What will the death of the Canadian Wheat Board bring for the grain industry?

Good article. The last paragraph does not bode well however.

Pretty soon farmers will have to sell their harvest to the same company they buy all their seed, fertalizer and chemicals from.

On a positive note, I've heard from a reliable source that Gerry Ritz and the federal lawers have taken to lecturing the judge in court, the same way they lecture farmers. Talking to him like he's dim.

I'm sure the judge is impressed with that

That will go over well. I saw in court one time some smart ass get sentenced to 2 years less a day (provincial time, medium security pen) for stealing cars. He told the judge he could do that standing on his head. So the judge said "how about an extra year to get back on your feet" (Federal time, max security instiution).

No sense of ha-ha.

No doubt - Fulton said. “I do think that this is going to put a lot more money in the hands of the agribusiness companies, the rail companies, the grain companies.”

I'm sure Harper & Co will no doubt benefit from Cargill, Viterra and Richardson in the coming years. They may not be able to donate directly to the party, but I'm sure they'll buy lots of $500 dinners at Conservative party fund raisers in the coming years.

Good find - it does a good job of explaining why the CWB will potentially hurt farmers.

Part of the problem with bills like this is they take an all or nothing approach. Why not allow one or two companies to pay the farmers for the right to compete alongside the public sector and see the reaction in the market.

Instead it's either all free market or nothing. I think a general phasing over while keeping in mind the rights of farmers would have been a far more accepted and protective approach of the industry.

The myth here is that removing the CWB creates a free market. It doesn't. The market will now be controlled, on the producers' side, by 3 or 4 mega corporations rather than by many hundred farmers. It, essentially, changes the individual farmer from a sole proprietor-producer into an employee of the producer. The farmer goes from business owner to field-hand. The result is that the market will change from a supply-managed system into an oligopoly. That's provided those few big wheat firms don't collude (which they will), which then makes it an effective monopoly.

Pick your poison, but if anyone believes that this is a "freeing" of the market or that it will benefit consumers, they're getting a heavy dose of smoke up the ass.

There's hope.

Here we have a Harper government bill abandoned due to a court ruling.

Setting a precedent, maybe?

Exactly! And people wonder why close to two thirds of grain farmers are against this...