Looking forward to 2015
Aphorisms contain wisdom about the future of grain (January 14, 2015) While I was wondering what to put in this space about looking forward to 2015, I received a letter from a long-time friend. Prominent on the envelope’s upper right-hand corner was a postage stamp commemorating the 1942 Massey Harris #21 self-propelled combine. That obsolete machine brought to mind an aphorism often attributed...
Read MoreLooking back on 2014
(January 6, 2015) 2014 has to rank as the year where everything has gone wrong for Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz and his followers. They promised an era of transparency, freedom, competition, profitability, and efficiency for western Canada’s grain farms hitherto never seen. EVOLUTION DENIED What Ritz and his cohorts regarded as stuffy bastions of red tape like the Canadian Wheat Board, the...
Read MoreRitz successful in removing farmers’ rights
Giant Agro-chemical seed companies win passage of Agricultural Growth Act (November 28, 2014) Over the past few weeks the farm papers have been full of quotes from Agriculture Minister Ritz claiming he has made the right to save seed absolutely clear in his Agricultural Growth Act (C-18) which was passed in Ottawa this week. In a way he has – although not in the way many may think. With the...
Read MoreStick to facts
by admin on Nov 11, 2014 in Articles and Letters
By Bill Woods, The Starphoenix November 7, 2014 In a recent media interview, Agricultural Minister Gerry Ritz continued his pattern of prevarication in discussing the privatization and sale of the newly created CWB. He said that if the farmer-elected directors of the former Canadian Wheat Board were honest, they would have admitted their agency had more liabilities than assets. He was falsely...
Read MoreCanadian Wheat now cheapest in the world
This just in from the Reuters news agency out of Hamburg, Germany: Canadian wheat is now the cheapest in the world. How times change! With the single-desk Canadian Wheat Board farmers sold directly to overseas markets and got premium prices because of reliability of supply, honesty, and guaranteeing the highest quality grain in the world. Thanks to Ottawa that is all gone now and Canadian sourced...
Read MoreVideo link
