ECA Review 2020-05-21

6 May 21'20 HANNA/CORONATION/STETTLER, AB. ECA REVIEW
OPINION
The opinions expressed are not necessarily
the opinions of this newspaper.
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EDITORIAL
Resiliency versus efficiency
B. Schimke
ECA Review
We learned how vulnerable our beef
supply chain was during the BSE
crisis. We learned how vulnerable our
poultry and pork industries were
during the Avian and Swine flues,
respectively.
With COVID-19 we’re learning how
Canada, a country blessed with agricultural
lands and output, is
vulnerable to food shortages because
of the ‘efficiencies’ we’ve built into our
supply chains.
The majority of our meat production
goes through huge multi-national meat
processing plants. To achieve large
returns for shareholders and ‘cheap’
food, these companies use low paid,
temporary workers and immigrants to
work closely together in conditions
where viruses thrive and spread.
The Cargill
plant in High
“
River, where half
of its workers
were infected
and some died, is
owned by 100+
family members
out of
Minneapolis, 14
of whom are
billionaires.
The JBS meat
packing plant in
Brooks is owned by a Brazilian company,
the largest meat processing
company in the world.
Yet when Mr. Trudeau announced
his first round of financial help to the
agricultural industry, $77 million was
set aside to invest in safer working conditions
in these foreign-owned plants.
It’s disgusting on one front—bailing
out billionaires—but on the other
front, this public investment has a pay
back in terms of putting a lid on health
care costs.
We got through BSE, SARS, Avian
flu and Swine flu because it didn’t take
down the whole world at once.
This pandemic, however, has shone
a light on how vulnerable food security
is worldwide.
Liberating world trade and reducing
responsible controls between countries
has liberated the power of biology—
pests, viruses, diseases,
fungi—leading to the overuse of pesticides,
antibiotics and chemicals.
Most concerning is the very real
crisis facing the world’s number one
pollinator—the bee.
Local and regional
food networks should
be our government’s
subsidy priority.
MAIL BAG
Once again, we are looking at the
obvious—our agriculture industry’s
supply chains for local consumption
need to be nimbler and more sustainable,
and our native ecosystems need
to be better respected.
Every time there’s been an unforeseen
crisis, large processing plants
have always been the juggernaut in
our meat processing capabilities, and
often have benefited the most from
government bailouts.
Granted, large food processing
plants and factory farms are important
to provide equitable and cheap
food for a hungry world, but building
resilience into our local food supply
chain is also gravely important.
Crisis after crisis we just fall back
into the old ways of doing things.
In our subsidy programs, let’s start
making a sizable distinction between
BigAg and Canadian agriculture delivered
by
medium-sized
and smaller
operators
who are on the
land, not investors
from afar.
More attention
should be given
to how we build
up and sustain
local horticultural
operations,
farmer’s markets,
organic producers, agricultural
cooperatives, and small and mediumsized
producers.
It’s nonsense that we allow our meat
supply chain to be completely vulnerable,
in a land of plenty, because the
government hasn’t prioritized and supported
locally-owned meat-packing
plants.
There’s no better time than after this
pandemic to shift the balance of subsidies
away from BigAg and towards the
rest of the agricultural sector.
Producing food is a tough business
with outrageous input costs (compliments
of BigAg) and many
uncontrollable factors, but it is also our
most important industry.
Local and regional food networks
should be our government’s subsidy
priority.
Governments must build resiliency
into the system so that all Canadians,
rich and poor, can rest assured that
our agriculture industry has the
ability to provide uninterrupted,
healthy and affordable food even
during a pandemic.
Saving icing for last
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Dear Editor,
Thank you for another thoughtful
editorial titled, ‘Opportunity for
change’, Apr. 23 edition of the ECA
Review, It is one more editorial I can
add to my file of excellent editorials
that you have done that would be welcome
at any newspaper in the country.
I was distressed to read of the financial
hardship that ECA Review is facing
and I want to subscribe and maybe
help in my own small way to see that
we continue getting the paper.
Turn to Lives, Pg 7
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PRAIRIEVIEW
Catching wild pigs
by Herman Schwenk
Everyday for the last couple of
months Trudeau pops out of his rabbit
hole to make another financial
announcement.
His primary purpose is to convince
Canadians what a caring government
the Liberals are.
His major concern is the welfare of
HIS job and the future of the Liberal
government, not us.
Progressive parties design government
programs to take people’s
freedoms away.
I know any government would have
had to provide some assistance to
counterbalance the negative effects of
COVID-19 and we know that there has
to be maintenance of basic welfare programs
but the Liberals have gone
overboard and they will bankrupt our
country.
The enclosed article written by
Norman Wolfe, living in Portland,
Oregon and adviser to CEOs, is something
that all residents in Canada
should read.
This analogy makes the point I’ve
been trying to make in many of my
columns.
Critical life lesson
‘Do you know how to catch wild
pigs?’
There was a chemistry professor in a
large college that had some exchange
students in the class.
One day while the class was in the
lab, the professor noticed one young
man, an exchange student, who kept
rubbing his back and stretching as if
his back hurt.
The professor asked the young man
what was the matter.
The student told him he had a bullet
lodged in his back. He had been shot
while fighting communists in his
native country who were trying to
overthrow his country’s government
and install a new communist regime.
In the midst of his story, he looked at
the professor and asked a strange
question.
He asked, ”Do you know how to
catch wild pigs?”
The professor thought it was a joke
and asked for the punch line. The
young man said it was no joke.
BRENDA SCHIMKE
Editorial Writer
GAYLE JARAWAY
Marketing 403-578-4111
advertise@ECAreview.com
“You catch wild pigs by finding a
suitable place in the woods and placing
corn on the ground, The pigs find it
and begin to come every day to eat the
free food.
“When they are used to coming
everyday, you put a fence down one
side of the place where they are used to
coming.
“When they get used to the fence,
they begin to eat the corn again and
you put up another side of the fence.
They get used to that and start to eat
again. You continue until you have all
four sides up with a gate on the last
side.
“The pigs, which are use to the free
corn, start to come through the gate to
eat that free corn again. You then slam
the gate on them and catch the whole
herd.”
“Suddenly the wild pigs have lost
their freedom. They run around and
around inside the fence, but they are
caught. Soon they go back to eating the
free corn.
“They are so used to it that they
have forgotten how to forage in the
woods for themselves so they accept
their captivity.”
The young man then told the professor
that is exactly what he sees
happening in America.”
The government keeps pushing us
towards communism/socialism and
feeding us the free corn of programs
such as supplemental income, tax
credit for unearned income, tax
exemptions, tobacco subsidies, dairy
subsidies, payments not to plant crops,
[CRP] welfare entitlements, medicine,
drugs etc., while we continually lose
our freedoms, just a little at a time as
the government forces us to participate
in many of these programs whether or
not we want to.
One should always remember two
truths. There is no such thing as a free
lunch, and you can never hire someone
to provide a service for you cheaper
than you can do it yourself.
If you see all this wonderful government
”help” is a problem confronting
the future of democracy in America,
you might want to share this with your
friends. God help us all when the gate
slams shut!”
Turn to There, Pg 7
YVONNE THULIEN
Manager
office@ECAreview.com
JUDY WALGENBACH
Marketing 403-740-2492
marketing@ECAreview.com
TERRI HUXLEY
Reporter 587-321-0030
news1@ECAreview.com
BONNY WILLIAMS
Circulation Manager
STU SALKELD
LJI Reporter 403-741-2615
reporter@ECAreview.com
LISA MYERS-SORTLAND
Graphic Artist
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