Government must stand up for farmers

Letter to the Editor - Editor,

Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz was in P.E.I. on Friday to speak to the farm crisis situation. He is not offering any new money to maintain our livestock or potato farmers.

They will give bridge-to-nowhere funding called cash advance. It is a loan to be paid back. It is just another stop-gap measure and the industry needs more.

Our federal government won't subsidize our food producers like they do in the United States and in Europe. Federal Minister Ritz is saying producers need to fear the U.S.

The U.S. will counterveil if Canada subsidizes to save its food producers. I guess the Conservatives are not going to challenge the Americans for unfairly subsidizing their own farmers either.

All in all, I think the Conservatives have written off rural Canada, and Canada will be an international foodstuff dumping ground.

While the minister spoke at a panel in Crapaud he did pay my MP Wayne Easter a compliment. Minister Ritz said, "Wayne Easter has made the Canadian Wheat Board his pet project."

I think it is great to see MP Easter fighting to keep some order in the marketplace. He has a view of the "big picture".

The Conservatives, on the other hand, have made it their pet project to destroy the power of the farmer-controlled wheat board.

I am a great believer that all farmers should have a risk management system. The Canadian Wheat Board is a wonderful example of a risk management tool that works for the grain farmers of the West against the huge American grain buyers.

This is the same system we need for our beef, hog and potato farmers.

The current beef, pork, and potato system doesn't work. The marketplace is dysfunctional. The Conservatives won't help producers survive the crisis. We will lose our food producers. We will lose all our Canadian food money from the local economy to foreign countries and multinational corporations.

We should have a better marketing system. We should have a government that will stand up for our farmers.

Ranald Macfarlane

Regional co-ordinator

National Farmer's Union Fernwood