Canadian Wheat Board Rips Off Prairie Organic Farmers
(January 29, 2004 - OPSG) The CWB does not
market organic grain; however, organic farmers are unable to sell their
organic wheat or barley unless they sell it to the CWB and then buy it
back at inflated prices arbitrarily set by the CWB. This is
costing individual organic farmers thousands of dollars.
Kirk Torkelson is an organic farmer at Beaubier, Saskatchewan. He
found a market for his wheat in the USA in November, 2002.
Unfortunately, he could only sell to the CWB at the initial price, and buy
it back at the price set by the CWB, before the CWB would grant him
an export license. In doing his buy-back, he dealt directly with the
CWB and their credit program.
"According to the CWB’s own projections, they estimated my buy-back
costs would be about $0.53 per bushel. Since I did all my own
marketing and carried all the risks while they did nothing, paying them
any amount seems like extortion. But in December, 2003 I
couldn’t believe they wanted $6060 for my 2659 bushels. That’s a
buy-back cost of $2.28 per bushel the CWB is demanding, just so I
can sell my own wheat."
"While conventional farmers in the pool were helped with $85 million
from taxpayers, I am left on my own to pay the CWB for their marketing and
projection mistakes."
"Not only is this obviously unfair, but organic farmers are subjected
to this nightmare only if they farm in the West." states
Stockholm, Saskatchewan organic farmer, Rill Rees, and member of Organic
Special Products Group (OSPG) . "Under the very same
legislation that applies equally throughout Canada, the CWB allows Eastern
organic farmers to freely market their grain. Eastern farmers get to
pocket all the fruits of their labor."
"This unconscionable CWB exploitation of prairie organic farmers is
not new. Not only do they extract profits from sales we have made
ourselves, but for years, they lied to organic farmers by telling us that
it was the legislation that forced organic grain into the monopoly, and
the Act would have to be changed to let us out. This misinformation
was publicly exposed this year when CWB Director Larry Hill admitted on
national television that the CWB could let Western organic grain go at any
time without any change in the legislation, just as it does in Eastern
Canada. It is the CWB policy that is hurting organic farmers, not
the legislation."
"This is not just about organic, but extends to all farmers and it's
not hard to see why the CWB would want to suppress the truth.” adds
Rees, “They do not want farmers to know that by arbitrarily denying
licences to only prairie farmers, not only is the CWB discriminating
against prairie farmers, but they are also acting beyond their
authorization from the Act." |
