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