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Monday, August 27, 2001
Farmers sad, skeptical co-op concept may die this document
By Ed White
Winnipeg bureau
In 1998, when he voted in favour of the merger of Alberta Wheat Pool and
Manitoba Pool Elevators, Dick Haydu thought co-operatives had a future.
"I was enthusiastic that we'd have a true grain co-op for a long time," said
Haydu, a Paradise Valley, Alta., farmer and former Alberta pool delegate.
"We were going to be a co-operative. That was going to be our selling point to
farmers."
Now, four years later, the directors of the merged pools are planning to merge
their new company, Agricore, with United Grain Growers, and ditch the co-op
structure. If members of Agricore approve, the new company will no longer be
a co-operative, even though it will be controlled by farmer directors.
Agricore president Neil Silver said his company needs to merge with UGG and
it would be financially impossible to convert UGG back into a co-op. That's why
Agricore will adopt UGG's publicly traded structure.
Art Macklin, a Peace River area farmer, said he is sickened by Agricore's
move.
"It's a bit of a betrayal of the co-op movement in Western Canada to come to
this. All the sacrifice, all the success we had, to give it away."
He said many members suspected the co-operative was beginning to back
away from its roots, but members were always reassured the company was still
committed to remaining a co-op.
"We're going to stay a co-operative and not go the way Sask Pool did," is what
many delegates told local members, Macklin said.
Co-operatives were founded to provide service at cost so farmers could make
profits on their farms, but as a publicly traded company, that won't be true any
more, he said.
"This radically changes that," said Macklin. "They will have to pay dividends to
shareholders."
Haydu isn't outraged by the proposed death of the co-op heritage that will occur
if the merger goes ahead. Rather, he is saddened and resigned.
"It's just an economic reality," he said, giving the benefit of the doubt to
Agricore's farmer directors.
"They're all good people, all good moral people, and the decision they make may
not be what we like, but maybe they feel it's a necessity."
This tone is common in farmers who see their co-operative institutions fading
and don't know how to save them, said Roger Epp, a political studies professor
at Augustana College in Camrose, Alta.
"One of the casualties of the last generation of restructuring has been the
capacity (of many people) to think in terms of community interest or
co-operative enterprise," said Epp.
"Even the nature of farm work today doesn't demand co-operation. If someone
has a problem in the field, they don't call their neighbour, they call the factory."
Epp said many farmers, and especially young farmers, concentrate more on
competing with each other to get ahead rather than co-operating for general
gain.
That has led to a breakdown of the longtime consensus among farmers, making
it hard for farmers' grain co-operatives to take strong positions on farm issues.
Alberta Wheat Pool backed away from much of its farmer advocacy role after
the Crow Benefit debate divided the membership, Epp said.
Alberta Pool and then Agricore began restricting themselves to issues relating
to the handling of grain. That alienated some farmers who wanted more from a
farmers' co-operative.
Others were upset their co-op appeared to be closing elevators as fast as their
private competitors and doing little that left farmers better off. The result was
that many co-operative-minded farmers withdrew from the membership or
became inactive.
"People for whom that was important might have dropped out," said Epp.
"You've had long-term people losing interest."
Epp said he thought it ironic that the proposed ending of this co-op is taking
place on the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Territorial Grain Growers'
Association in Indian Head, Sask., an event many feel to have been the birth of
the prairie co-operative movement.
This retreat is happening when many farmers believe they are losing their
economic influence, he said.
"In lots of ways we've returned to the economic conditions that created the
co-ops."
Haydu said he believes farmers are virtually powerless in the contemporary
grain economy. Competition has become so intense that the farmers' grain
co-operatives have either decided to partially undo the co-op side, such as
Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, or plan to completely abandon the structure, such
as Agricore proposes.
"I'm skeptical that it will be a benefit to farmers," said Haydu. "It's sad to see
this happen."
© The Western Producer.
Last Revised: August 27, 2001
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