The Rural Voice, 2006-07, Page 12Phone: 519-369-5478 Fax: 519-369-9906
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8 THE RURAL VOICE
John Beardsley
Risk management at last — for ethanol
John
Beardsley is
a freelance
Journalist
and crop
specialist
with Huron
Bay
Cooperative.
The big news last month in Rural
Voice country was the announcement
by Commercial Alcohol that they will
be building a new corn ethanol plant
in Hensall.
This is a tremendous boost for the
municipality of Bluewater, and
everyone in the surrounding counties.
It makes great sense to locate a plant
so close to three major grain elevator
facilities.
Ethanol production has long been
touted as a major piece of the rural
prosperity puzzle.Ethanol production
in the U.S. is finally bringing some
dramatic changes to U.S. corn
Markets. According to Tom Webb
from the Pioneer Press newspaper in
a June 13 article this biofuel
production in Minnesota and the rest
of the U.S. will create an explosive
demand for corn. "Six months ago,
the grain markets seemed to be
staggered by overproduction, marked
by colossal harvests, rock -bottom
prices and mountains of corn dumped
on the ground. But things have
changed since then. Grain prices have
climbed steadily higher. Those corn
mountains have shrunk to molehills."
He quotes Bob Zelenka of the
Minnesota Grain and Feed
Association, saying ethanol plant
corn requirements have started an
unheard of debate as to whether his
Midwest state might one day be corn
deficient. (Check out the full article
at www.twincities.com.;
interestingly, this newspaper is the
same one Ma and Pa Ingalls eagerly
waited for in Little House on the
Prairie).
While Ontario corn prices are still
low (and soybeans are even worse),
our neighbours to the south are in a
bullish mood — not only because
there are some long-term positive
signs coming from the commodity
markets but also because they know
they will be direct beneficiaries of
increasing ethanol production
capacity in their state.
Producers in Ontario are still
skeptical. Some of the loudest
opponents to striking down the corn
countervail duty on American corn
were the Ontario corn processor
executives. Skepticism is fuelled
when illuminati such as liberal
leadership contenders talk about how
rural Canada is a basket case that will
never improve.
The Liberal's Minister Inflicted on
Agriculture in Ontario seems to
believe that she can do next to
nothing for producers and get away
with it. Playing partisan politics and
public finger pointing at Chuck
Strahl, who is hampered by a
minority government (as well as
learning his portfolio from farmer -
unfriendly bureaucrats), will never
move the long-term farm support
program agenda forward.
To add insult to injury, Leona
Dumbrowsky has given a risk
management program to corporate
ethanol producers. She told reporters
in Hensall that ethanol producers will
need to be protected from those nasty
fluctuations of commodity prices.
The Ontario government is
missing the boat completely in not
building our agriculture sector at this
time by treating crop producers fairly.
When farmers have money they
reinvest in their farms, and thus in the
future prosperity of Ontario. I think
we need to educate the voters in the
905 area that injustice to farmers by
Queen's Park is bad for all Ontarians.
If the Government has abandoned the
farmers who is next? What
percentage of the opinion polls do
you have to influence to be treated
fairly by this government? How big a
campaign contribution do you have to
give to get the gar of the provincial
treasurer?
Minnesota politicians may not
have an official position or regulation
requiring that only Minnesota corn be
used in Minnesota ethanol plants, but
the end result is the same. American