Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz recently responded to an editorial in a Regina newspaper. Ritz brazenly titled his response ìWe'll Give Farmers Freedom.îHe urges that it's time to give Western Canadian farmers marketing freedom for wheat and barley and that it's ìthe democratic thing to do.îOne has to wonder if Ritz even remotely realizes how erroneous and irony-laden his arguments are. For starters, he's proposing a system for farmers that would see them go from owning their own marketing agency where they can develop programs, elect their own directors and have an influence in their own industry, to one that would allow the grain trade to assume total control.With the system that he's such an ardent proponent of, farmers will be left with less choice. Under the open market, they won't be marketing their grain, but essentially only pricing it through possibly one of three companies and in some areas, only one.In one breath, Ritz declares that Western Canadian farmers should have the same rights as their counterparts in other parts of Canada and in another he states that a plebiscite is not necessary. Does he recall that farmers in other parts of Canada actually had a direct vote on the future of their marketing structure? So, let's get this straight ñ he wants to see Prairie farmers empowered with more liberties, but he doesn't want to give them the basic right to vote on the future of single desk?He ups the ante by calling the Canadian Wheat Board Act ìout of dateî and implies that it shortchanges farmers. In actuality, he exhibits another example of how outdated his memory is, and how skewed his reasoning can be. The CWB Act was amended in 1998, which allowed for control of the organization to be passed to the farmers themselves and for 10 farmer-elected members to join the board of directors. This became the catalyst for future improvements within the CWB and ultimately more choice for farmers. Evidently, the CWB Act is not the limiting relic which Mr. Ritz would have people believe, but perhaps he hasn't done enough research to discern this.And with regards to democracy, how can he proclaim that selling grain through the private trade is democratic when, since 1998, eight of the 10 farmer-elected CWB directors have consistently been strong single desk proponents. Hasn't democracy spoken already?Furthermore, if Minister Ritz really is so altruistic, one might wonder why he's currently content on supporting marketing boards for products like milk, eggs and poultry. Don't these groups also deserve marketing freedom too?The reality is that Minister Ritz is choosing to ignore reality, and that he has a rather distorted view of what freedom really is for Western Canada's producers. It's sad, scary, but true.Kyle KorneychukPelly, Sask.
