12.16.2011

Agri-business Cheers the Cutthroat Market Ahead in Canadian Grains

Big day for big agri-business, this wicked witch of the prarie populism, the CWB, is dead [pretty close anyway], many more little guys will follow. In a dog eat dog world the big dogs usually do best. Same thing will happen to the small family farmer. For sure some farmers will do better and some will do worse. The smaller operations will have a hard time competing both in scale of production costs and negotiating power.

Within a decade thousands of small farms that have been totally viable for generations, that have fed and housed the families that tended them, will be bought up by conglomerates and we'll see thousands of people who used to live off the land living off the food banks.

It's true that the individual farmers should have the right to self determination, if the Canadian Wheat Board is past its due date, then the government should have consulted with them and not just arrogantly ignore the court's ruling. The Harperites are sending a message that they can and will stand above the law. The courts have two choices, the easiest out would be to roll over and play dead, the tough choice would be to stand up for the rule of law.

This case should be of concern to all Canadians, as should the recent border security deal, and ditching the koyoto deal, and changing the rules to speed up the northern gateway pipeline approval...one at time the laws and regulations that were designed to protect individuals from the leverage of the large are being obliterated. That's how the facists eat the elephant of an open society, one bite at a time.