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CWB Forces Organic Farmers Into Pools, But Not
Themselves
(February 16, 2004 - OPSG) The CWB force Prairie organic farmers to pay thousands of dollars into the
pools while the CWB themselves market thousands of dollars worth of wheat
and barley outside of the pools.
Even though the CWB does not market the organic grain selling into markets
the CWB cannot access, the CWB insists that organic grain must stay in the
CWB monopoly for the benefit of the pool accounts.
"Our organic organization, OSPG, holds three separate letters:
from the CWB Chairman, the CWB President, and the CWB Chief
Lawyer," states John Husband, an organic grain farmer
from Wawota, Saskatchewan. "All three of these
letters clearly state that the reason for their refusal to exempt organic
grain is to benefit the pool accounts."
"Yet we see that the CWB themselves market outside the pool.
They have devised schemes whereby they market with individual farmers, and
the farmer and the CWB get all the proceeds, and the pools get
nothing."
"Farmers who have entered these special marketing deals with the
Board can do very well. One farmer claims to have netted
$8.87/bushel for himself."
"It is not justifiable that organic farmers must pay over $2/bushel
of their sales into the pools when the CWB not only allows thousands of
dollars worth of conventional grain to circumvent the pools, while at the
same time is even involved in marketing the grain. Hypocrisy is one
more element that can be added to the CWB legacy."
"Another example of the CWB allowing board grains out of the
pools is by allowing big feed mills to export millions of dollars worth of
wheat and barley outside the pools. With these special (Export
Manufactured Feed Agreement) deals, not only do the pools receive nothing,
but the considerable costs of the program are taken from the pool
accounts."
The export licencing part of the CWB Act is national legislation that
applies equally throughout Canada, however, the CWB forces only western
organic farmers to pay into the pools, while eastern organic farmers are
allowed to freely market their grain. Eastern farmers can pocket
over $6000 more for 72 tonnes, than a western farmer. It is
arbitrary CWB policy, and not the legislation, that is economically
crippling the Prairie organic industry.
OSPG is a voluntary, and totally self-funded
association of organic grain producers from all regions of the Prairie
designated area with the goal of marketing choice for farmers. |
