sult at ag Ss years ago, this July, a Free- dom from Hunger campaign was .__ launched. By 1963, surveys es- tablished that the food available in the world was slightly higher than Pre-war levels, but. the most pro- gress had been made in what are called the “prosperous countries.” The improvement in diet over pre- War levels has also taken place Mainly in the “prosperous coun- tries.” At that time the surveys in- dicated that from 10 to 15 percent of the world’s. population was under- nourished, and that half of the peu population was suffering Tom hunger and malnutrition. Y 35 percent to maintain. present Standards of consumption, and by 0 Percent to bring about a reason- ble improvement. = In _ this context, the Communist arty of Canada puts forward its Proposals for prairie agriculture. We el our farm program as part ae the Communist contribution to frowing struggles in Canada oe of the great monopolies, for a af on poverty .and for Canadian independence. b We call for new goals to be set Or agriculture. They can be summed up in these pas: Increase Production — Cut Osts — Cooperate! pupets must be full production to ash the hungry of the world, in- Cluding our own. All nations in the world spend between 100 and 200 billion dollars yearly on war, yet 80 percent of the World’s population is undernourish- €d. We have accumulated a nuclear Stockpile the equivalent of 20,000 Ibs. of TNT for every man, woman and child alive in the world — but three million children die each year of hunger. This is the essence of the choice before the world: shall we destroy everything we have—or shall we go ©n to do better on what mankind has already accomplished? Canada has traditionally been an €xporter of agricultural goods. But, as a result of deliberate poli- cles followed by successive govern- ments in Ottawa, food production per capita in Canada has actually Predictions were that by 1975 , World food supplies must increase. ’8ainst war, for the democratic con- ~ We say: the aim for Canadian ~ declined since the beginning of the 1960's. We have boosted our crop exports, particularly wheat, suffi- ciently to maintain an overall trade advantage in farm products, but our food imports have risen to over $1 billion to climax a 10 percent rise per year during the past six years. Meanwhile the United States, to whom we tie most of our imports . and exports, has reduced its dollar value of farm imports from Canada by half in the past 10 years. Canada now imports twice as much food as it did in 1950, and the United States By W.C or for abandonment is in the three prairie provinces. The proposals for abandonment made by the rail com- panies means that the full social and: economic costs will fall on the farmers and the rural communities of the prairies. Along with this, long-term prospects for economic development of Canada’s West _ would be seriously hampered. Farm organizations, such as the Wheat Pools, would lose a multi- million dollar investment in already constructed elevator space and ‘would be faced with a costly job BEECHING Saskatchewan Leader, Communist Party now supplies almost half of this. Thirty percent of the Canadian apple crop was deliberately destroy- ed as surplus in 1965, although over $3 million worth of fresh apples were imported from the United States. Between Jan. 1 and July 31 last year, Canada imported $84 million worth of fresh and processed fruits and vegetables which can be pro- duced in Canada. The Maritimes, home of the lowly spud, now imports them from the United States. Ontario imports eggs from Great Britain. Inseparable from the problem of - production and markets is the prob- lem of mounting costs for farmers. Farmers’ costs continue to rise. The rapid growth of technology in farm- ing poses the same question to farm- ers that automation poses ‘to the workers: who is going to benefit? The technological revolution has not brought security to the farmer. The big oil, food processing and im- plements monopolies have blighted the hopes of tens of thousands of farmers. Monopoly exerts its squeeze on the farmer through its control of transportation, credit, processing, the farm implements industry, and the market place where it purchases the goods the farmer must sell. A Canadian Federation of Agri- culture report in July, 1964 stated that the average real income for prairie farm operators has decreased 10.9 percent since 1949. > Added to the squeeze is the threat of rail line abandonment, in which 90 percent of the trackage slated of new elevator construction. Each municipality. would be faced with new market road construction. Farm- ers would be faced with the im- mediate and costly need for longer: hauls to market place. New ghost town conditions would be created. The railways have not proven their case for abandonment. The ar- rogant refusal of the CPR to trans- port grain to the west coast, com- bined with lack of shipping facili- ties in Vancouver, poses an actual threat to agricultural markets. This is substantiation enough of the need to nationalize the railways and for the evolvement of a nation- ally-owned, coordinated transporta- tion system, run in the interests of the entire nation, not of a few share- holders whose sole purpose is the largest possible return on the spec- ulator dollar. During 1964, nearly $3 billion ad- ditional income was generated in Canada as a result of farm exports. There are 9,874 manufacturing estab- lishments depending on goods of farm origin, employing 314,238 workers, with the value of factory shipments standing somewhat above - $6 billion. The 1961 census revealed that nearly one-quarter of Canadian fa- milies had an income Jower than $3,000 annually, the minimum _con- sidered acceptable in Canada for the average family of four.- Within the agricultural community the percen- tage of families in that category is somewhat higher. New goals Canadian agriculture ' it cooperatively. This is a different . polies — workers and farmers to- ‘ples, and Canadian independence. What does the federal govern- ment plan to do about rural poverty? Simply this: under the Agricultural and Rural Developments Act it plans to buy up the small farms and sell them to the big farmers. If we watch television, or read reports about the superiority of our economy on the North American continent, we might overlook some very revealing, and quite appalling, facts of rural life in our society. In Canada 98- percent of urban homes have running water. On the farm it’s only 60 percent. In Canada 89 percent of urban homes have a bath or shower.: On the farm it’s only 40 percent. In Canada 90 per-: cent of urban homes have a flush toilet. On the farm it’s 44 percent. -This, of course, isn’t the whole picture. There’s the lack of recrea- tional facilities, the problem of edu- cation and communication, the health needs and backwardness of the rural community. - Instead of selling land to the big farmers, as the government plans to do under-ARDA, such land should be consolidated in the hands of groups of farmers willing to farm kind of big farming. The time has come for a farmer to be guaranteed a minimum an- nual income. Workers in industry expect this. It-contains the concept that everyone has a just claim in society for as decent a life as that society can provide. We believe that such schemes as ARDA must become the basis for a vast reconstruction of rural life. The provision of . low-cost, subsidized housing, social services, processing plants located in agricultural areas, recreational facilities and a vastly extended hospital and educational system are among the pressing needs of rural people. In the great, general democratic tasks facing the people of our nation to make our country inde- pendent and a force’ for social pro- gress and peace, the farmers have a rightful place. In fighting and win- ning control over the great mono- gether can turn Canada to follow a policy based not on the cold war and integration with the United States, not on anti-Communism, but on peace, friendship. with all peo- September 9, 1966—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 5