Farmers, ranchers face rigged system

Some people still believe that market forces actually work in agriculture and food. They flatter the egos of their followers by claiming everyone is subject to competition and supply and demand — while ignoring the power of the handful of gigantic corporations that dominate agriculture and food.

Usually people who support this are Astroturf farm groups supported by droppings from their corporate friends or a few economists still clinging to obsolete theories like Sylvain Charlebois, senior fellow faculty of agriculture Dalhousie University.

In a recent article, Charlebois excused the price fixing of bread admitted to by Loblaw. He seemed to say that since Loblaw came forward and admitted its guilt, the Competition Bureau does not need to look. How absurd!

Would we allow a bank robber to come forward after years of theft, admit his guilt, and not expect the RCMP to lay charges on the say so of a professor? For the Competition Bureau to allow consumers to be robbed for so long and then not to investigate and punish the robbers shows its total lack of competence. What value does the Competition Bureau bring to Canadians?

Most farmers and ranchers now know that fine economic theories do not work and the system is rigged due to the concentration of power in a few hands. For agricultural products, there essentially are just two fertilizer companies. For fuel, herbicides and seeds, just three companies, and grain buying has just four.

The concentration is to a level that a new theory by many farmers has been coined to explain why the greed of companies is unchecked: Because they can. The inaction of the Competition Bureau is a message to all Canadians that market forces do not apply to the food and agricultural giants. It is also a message that might makes right and consumers, farmers, and ranchers will continue to be robbed. Kyle Korneychuk, Pelly