The Canadian Wheat Board

The Canadian Wheat Board

Author: Andrew Schmitz

Publisher: University of Regina Press

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 348

ISBN-13: 9780889771345

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Canadian Wheat Board is a monopoly seller of western Canadian wheat, durum, and barley for human consumption, and feed wheat for export. In this study, the authors first examine Canada's position in the world wheat & barley markets and the Board's role relative to multinational grain companies (MGCs). Chapter 3 presents the regulatory framework governing the Canadian grain industry. The single- desk selling concept of the Board is examined from a theoretical perspective in chapter 4. This chapter also describes the structure of the world wheat & barley trade in which MGCs play key roles. Recent changes in government policies in the US, the European Union, and Canada are discussed in chapter 5. Chapter 6 discusses state trading in grain, the World Trade Organization (WTO) attempts to discipline state trading enterprises, and the Board's impact on trade in the WTO context. Chapter 7 covers the numerous confrontations concerning Canada-US grain trade. Chapter 8 focuses on the debate over creation of a dual market for feed barley. Chapter 9 examines the Charter of Rights case brought against the Board by barley producers & organizations. The focus of chapter 10 is grain transportation, its regulatory framework, and the Board's roles in the grain transportation system. Chapter 11 examines the Board's economic performance. Chapter 12 discusses the marketing of flax and canola in order to better understand how the Board can achieve price premiums and eliminate inefficiencies when marketing grains. The Board's ability to introduce additional price & marketing flexibility is discussed in chapter 13, including the implications of providing the option for using futures markets. Chapter 14 explores the debate over dual marketing and its viability for western Canadian grain producers. The final chapter draws overall conclusions.


Growing Resistance

Growing Resistance

Author: Emily Eaton

Publisher: Univ. of Manitoba Press

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 187

ISBN-13: 9780887557446

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Growing Resistance is the remarkable story of how Canadian farmers led an international coalition to a major victory for the anti-GM movement by defeating the introduction of Monsanto's genetically modified wheat. Through interviews with producers, industry organizations, and biochemical companies, Emily Eaton demonstrates how the inclusion of producer interests was integral to the coalition's success in voicing concerns about environmental implications, international market opposition to GMOs, and the lack of transparency and democracy in Canadian biotech policy and regulation. Growing Resistance is a fascinating study of the need to balance local and global concerns in activist movements and of the powerful forces vying for control of food production.


When Wheat Was King

When Wheat Was King

Author: André Magnan

Publisher: UBC Press

Published: 2016-03-05

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13: 0774831162

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Over the course of a century, the Canadian Prairies went from being the breadbasket of the world to but one of many grain-growing regions in a vast global agri-food system. Magnan traces the causes and consequences of this evolution, from the first transatlantic shipments of wheat to the controversial dismantling of the Canadian Wheat Board. When Wheat Was King reveals how farmers, governments, and consumers, over successive periods, responded to industrialization, international trade rules set by the US, the liberalization of global markets, and the consolidation of corporate power. The result is a fascinating look at how regional, national, and international politics have influenced agriculture and food industries in Canada, the UK, and around the world.


Daily Digest

Daily Digest

Author: United States. Dept. of Agriculture. Office of Information. PRESS SERVICE

Publisher:

Published: 1932

Total Pages: 436

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK


Corporate Crops

Corporate Crops

Author: Gabriela Pechlaner

Publisher: University of Texas Press

Published: 2012-12-01

Total Pages: 302

ISBN-13: 0292739478

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Biotechnology crop production area increased from 1.7 million hectares to 148 million hectares worldwide between 1996 to 2010. While genetically modified food is a contentious issue, the debates are usually limited to health and environmental concerns, ignoring the broader questions of social control that arise when food production methods become corporate-owned intellectual property. Drawing on legal documents and dozens of interviews with farmers and other stakeholders, Corporate Crops covers four case studies based around litigation between biotechnology corporations and farmers. Pechlaner investigates the extent to which the proprietary aspects of biotechnologies—from patents on seeds to a plethora of new rules and contractual obligations associated with the technologies—are reorganizing crop production. The lawsuits include patent infringement litigation launched by Monsanto against a Saskatchewan canola farmer who, in turn, claimed his crops had been involuntarily contaminated by the company’s GM technology; a class action application by two Saskatchewan organic canola farmers launched against Monsanto and Aventis (later Bayer) for the loss of their organic market due to contamination with GMOs; and two cases in Mississippi in which Monsanto sued farmers for saving seeds containing its patented GM technology. Pechlaner argues that well-funded corporate lawyers have a decided advantage over independent farmers in the courts and in creating new forms of power and control in agricultural production. Corporate Crops demonstrates the effects of this intersection between the courts and the fields where profits, not just a food supply, are reaped.