_ Canada’s agriculture By JAMES LEECH There are areas in the world where drought, severe frosts, short growing season, or floods create agricultural crises. hey is only rarely, or regionally the problem in Cana- The problem here is the economic and political system which is destroying farming by any except monopoly- owned agribusiness which seeps across the border to clamp foreign ownership on our choice farmlands. — The fault lies with federal and provincial government policies allied with big business, which are driving the family farm out of existence. The sky-high interest rates by which financial institu- tions are able to bulge their profits to obscene propor- tions are a major ravager of Canadian farming. The interest rates are government policy. Inflation is turning farming into a nightmare — with compounding costs for equipment, feed and fertilizer. Government dedication to the chaotic profit motive stands in the way of orderly, remunerative marketing boards by which farmers could realize a fair return, without gouging consumers.. As matters stand today, farmers and farm families who have given everything to a livelihood and a valued way of life are summarily dismissed from their land and their homes — by the banks, no less! The banks who produce nothing but ill-gotten gains! Oil hike hits farms What is the situation? A perusal of the media gives an inkling, while hiding the real cause — the tightening vice of state-monopoly capitalism. That’s not a leftist term — that’s a fact of life one can recognize or submit to. A recent study, for example, by N.E. Jensen of Olds, Alta., an agricultural engineering consultant, offers an insight into the impact on farming of the Sept. 3 Alberta-Ottawa energy marriage. The deal allows crude oil prices to escalate, begun with a $2.50-a-barrel in- crease October 1 to $21.25, and to $57.75 a barrel by mid-1986. It will jump by $4.50 in 1982 and $8 a year thereafter. - That’s only part of the story. True, ‘‘old”’ oil will go for $57.75, but oil from wells which start delivering after Jan. 1, 1982, will soar to 100% of the world price. What does that mean to farming? Jensen says that for each dollar increase in a barrel of crude oil, gasoline and diesel fuel jumps one cent a litre. This adds thousands of dollars a week to the operation of large farm equipment. : On the same basis, the cost of nitrogen fertilizer rises by 1.8 cents a kilogram; phosphate goes up 0.5 cents a kg, and potash, 0.4 cents. : Pesticide costs rise by between 7.5 and 15 cents a kg. Tractors cost 2.5 cents more per kilogram. Looking at it another way, Adrian Ewins and Barry Wilson in the Western Producer (Sept. 17) estimate that by mid-1986 it will cost farmers $39 more per acre to grow grain on stubble because of energy price increases alone. The cost of producing beef will ascent to $124.80 per finished animal. a Gas exports — fertilizer imports One can get lost in statistics, but while the harvester and tractor whir and the thousands of heads of stock weather-dependent work. CANADA munch their feed, and precious fertilizer is poured on to guarantee a bumper crop, the cost figures fly upward out of sight. Nitrogen fertilizer is made from natural gas, whose price is also soaring, and which we sell to the USA. But U.S. natural gas sells at a lower price; so we may be importing fertilizer and paying the shot for imports while our own resource is pouring across the border. _ About beef production, C.M. Williams, head of the animal and poultry science department, University of Saskatchewan, says: ‘‘If the beef industry is to survive, then the beef animal will have to be a garbage eater. They will have to be fed from sources of protein that are affordable.”’ Appetizing, recycled garbage in your beef. But per- haps it won’t bother those who haven’t been able to afford beef for years now. Chicken manure products is one of the sources suggested for beef cattle. Interest rates are killing farmers. The Ontario Federa- — tion of Agriculture’s five-member task force lending an, _ ear to farmers’ problems has had more than an earful. They’ ve heard of impossible fuel costs and high inter- est rates from greenhouse vegetable growers, whose products help offset the need for imports. They've met people facing eviction from their long-held farm homes. They’ve heard ridicule of governments putting difficul- ties in the way of production while the United Nations calls for more food output. While only 5% of Canada’s labor force is directly working in farming, they harvest crops whicn generate production and distribution responsible for 25% of Canadian economic activity. Giving the economy a big boost was the export last year of some $8-billion of our agricultural production, or nearly 50%. While the agricultural implement monopolies like Massey-Ferguson, Deere and International extort bil- lions from farmers, and the feed cartels do likewise, fertilizer corporations make their own killing. But at the top are the banks, squeezing interest out of farmers who are dependent on loans to carry on their seasonal and in Cr IS iS The banks are gouging the farm population beyond — endurance. as an Ontario hog farmer, Henry Friesen said, he borrowed money at 15%, a year-and-a-half ago, but found 20% rates costing him $1,000 a week in inter- est. ‘We aren’t going!’ aS ‘‘Now the bank is going to throw us out... They want _ us out of our house, they won’t even-let us stay till Nov. | bese : Said his wife, Eldegard: ‘‘ They’ll have to drag us out; — we aren’t going!’’ ‘‘The whole policy of high interest rates is insane, said Tom Clark, leader of a Bruce County (Ont.) protest group. ‘‘Farmers have to borrow money and they can’t — afford to pay more than 10% interest on it.” The National Farmers Union declared in an Oct. 8 press release that the increased rate by the Farm Credit Corporation, which is supposed to provide farm loans at more reasonable rates, ‘‘will aggravate the financial crisis facing Canadian farmers.” Wayne Easter, NFU vice-president charged that the rising aggregate farm bankruptcies are the mere ‘“‘tip of the iceberg’’ because “many farmers are liquidating their farms before they are forced into bankruptcy.” The NFU calls for implementation of its 1980 program to meet the perilous position of Canadian farmers. It is timely to recall that in December 1978, the Com- munist Party of Canada was already warning that ‘‘the crisis demands that trade unions, farmers’ organizations — and all democratic people’s organizations unite in a common struggle for new policies.” The CPC advocated even then, ‘“‘parity support at a. level which will enable the small and middle farmers to secure a return on their work.’’ It called upon Ottawa to. nationalize, and upon all people’s organizations to insist upon the nationalization of, “‘monopolies and mutli- national corporations and (the bringing of) their opera- tions under democratic control.” " The CPC called for a land program to end speculation and make land available without financial burden to far- mers. It called for rural construction and a halt to rail line abandonment. | Bs at 5 The same sound policies, based on human need com- bined with economic common sense, and the long-range enrichment of Canadian society, stand out today in an ~ even greater crisis, as the goals to be sought by Canadian farmers — supported by -Canada’s industrial working — class, whose battles for sustenance against the suffoca- _ tion from above have spannéd a hundred years. ‘‘Monopoly penetration into agriculture and the grow-. ing control of agriculture by the big landowners have been carried out at the expense of the family farmers,” said the Communist Party’s 24th Convention in 1980. — ‘The basic problems the farmers want solved have to do with stable markets, guaranteed prices and income — (among which might be emphasized in 1981, controlled interest rates), and security of land tenure.”’ It is clear that the farmers in far-flung parts of Canada — are not willing to bear the brunt of the crisis inflicted on. them by the ruling monopolies and their chosen govern- ments. Farmers are fighting back. It is crucial that they develop the economic¢ and political weapons with which — to win. ” Labor Briefs INCO OFFER SCUTTLES TALKS | THOMPSON, Man. — Inco Metals wouldn’t offer any more money to Steel- workers Local 6166 in the most recent effort by the union to end the month long strike by 1,900 nickle miners so talks broke off Oct. 14. It was clear to the union when they got back to the table that Inco isn’t serious about negotiating a new agreement because the company’s offer merely reshuffled their previous bid and didn’t represent an extra dime’s increase over the previous money offer. The workers want a one year pact so they can take part in industry-wide bargaining, and they are seeking an improvement in their cost of living adjustment. STELCO STRIKERS HANG TOUGH CAPE BRETON MINERS WIN STRIKE GLACE BAY, N.S. — The 4,000 striking mine workers at Cape Breton Development Co., voted 85% to accept a wage hike that will immediately raise their weekly wages from $295 to $350. On strike since July 17, the miners, members of the United Mineworkers of America accepted the two year pact Oct. 8. The, strike was the first by the miners in 34 years and the workers were so — determined to win a substantial wage hike they refused three earlier tentative agreements. The accepted pact provides a $10 a day increase retroactive to Jan. 1, 1981, another $1 a day effective Oct: 3 and another $1 a day starting Jan. 1, 1982. Canadian Imperial -< $ 2,300 9.1% ce HAMIL TON — Morale on the picket line at Stelco continues to be strong as Ke Bank of Commerce $ 210,756,363 89% Steelworkers Local 1005's 12,500 Beniee enter their 11th week on the bricks. aa aN.