Edward Sagan
Melville, Sask.

“Twilight at the Wheat Board” by Claudia Cattaneo in the Financial Post on July 23, 2011 began with a long commentary from Jeff Nielsen, a CWB elected director, who is anxiously anticipating the removal of the CWB single desk.

A reader might ask: what’s wrong with this scenario? – Nielsen is advocating the demise of the CWB, but in doing so, isn’t he breaking his fiduciary duty to that organization?

Furthermore, why does the Financial Post single out Nielsen and profile his sentiments to such great length when his is a minority position? Of the 10 farmer-elected Directors, only Nielsen and one other are single desk opponents.

Nielsen’s comments are condescending when he claims CWB supporters are technologically inept, archaic folks. And this is coming from a guy who is supposed to be representing farmers who are among the earliest adopters of new technology.

He is wrong to claim Prairie farmers can’t control how they market their grain through the Wheat Board. He seems to forget farmers are able to choose their own prices for wheat outside of the pool. The CWB also offers farmers a range of payment, pricing and delivery options including a Producer Direct Sales program for bypassing the Board.

Yet this is whom the Financial Post chose to open and end their article with. There are other CWB board members who represent the majority of farmers and they should have been extensively quoted, but that failed to happen!

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