Dear Editor
Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz says farmers want choice in the marketing of export wheat and barley. I say farmers want power - bargaining power and choice will not deliver that power to them.
Indeed choice is not an asset but a liability to farmers. Choice allows farmers to go their separate ways in making marketing moves. It only makes sense. If you are selling, you want all the competition to be on the buying side of the equation. The CWB assures farmers of that. Introducing choice on the selling side of the equation will be disastrous for farmers. It will cause the farmers to bargain from the position of weakness.
Ritz will have achieved his objective. Stripped of the wheat board, farmers will now be bargaining, if at all, from position of weakness.
Peter Galawan
Virden, Man.
