national
farmers union
national
farmers union
SASKATOON, Sask.-Feed oats has risen from 84" per bushel to 85". The problem is that the 84" price is from 1948. NFU Local 628 President and Mayfair, Sask.-area farmer Morris Prescesky brought a 1948 grain ticket to the NFU National Convention in Saskatoon. That ticket (see attached sheet) shows that oat prices 51 years ago were just a penny less than today.
Prescesky pointed out that in 1948, selling a thousand bushels of oats at 84" ($840) would be nearly equivalent to a year's salary. Today, selling 1000 bushels would yield just one week's salary.
NFU President Cory Ollikka noted that grain, oilseed, and hog prices today are half what farm families need to survive. "Maybe we have become more 'efficient' and 'productive.' But so have car makers and home builders. You can't buy a car or a home or a gallon of gas for five times the 1948 price. How does anyone expect farmers to survive?" asked Ollikka.
Ollikka pointed out that canola, pigs, peas, wheat, and oats are all at or near 25-year lows. "Adjusted for inflation, many of these commodity prices are half or a third what they were 25 years ago. No farmer or worker can overcome price declines of this magnitude by becoming more efficient. And even if they could, efficiency in this context means far fewer farmers, empty schools, boarded businesses, and dying towns," said Ollikka.
"Retail store prices remain high," stated the NFU President. "Grocery retailers, grain companies, processors, and packers are gouging the consumer at one end and the farmer at the other. Markets are failing farmers, consumers, and rural communities," he added.
The NFU has called on the federal government for immediate, adequate short-term money for farm families. In addition, it has demanded an inquiry into excess profit-taking in the food processing and retailing sector and the farm input sector.
The NFU Convention continues until November 27, 1999.
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