The Rural Voice, 2004-12, Page 471
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News in Agriculture
Bruce Federation calls for NAFTA challenge
Members attending the annual
meeting of the Bruce County
Federation of Agriculture voted to
support the call for the federal
government to challenge the U.S.
under NAFTA for keeping the border
closed to Canadian beef after a single
case of BSE was discovered in May
2003.
"The BSE crisis started out about
health but after 30 days it was no
longer a health issue," said Bob
Emerson in proposing the resolution.
"On July 2003 (when a Harvard
study said there was no danger from
Canadian beef imports) the border
should have re -opened."
The NAFTA challenge has been
promoted by B.C. journalist and
trade expert Wendy Holm who spoke
before a huge crowd at the Huron
Federation's annual meeting earlier
in October.
"I've been farming for 45 years
and it's the worst I ever seen it,"
Emerson said of the current crisis.
"It's not just BSE: the whole ship (of
agriculture) is listing. We have to
stand up and let politicians hear or
small town Ontario will disappear."
"It's clear that under NAFTA the
government has a recourse (to the
U.S. border closure to live cattle)",
Emerson said. "It has been
abdicating its responsibility. Trade
lawyers say if the U.S. had been
challenged in the summer of 2003,
they would have had the border
opened by last Christmas."
Larry Miller, MP for Grey Bruce
Owen Sound said the BSE crisis had
just been dealt with at the standing
committee on agriculture the day
previous and it's clear the Canadian
government doesn't want to talk
about a trade action right now. "They
fear if we go ahead it may stall the
opening of the border for up to five
years," Miller said. "I feel we should
take the risk. If you feel strongly talk
to your members of parliament."
Paul Mistele, executive liaison
from the Ontario Federation of
Agriculture supported the challenge.
"We've got to get the federal
government to take the NAFTA
challenge seriously," he said. "We do
have a free trade agreement and the
U.S. should be taken to task to live
up to it."
The federal government also took
a beating over the failures of the
Canadian Agriculture Income
Stabilization (CAIS) program by
various speakers at the meeting.
"It's a total disaster!," said Bruce
County Warden Ralph Kruitsweizer,
noting he knew many people who
hadn't been able to get a payout from
the program. "If you can't get a
payout for last year or this year,
when the hell can you get one?" he
wondered.
In his acceptance speech on
becoming president of the BCFA,
Emerson noted there are "farmers
who should be the backbone of the
beef industry who don't qualify for
CAIS funding."
"It's no wonder bankers are
getting nervous," he said.
Guest speaker at the meeting was
Ralph Ferguson, former federal
minister of agriculture and creator of
the "Compare the Share" study that
showed farmers' share of the
consumers dollar continued to
decline. Ferguson credited his wife
Delores for originating the idea.
The study was intended to combat
the attack on supply -managed
marketing boards in the early 1990s,
he said. Opponents from processing
and retailing sectors to the president
of the Bank of Montreal to Tory
cabinet minister John Crosby were
attacking marketing boards.
Ferguson had a computer -whiz
assistant who collected the data to
prove that farmers were falling
farther and farther behind while other
sectors of the food industry gained
more and more of the price of the
grocery items.
When they put the figures together
Ferguson tested them out on
colleagues like Bob Speller Eugene
Whelan, then a senator, was aware of
Ferguson's work and asked for
information from the study to use as
ammunition and urged him to get the
information out to the public. He was
urged to not change a word of his
original document.
There was a tremendous response
to Compare the Share and the word
gradually got out to the media who
stopped their attacks on marketing
boards. Even most of the food
industry critics went silent.
Now marketing boards are under
threat from World Trade
Organization negotiations. "Why did
the government allow them to be on
the agenda?" he wondered. "It's not
the farmers who wanted change, it's
the multinational companies."
These large companies who buy
farm products for processing, have a
lot of political clout, Ferguson said,
so farmers need to bring consumers
on side for more support. The new
Compare the Share, being prepared
for release, may help accomplish
that.
The seeds of the current crisis in
beef were sown with the
consolidation of the packing industry
and the ownership of large numbers
of feedlot cattle by packers, which
meant they could undercut the open
market, Ferguson said. "As long as
predatory pricing continues we will
be vulnerable in Canada," he said,
questioning why the Competition
Bureau isn't more effective in
protecting farmers and consumers.
Emerson reported on behalf of
Stan Eby, president of the Canadian
Cattlemen's Association who was
unable to attend, noting that packing
capacity was gradually increasing,
'with 80,000 head a week now being
processed nationally. Prices have
been gradually increasing but the rise
in the Canadian dollar has been
offsetting some of the gain.
He said that federal agriculture
minister Andy Mitchell has been in
contact with the chartered banks
asking they be patient with farmers
during this crisis.
The U.S. cattle industry is
concerned because Canada is ahead
of them in the handling of "specified
risk materials" which are most
worrisome in the spread of BSE.
Emerson also introduced a
resolution calling for the removal of
water provisions from NAFTA. The
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