Canola Growers buying fairy dust with farmers’ money

(May 30, 2014) Last month the Canadian Canola Growers Association (CCGA) provided western farmers with their laugh of the day when they breathlessly opined in a news release that an amendment to the so-called Fair Rail for Grain Farmers Act “could open the door to have compensation flow back to farmers from the grain companies, when railway service failure has occurred.” At the time many...

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Seven points about western grain

At times the whole Wheat Board, grain marketing issue can appear dauntingly complex.  So here is a quick summary: Since the invention of the telegraph, the international grain market has been controlled by five giant companies. Aside from Canada there are really only three countries producing reliable bulk supplies of grain for international sale:  The United States, Argentina, and...

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Harper’s Sense of humour

(April 11, 2014) Many commentators have remarked on Prime Minister Harper’s humourless approach to life and government, but Bill C-30 “the Fair Rail for Grain Farmers Act” shows how wrong they are.  The Prime Minister and his Agriculture Minister must be nearly anoxic with laughter over the debate in the farm community on the merits of the Act and who can blame them? For almost 78 years...

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Grain Czars

and other magical beasts   (March 25, 2014) We all know that a month ago a grain trader opened the otherwise secret world of the grain trade and showed prairie farmers just how badly they were being ripped off on grain prices.  A modest amount of research using readily available public sources soon demonstrated the grain companies are taking the lion’s share of that money. None the less...

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Grain companies profiting from marketing chaos

(Pelly, Sk., March 18, 2014)  The Canadian Wheat Board Alliance (CWBA) has released a one page summary exposing how the private grain trade and the Harper government are misleading the public on who is responsible for the chaos at Canada’s grain ports. “We followed the money” explained Kyle Korneychuk, spokesperson for the CWBA, a prairie wide farm group.  “Our calculations demonstrate...

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