White Flag Or Prudent Planning?

A former chair of the Canadian Wheat Board says work should begin now on a compensation package for farmers if a World Trade Organization (WTO) agreement kills the board. Ken Ritter says he is convinced there will be a WTO agreement given most nations’ desire to stimulate the world economy. The current WTO proposal singles

Slow, Steady Progress For Manitoba Milk Producers

“What we’re experiencing are very stable prices.” – DAVID WI ENS, DFM Dairy Farmers of Manitoba recently amalgamated their nine regional districts into three. This tripled the size of local milk advisory committees. Some producers feel the committees are now too large and unwieldy. That was as close to complaining about their industry as milk


World Milk Crisis Could Threaten Dairy Tariffs

“The tariffs would not be sufficient.” – RICHARD DOYLE, DFC Canada’s milk producers are evading a dairy crisis raging in the rest of the world, but a renewed threat to their protective shield might change that. A combination of low world milk prices and a strong Canadian dollar could allow cheap foreign dairy products into

Canada Defends Wheat Board Monopoly At WTO

Canada’s Conservative government is defending the Canadi an Wheat Board’s grain-marketing monopoly at World Trade Organization talks, even though it has long said it wants to scrap it, CWB chairman Larry Hill said Sept. 17. “We had good assurance from the Government of Canada that farmers’ (ability to) adhere to the single desk will be


CWB On WTO Block

The upcoming World Trade Organization (WTO) talks, scheduled for Geneva this week, are targeting the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) single desk, warns the National Farmers Union (NFU). The WTO negotiations are expected to be based on a draft text that would eliminate western Canadian farmers’ single-desk marketing system for wheat and barley by 2013. Under

WTO Panel Assesses South Korea Beef Ban

Canadian cattle producers are applauding the establishment of a World Trade Organization trade dispute settlement panel over South Korea’s refusal to accept Canadian beef. Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (CCA) president, Brad Wildeman spoke on behalf of cattle producers across Canada saying that the federal government’s determination to overcome this ongoing, unjustifiable border closure is encouraging. “Canadian


U. S. Reviews Farm Program

The Obama administration will talk to stakeholders about cotton subsidies now that Brazil can apply sanctions to U. S. products in a long-running trade dispute, the U. S. Trade Representative’s office said Aug. 31. A new World Trade Organization decision against U. S. subsidies for cotton – the farm program the rest of the world

Briefs continued…

Interlake shows holes in safety nets: Farm safety net programs such as the federal/provincial AgriStability plan have proven ineffective against multi-year “back-to-back disasters” as seen in Manitoba’s Interlake this summer, according to Keystone Agricultural Producers. Some farmers in the already-waterlogged region were hit with another major storm Aug. 24 that reportedly dropped up to another


Market Access Secretariat Ready

“There haven’t been the resources available to go and attack the world.” – TED HANEY, CBEF Anewly created federal agency to develop new foreign markets for Canadian agricultural products should be fully operational by September 30. The Agricultural Market Access Secretariat (AMAS) expects to have staff hired by September 15 amid high expectations for new