Ontario Agriculture

The network for agriculture in Ontario, Canada

EASTER CALLS OUT FARM LEADERS

Finally someone says it out loud in public! Wayne Easter says to the
press at last week's "Farmers Matter" meeting in Stratford Ontario, that
farm leaders need to grow a set of cajones (paraphrased a bit).

It seems like even at last week's "Farmers Matter" gathering in Stratford, we are content to sit around like a bunch of 19th century school girls at a pleasant afternoon tea party, politely discussing the benefits of a woodstove while the house is burning down.

I do not see ONE farm organization that is tackling the income crisis in livestock head on. For all the dues we've paid over the years to the OFA, OCA, CFFO, Corn Producers, we are getting further behind all the time. I sold butcher cattle in the '70s for the same money as we are seeing today.

What have the organizations done for us? And when I asked the OCA why they are not supporting us on our BSE suit mediation request, they duck out for the very reason that Easter gives in the link below - they are scared to ask for real help because they don't want to jeopardize their "working relationship" with the government.

Well guess what - the"help" they are working on is going to be too little too late for many of us. We do not need a RMP nearly as much as we need a big cash infusion NOW and then finds ways to extract more money from the marketplace.
 
The link is from today's Farm News on CKNX radio. Scroll down and click on the audio link. 
 
http://www.am920.ca/news.php?cat_id=6

Views: 175

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Joe Dales on December 2, 2010 at 5:10am
Hi John:
It's a terrible situation....
Keep working at this....I agree that everyone should try a little harder and show more urgency.
Joe

Here is the link to the Audio clip.

http://media.cknxradio.com/atk/uploads/farm/10-11-Nov/FM-Easter_1.mp3
Permalink Reply by That Guy on December 2, 2010 at 11:11am
Grant Robertson who was there representing the NDP sure ripped into the OCA, although not by name when he repeated 3 times captive supply. The past OCA president you might remember called Robertson a communist from the podim during the OCA convention when he was not there to defend himself for daring to suggest that maybe we don't actally have a free market in Canadain beef when just two players control 90% of the processing industry. Robertson might be a lot of things, but communist ain't one of them. S**t disturber, entrapenuer, hockey nut (talk to him sometime) and hopefully the next MP for Huron-Bruce, but the OCA attacks on him were ridiculous.

Easter is right that we are being failed by our farm organizations, but we are also being failed by the people we send to Ottawa who sit there and do nothing. Personally I think a few more s**t disturbers is exactly what we need so I will be voting for Robertson if we do have an election in the spring. Not NDP, but for Grant personally (and for the first time) to go do some s kicking in Ottawa.

I aslo heard that Ontario Pork and the OCA threatened to walk if Bill Jefferie, former Perth Beef Producer President was allowed to be on the panel. There's another s**t disturber we could do with hearing from more. Seems to me folks like Easter and Robertson are right when they say we should stop being so afraid of standing up for ourselves.
Permalink Reply by Colin Lundy on December 3, 2010 at 4:01pm
A friend of mine raises certified organic 100% grass fed beef - red poll, a rare breed. She just made over $1200 on one steer when me and three other friends split it four ways. And guess what, me and my friends got a deal because we bought the whole damn cow. That's right, when people just want some steaks or roasts, they pay a lot more (per pound). She sells everything she can produce. So do a lot of other beef producers I know. They sell it direct to the consumer. It is true for the few pastured pork producers I know too - getting about $5/pound when they sell the whole pig. I know direct marketing is not for everyone, but obviously something is wrong with the value chain as it currently exists. It is time for more livestock producers to think outside the box, not give their animals away to Tyson or Cargill or whoever. And dump OCA and OFA. People in Canada love eating beef and pork! Most probably eat some almost every day. Create a new channel to get it to them and maybe beef and pork production will stabilize somewhere profitable. Sure I am oversimplifying but the status quo is not doing anyone much good.
Permalink Reply by Bristow on December 15, 2010 at 7:05pm

Yes boards are very help to the people they serve, the government love them because they don't pay for them and all they are made up of are gentleman farmers with political or big commercial interests.  We all know the out come, because the agenda is aready set, some words and busness as usual.  If the Industry wants change first thing is to get rid of the whole board, that have political ties with government. Government departments can't run without produce or justify their existance without farmers. If the provence won't talk turkey by pass them, go to fedral legisation deal with them, refuse to pay any and obey their taxes on mass. Get the changes needed to operate a farm, no hinder it and any changes must go through with a majority vote not a back door one. Because if you don't one by one you will fall. Like the meat works.

Permalink Reply by Roadrunner on December 17, 2010 at 1:26pm

Good points everyone.

I have been on a couple of boards and it is a real challenge for part time participants to do much more than try to be positive and ask for help from the politicians.  You can play the mad guy and demand assistance for your farmers but in the end, the politicians have all the power.

I like the idea of selling directly to the consumer, but it just won't work for the large percentage of our agriculture production...we need large domestic and export markets.

 

I also agree with Easter, we all need to grow tougher cajones and get the job done.

 

▶ Reply to Discussion

RSS

Agriculture Headlines from Farms.com Canada East News - click on title for full story

Bernard Sévigny appointed ag minister in Premier Paul St-Pierre Plamondon’s government

Sévigny is married to former federal ag minister Marie-Claude Bibeau

Febina Mathew, professor and soybean pathologist, North Dakota State University

Febina Mathew is a professor and soybean pathologist in the Department of Plant Pathology, Microbiology and Biotechnology at North Dakota State University (NDSU). Originally from India, she holds an M.S. and PhD in Plant Pathology from NDSU. She lives in Fargo, North Dakota. Where did you work before NDSU? I was an assistant professor and field crops pathologist, and later an associate professor, at South Dakota State University. Tell us a bit about what you’re working on at NDSU. My research program focuses on understanding the biology of pathogens affecting soybeans and their interactions with host plants, with the goal of developing effective disease management strategies, particularly through fungicides (foliar and seed treatments) and host resistance. My soybean research focuses primarily on Diaporthe diseases, Fusarium diseases (root rot and sudden death syndrome), as well as viruses, Clonostachys and other emerging pathogens affecting soybeans in North Dakota. We also invest

TWG Announces 1-for-100 Share Consolidation

Top Wealth Group Holding Limited (NASDAQ: TWG) (“Top Wealth” or the “Company”), announces the approval of the proposed 1-for-100 share consolidation of the Class A ordinary shares (“Class A Ordinary Shares”) and Class B ordinary shares (“Class B Ordinary Shares”, together with the Class A Ordinary Shares, the “Ordinary Shares”) of US0.009 par value each (the “Share Consolidation”). Beginning with the opening of trading on October 22, 2026, being the market effective date, the Class A Ordinary Shares will begin trading on a post-Share Consolidation basis on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the same symbol “TWG” but under a new CUSIP number of G8945S128. The objective of the Share Consolidation is to enable the Company to regain compliance with Nasdaq Marketplace Rule 5550(a)(2) and maintain its listing on the Nasdaq Capital Market. Upon the effectiveness of the Share Consolidation, every 100 issued and outstanding Ordinary Shares of a par value of US$0.009 each will automatically be co

AI for Cultivated Meat: Pythag Tech Closes $4.25 Million in Seed Funding

Pythag Tech, a data and technology company accelerating the future of cultivated meat, today announced $4.25 million in seed funding led by Azolla Ventures, with participation from Endurance28 and other institutional investors. The capital will expand Pythag’s biological dataset and machine learning platform, which is designed to optimize cultivated meat production processes that can then be licensed to food companies. The cultivated meat industry has made significant scientific and regulatory advances since it first emerged, but high costs and complexity have constrained commercialization. Pythag’s technology builds the intelligence layer that cultivated meat production needs to scale. The company uses AI models to directly drive large-scale laboratory experiments focused on cultivated meat’s three core cost drivers: 1) growth media, 2) cell line development, and 3) bioprocessing. Each experiment adds to the company’s proprietary dataset, enabling its models to iteratively identify n

Pulse Market Insight #308

Monsoon Shortfall Makes India the Market to Watch for Peas and Lentils For Canadian pea and lentil markets, no single buyer matters more in 2026/27 than India, and developments there keep pointing in a friendly direction. This year’s southwest monsoon ended roughly 15% below normal, with the shortfalls concentrated in the southern half of the country where most of the tur (pigeon pea) crop is grown. The kharif harvest is getting underway this month and poor results are widely expected. For Alberta growers, the question is how that crop damage translates into import demand for peas and lentils, and on what timeline. Because it’s a kharif crop, the tur harvest is where the damage shows up first. Prices for tur have rallied over US$230 per tonne from the early July low and now sit at their highest point since August 2024. Because green lentils are the main substitute for tur, Indian buyers are already backfilling with imports, and prices for Canadian green lentils in India are at their

© 2026   Created by Darren Marsland.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service