Wheat Board Wins NAFTA Ruling

A recent released Credit Suisse First Boston report noting continued U.S. losses at trade panels. The U.S. Department of Commerce "understands that the laws and treaties make it impossible for Canada to `win' in the real world, even if they win every time in court. It takes years to get through the courts, and by the time you do, the tariffs, duties and quotas the U.S. has imposed have completely wrecked the targeted industry in Canada. So who cares what the courts say."

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Perception is two thirds of what we perceive reality to be.

Difficult decisions are a privilege of rank.

Simon Potter, a trade lawyer with McCarthy Tetrault in Montreal, warned that "we see a growing attitude in Canada, a deepening view, that the U.S. side has a much greater attention to technical detail rather than the spirit of the agreement and plays hardball, trying ever harder to get what it wants, despite NAFTA." He also accused U.S. trade officials of engaging in personal attacks and insults toward Canadians.

Industries that have to compete in such an unlevel playing field eventually come out on top. It's sad that we may lose some in the process, but the ones that are left are leaner and meaner. That scares US industries more. They've been relying on their Kirby amendment(?) gifts to remain profitable, while Canadian industries have been cost cutting and belt tightening.

When softwood is eventually allowed back in, duty free to the US, it'll crush the US industry. When slaughter capacity is increased to pre-NAFTA levels, the cattle industry will as well. Next will come live hogs . . .


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"If you must kill a man, it costs you nothing to be polite about it." Winston Churchill

hasn't this happened every year since 1994?

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"George Bush has declared the war on terrorism to be the cause of his generation. The cause of Canadian sovereignty will be ours." - John Godfrey, MP for Don Va

Nah. Just continue selling the Canadian resources for more money, to all those many markets eager to pay top dollar for the smugly superior, more environmentally sound, Canadian products...

I took 2 yearling bulls and 1 barren, or dry, heifer to the market last week and got my cheque yesterday. My organic bulls went for .83 cents per pound, my organic , 975 lb. heifer for .24 cents per pound.

Has anybody seen any lower meat prices in the supermarkets since the BSE crisis broke ? It is costing us at least $1.25 per pound to raise our animals and at this time we have to subsidize our cattle about $4000 per year from our old age pensions so wecan raise healthy, organic meat. The problem is that there's no market for it, we can't sell them, while the city stores charge astronomical prices for organic beef. Of course, this is what economists call the "competitive equilibrim of the global marketplace", so we just have to live with it until all family farms go bust and food production is controlled by a handful of multinationals. Ed Deak, Big Lake, BC.

3 bison were running around my neighbourhood all last weekend. There are several bison farmers nearby (within 10 miles) and none claimed them. The market would only pay $100 at auction for 1600 pounds of the best meat on the planet, so people are guessing that some farmers just let them run wild, because they can't afford to feed them.

So wildlife officers rounded them up (no easy feat!) and sent them to the SPCA. If they aren't claimed, they'll be sold at auction. It's sad. Such magestic animals, but someone will get hurt by these skittish 2 tonne animals running through urban residential districts.

I haven't bought meat from a supermarket since the BSE thing. I buy direct, or as direct from the farmer as possible. Some farmers will slaughter and butcher the animal for you. But, since that's illegal, some will sell you some sort of trinket for $1000, and throw in 500 pounds of cut, wrapped meat as a 'free gift' I get the most amazing smoked goose sausage from a friend's farm in Manitoba! Yummmmy!


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"If you must kill a man, it costs you nothing to be polite about it." Winston Churchill

We try to sell the tenderest, organic veal meat, professionally butchered in a government inspected facility, perfectly legal, cut and wrapped to customers' specifications, frozen and delivered locally, for $3./per pound. Hardly any takers, so we're forced to sell at the auction sales. People are willing to pay 2-3 times the price for pumped up, chemical laden junk meat at the supermarkets, but not a fraction to us small producers. This is the power of advertising brainwash guiding all aspects of our lives. Ed Deak, Big Lake, BC.

I worked in an abbatoir for a few weeks, and as a meat cutter for a few years Ed. Everyone believe me when I say that organic meat is vastly different than regular farm meat.

It feels different, it smells different, it tastes different. It's like the difference between a Coors Light and a Guinness with Apple Cider. Different like a Diet Coke and a Grape Crush. Fuller, sweeter, deeper. At $3 a pound, it's an unbelievable price! If anyone looks on your store shelves, a T-Bone is $20 a pound! Imagine a superior quality T-bone steak, 4cm (inch and 1/4) thick for under $4!! I've got bison ribs in my freezer - 4 ribs as long as my elbow to the tip of my fingers, a good 3" of solid meat on them, and I paid less than $10 for them. ONE rib is a good meal for an adult and cost $2.50!!

Weiner Schnitzel for $3 a pound. *slllurp* Man, you're killing me here Ed!


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"If you must kill a man, it costs you nothing to be polite about it." Winston Churchill

Well, if you want to drive over to the Williams Lake area of Central BC, with a freezer van about next Oct. we can let you have a few hundred, or even few thousand pounds we can't even give away now. Those 3 animals I've sold last week are pumped so full of chemicals by now that it drips out of their ears.

Do people know that pork producers rutinely feed their own manure back to their pigs, loaded with urea ? This is what paople buy in the supermarkets for porkchops. Meat fattened with their own crap. Ed Deak, Big Lake, BC,

Just west of 100 Mile House, right? I can make Kamloops in about 12 hours from Edmonton. October might be a little faster if it snows in the mountains later in the month. I might even be able to drum up some more interest by then too. Might have to rent a pickup

A few Coleman Coolers and some dry ice will work. I'll empty my freezer by then, and give you a call Ed. I can pick up some Okanagan fruit for canning at the same time!

Just a thought too Ed, last year there were some farmers that rented a freezer truck and were selling frozen burgers and roasts etc. at the Edmonton Finals Rodeo. They couldn't keep up to the demand. Sold like 6 truckloads from the parking lot.


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"If you must kill a man, it costs you nothing to be polite about it." Winston Churchill

We're North of 100 M. From Edmonton through Pr. George. If you're serious, my email is : thinker@uniserve.com
Ed Deak, Big Lake, BC.

Canadians should support the industry instead of buying the chemical laden crap they serve in very high priced stores.Without N.A.F.T.A. we could consume what we produce and any left over could be shipped to Europe which has no appetite for garbage beef. Bush has the excuse he needed to stop Canadian imports of beef. I am all for organic produce and animal stocks . By the time it gets through the middle man ripoffs it is very high priced which means we have to do our own thing without Government involvement.