comprehensive Farm and Home insurance coverage right in your own community Head Office AYTON Ontario NOG 1 CO 519-665-7715 12 THE RURAL VOICE THERE ARE NO FREE MARKETS OUT THERE To get you involved in this column, let's start with a quiz. Guess who said: `There's no free market in the world ... except for here." Some of you will say right off, "Liberal realist Gene Whelan." Yes, he has said that before, but usually a bit more colorfully. But no, Gene is not who I'm quoting. Others will say they heard Conser- vative guru of realism Del O'Brien say the same. You probably have, but Del isn't the man being quoted either. The man who said there's no free market out there is Dwayne Andreas, chairman and CEO of the huge multi- national Archer Daniels Midland, and he said it during a grilling by reporters on a September 18 television show. The reporters were trying to get him to denounce subsidies to U.S. farmers, and he would have none of it, this man who admitted his firm has shut down — I believe it was five — U.S. soybean crushing plants in good of U.S. of A. He said his firm has joined with six other multinationals, including Ford, to crush soybeans in Europe and supply soy meal to the Soviet Union, which intends to quadruple its poultry output. Those soybeans come from European, Argentinian, and Brazilian fields, not American. Andreas charged that the U.S. government has lost U.S. farmers world market share in soybeans by discouraging soybean plantings and encouraging corn plantings. Andreas said it is the responsibility of the U.S. government and city folk to subsidize U.S. farmers who are facing an economic extinction of sorts through no fault of their own. He's worried too that desperate farmers will deplete U.S. soils. The reporters kept harping at the fanciful free-market philosophy of the lame duck (and I'll add Canadian) politicians. The reporters wrongly assumed that this multinational magnate would respond as all free- market zealots must. Be he refused to bite, being a market realist: "There's no free market in the world ... except here." It's one thing having centrist politicians like Whelan and O'Brien saying things like this, but it carries much more clout when a shaker and mover like Andreas holds the line. I suspect the new U.S. president and Congress may have to act more along these lines, if only for political reasons. There's still a lot of hurting going on in rural U.S.A., and there are still a lot of votes there. The question arises: what will Canada do if U.S. subsidies continue to flow to U.S. farmers under Canada - U.S. free trade? I'd guess we'd be forced to respond in kind. The problem won't go away. A logical answer would be for Canada to look at every commodity to see if we can, or should even try to, compete for world markets. If not, Canada should look at extending supply management systems to feed only our domestic market. I wouldn't suggest this be done with every commodity, but I would suggest we do it in commodities that are necessary to our vital interests, commodities that could flood in from Uncle Sam under free trade. Ask any European immigrant farmer who went through the Second World War — self-sufficiency in food production is vital to political survival. We can be sure that Uncle Sam will protect his own in this world of no free markets, and Canada bloody well better do the same — not only for the sake of our farmers, processors, and food -industry workers, but also for the rest of us Canadians who would defend our independence.° Gord Wainrnan has been an urban - based agriculture reporter for 13 years.