Harper Sells Out Canadian Wheat

Prime Minister Harper light the fire that while consume the Canadian Prarie wheat and barley industry today when he ended the Canadian Wheat Board's monopoly on the western grain industry. The agency, formed in the midst of the Great Depression to stimulate the Canadian agricultural sector and, ultimately, create jobs, had been in existance since its inception in 1935. While keeping multinational interests at bay meant slightly higher prices that were passed along the value chain to consumers, the Wheat Board stimulated the local economy in the Praries, providing reliable employment in parts of the country that particularly needed it given the dearth of manufacturing alternatives as employment for workers. What's being framed by the Conservative administration's Agriculture Minister as a boon for Prarie farmers is quite frankly the opposite - this move in effect devastates Canadian farmers that now have to price their wares on an open market in direct competition with global companies that have a million times the scale. Let's be clear: this isn't really about improving offerings for consumers since grain is a commodity. Rather, it's about our govenment pandering to American corporate interests. In the United States, Monsanto controls virtually the entire food production cycle and, by extension, the farmers that produce the grain. Anyone that doubts the future in which Canadian farmers are at the complete mercy of large multinational companies ought to ask Midwest farmers (or watch Food Inc.) how deregulation worked out for them. It didn't, and neither will this. It's not meant to.

The invisible bubble that served as a protective barrierfor the livelihoods of thousands of families in the Praries is no more. What a shame. This is a sad day.