Privateer Runs Wheat Board

The Conservatives have pulled their coup on the farmers run Wheat Board.

And in firing the current CEO his replacement is pro privatization, pro corporate monopolies. Strahl made his firing public complete with staged rally.

Gosh the PM reads the biography of Stalin this summer and we get an autocratic PMO. Wonder what Strahl was reading this summer?

How To Stage Nuremburg Rallies, maybe.

Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl has moved on an opponent of his plans to end the monopoly of the Canadian Wheat Board.

He fired Adrian Measner, the board's president and a 34-year veteran of the organization, on Tuesday.

"It's time for the wheat board to make a buck for Canadian farmers and to quit fiddling around in the political game," Strahl said.

The minister made his announcement at a staged rally west of Winnipeg. Farmers who oppose the wheat board's current monopoly on international wheat and barley sales surrounded him.

Greg Arason, a former wheat board president, is the interim president. Arason supports the government's plan to end the board's monopoly.

Mr. Arason was President and CEO of the CWB between 1998 and 2002 and prior to that was CEO of Manitoba Pool Elevators. He has served as a director of a number of agri-business companies and industry associations including CanAmera Foods, Can-Oat Milling, The Chamber of Maritime Commerce, Canada Grains Council, Prince Rupert Grain, Westco Fertilizers, Western Grain Elevator Association, and XCAN Grain.


For more coverage of the Wheat Board from the Left see Buckdog.

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Tories Face Farmer Backlash

As I said here before the Conservatives are listening to the smallest minority of the social conservatives in the their party base when it comes to the Wheat Board. Of course it fits with their neo-liberal idoeology, which is why they do it. However when it comes to the broader base of the farming community across the Prairies, the folks who are the real voter base for the Conservatives, well they are about to lose them over this issue. Cause its not just about the Wheat Board, its about democracy. Which of course scares the bejesus out of the Harper autocracy.

Farmers fretting over Wheat Board's future

Doug Chorney's devotion to the Conservative Party runs deep enough that he spent last winter hammering campaign signs into the frozen prairie on behalf of the local Tory candidate.

But Mr. Chorney, a 41-year-old grain farmer, believes the federal government is about to make an enormous mistake by dismantling the monopoly power of the Canadian Wheat Board.

"They've never properly explained how you can have a strong and viable Canadian Wheat Board in a dual market," Mr. Chorney says. "In fact, every credible voice on the subject says it's not possible."

"They're really floundering on this issue," he says.

"If we just get a vote, we'll have no trouble showing that farmers want the CWB to stay," Mr. Chorney says. "We're not scared of a vote, and the other side is. That speaks volumes."

Mr. Strahl wouldn't commit to a plebiscite, he says in an interview.

"All this task force is doing is answering technical questions on what would be necessary to move from a monopoly position to a marketing-choice position," Mr. Strahl says. "You don't need a plebiscite on that."

Tories' plan to end Canadian Wheat Board monopoly has political risks

Alan Skardal has voted for the federal Conservatives for more than 30 years, but insists the ballot he cast for them last Jan. 23 was his last.

The grain and cattle farmer from Baldur, Man., says his commitment never wavered despite Tory-supported agriculture policies that cost him and his neighbours thousands of dollars through the years - from elimination of a grain transportation subsidy to support for meat packers during the mad cow crisis.

But the party's decision to look at ending the Canadian Wheat Board's monopoly on western wheat and barley exports before letting farmers vote on it is the last straw.

"I don't know who I will vote for in the next federal election, but I do know who it won't be. I will never vote Conservative again," Skardal, 50, wrote this month in a letter to the editor of the Farmers Independent Weekly.

And for more on the Wheat Board check out fellow Albertan and Progressive Blogger Buckdog.

See:

Wheat Board

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Lorne Gunter On The Wheat Board

As I have said before the right wing cares less about the nature of a monopoly, just that a monopoly exists and somehow that is unnatural. Of course that's because they think monoplies are the result of mercantilism of the State. In reality as I have pointed out before monopolies are the natural result of captialism. Right Wing former Alberta Report aulmni and CanWest columnist Lorne Gunter attacks the Wheat Board for being a monopoly. Forget democracy, forget its what the producers want, its a gosh darn monopoly.....

It matters not a bit whether two-thirds of farmers want the monopoly to continue or two-thirds want it abolished: There is no moral justification for a monopoly in the first place.

The Harpocrites have taken their attack on the Wheat Board straight from Gunters advice column.

And then he uses the Australian Wheat Board as an example of the success of a dual market.

Australia permits sales outside its wheat board and its producers, whether in the board or out, have seen no loss of income as a result of "dual marketing."

Of course he forgot to mention this result of privatization..... Australian Wheat Board “oil for food” inquiry ends

SEE:

Wheat Board



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The End of the Wheat Board

The Tories have it in for the Wheat Board. Ever since they were the Reform Party they have had an active front group; Farmers for Justice.

This little rump of border jumping farmers is now getting to have a private meeting with the Minister of Agriculture, but the majority of Farmers who are represented on the Wheat Board are not invited.

In light of the G8 reccomendation that the WTO meet in August to discuss farm subsidies what could this mean? The end of the Wheat Board in a back room deal by the Tories. Talk about lack of transparency and accountability, and the hidden sixth priority.

Art Macklin a farmer and board member of the WB warned about this back in April.

The U.S. and EU want to remove that decision from Canadian farmers. At the WTO talks, their negotiators have been clear that they want an end to the single desk selling authority of organizations like the CWB. Organizations that, in trade lingo, are called State Trading Enterprises (STEs).

The WTO position of the U.S. and EU, whose companies are some of our biggest competitors in the world market, would basically outlaw farmers' ability to have an effective organization able to compete with these companies. It would make it illegal for any farm group in any country to establish a marketing organization that had bargaining powers backed by legislation. It wouldn't matter whether 51 per cent or 100 per cent of the farmers democratically voted in favour of the concept, as it would be illegal under WTO rules.

Those companies are actively working behind the scenes to ensure that happens. On February 27, 2006, an organization calling itself 'Grain Vision' sent a letter to Chuck Strahl, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food; and Minister Responsible for the Canadian Wheat Board urging the government to change its negotiating position at the WTO. The letter was also addressed to David Emerson, Minister of International Trade.

It stated; \"Cabinet needs to change this position (defending the CWB). We are asking you, as the Ministers responsible for the negotiating position, to immediately put the need for this change on the Cabinet agenda …We ask that you begin to provide greater consistency in Canada's negotiating position by allowing our agricultural negotiators to explicitly bring the monopoly powers of state trading enterprises into the discussions….For greater clarity, Grain Vision is recommending that the Government of Canada be prepared to discuss and negotiate the matter of exporting state trading enterprises at the WTO.\"

Predictably, 'Grain Vision' is driven by the interests of a collection of grain companies that stand to make a handsome profit from the end of the CWB. The list of companies signing the letter includes: Cargill Limited, Louis Dreyfus Canada Limited, Rahr Malting Canada Limited, Agricore United (a company whose largest single shareholder is ADM), Saskatchewan Wheat Pool (no longer a farmer cooperative), James Richardson International Limited. The letter was also signed by a handful of groups like the Western Canadian Wheat Growers and the Western Barley Growers. Those groups often claim to be a legitimate voice of farmers but in reality would not exist without the sponsorship largess of big corporations. Some urban chambers of commerce, some Alberta government mandated farm groups, the Grain Growers of Canada, and a few other groups also signed the letter.

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Playing In The Pool

While eyes are focused on the debacle that is the Tories failed attempt to impose dual marketing in the Wheat and Barley market, with their backdoor attempt to dismatle the Wheat Board lets look at who benefits from dual marketing.

And no it's not about competition, or better prices, its about private purchasing monopolies versus public producer monopoly. To whit the two major suppliers of Grains in the west to buyers is Saskpool and Agricore.

Distributors/buyers versus Farmers/Producers. The irony is that the Wheat Board was not a creation of socialists but the producer advocates in the UFA and Labour in the Alberta Government in the Thirties and later the Social Credit Party.

UFA was founded in 1909 as a government lobby group following a merger between the Alberta Farmers' Association and the Canadian Society for Equity. UFA began as a non-partisan organization who's aim was to promote the interest of farmers in the province. In 1913, it was able to pressure Alberta's Liberal government to organize the "Alberta Farmers' Cooperative Elevator Company" which eventually became the "United Grain Growers".

The UFA was a believer in the cooperative movement, and supported women's suffrage. In 1912 women were permitted to become members of the parallel United Farm Women's Association, and in 1914, women were granted full membership rights in UFA itself.

By 1920, UFA had become the most influential lobby group in Alberta with over 30,000 registered members.

Agricore is now under a hostile takeover bid by Saskpool in anticipation of the Tories dual marketing scheme.

Saskatchewan Wheat Pool cut its loss in its first quarter by exporting more grain, and expects bigger shipments to continue, Canada's second-largest grain company said on Thursday.

Saskpool -- which has launched a hostile bid for bigger rival Agricore United (AU.TO: Quote) -- reported a loss of C$5.1 million ($4.4 million), or 6 Canadian cents per share, for the quarter ended October 31. That compares with a loss of C$7.7 million, or 9 Canadian cents a share, a year earlier.

"We believe margins in our grain business will improve over last year given the high quality of this year's crop and robust export movement to date," Chief Executive Mayo Schmidt told analysts on a conference call.

Revenue was C$341.3 million, up 25 percent from year-before sales of C$273.9 million

And who should have investments in Agricore besides the old Alberta Wheat Pool and the Alberta Government? Both notoriously Anti-Wheat Board. Why Brian Mulroneys old pals the agribusiness monopoly; ADM.

U.S. grain giant Archer Daniels Midland (ADM.N: Quote) owns 23.4 percent of Agricore shares, and will see its stake rise to 28 percent on January 10, when Agricore redeems debentures for shares.

And of course its about Free Trade, despite the failure of the Doha round of WTO talks. The reason Agriculture and Agri-Foods Minister Chuck Strahl is dividing the issue into two; Barley and Wheat and holding a plebiscite on barley marketing only is the support they have amongst their Reform base of some Prarie Barley farmers.

We cannot ignore trade implications when we decide how to vote on wheat or barley marketing. Support for the single-desk plays into the hands of those who would build and maintain trade barriers along our borders.

Tom Hewson, vice-president, Western Barley Growers Association.

For more coverage of the Wheat Board from the Left see Buckdog.

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Wheat Board

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Privatizing The Wheat Board

This is what happens when you privatize the Wheat Board. The Australian Wheat Board is a model that right wing looney Lorne Gunter suggested the Tories use for their new dual desk marketing scheme.

And it gets even better because BHP Billiton is also charged. They are the nice folks doing diamond mining in Canada's far north, who forced their workers to strike this summer.

Australian company paid kickbacks to Saddam

The payments were made to ensure access to the lucrative Iraqi market, where the United States and Canada were major competitors.

The commission also found that the company, AWB (formerly the state- owned Australian Wheat Board), had "deliberately and dishonestly" devised a scheme for the payments, made from 1999 until the overthrow of Saddam three years ago, that would deceive the United Nations. When the United Nations conducted an investigation in 2005, headed by Paul Volcker, AWB withheld thousands of pages of documents and its lawyers made false statements, the commission found.

THE monopoly of AWB over Australia’s A$4 billion-a-year (£1.6 billion) wheat export market was in doubt yesterday, after a judicial inquiry found that the exporter had paid Iraq US$222 million (£115 million) in bribes to secure grain sales between 1999 and 2003.

Meanwhile, 11 former AWB executives, including Trevor Flugge, the ex-chairman, and Murray Rogers, the ex-chief executive, could face criminal charges after the 11-month inquiry by Terence Cole, a retired judge.

Brendan Stewart, AWB’s present chairman, said yesterday that the exporter deeply regretted the way in which its wheat trade with Iraq had been conducted.

This week BHP Billiton, the mining giant, will release the results of its own investigation into the scandal, in which it is also implicated.

In his report, Mr Cole described Norman Davidson Kelly, the founder of Tigris Petroleum, BHP’s joint venture partner, as a “thoroughly disreputable man with no commercial morality”.

Five former and current BHP executives testified at the inquiry.

SEE:

Wheat Board



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The ongoing saga of the privatization the Canadian Wheat Board

The certification of this class action will allow the courts to hear the case of potentially 70,000 Canadian farmers. These are farmers who sold grain through the Canadian Wheat Board and did not receive full payment for that sale.

These activist farmers are still standing, urging us to listen to the backstory and why this class action suit could potentially impact each of us.


by Lois Ross

RABBLE.CA

April 26, 2022

I think it is fair to say that family farmers are among one of the most hopeful, resilient, and persevering occupations.

I am not romanticizing the role of the farmer by any stretch — just stating what I have observed over the last several decades. Stamina!

One example is the longstanding legal battles waged by farmers over the dismantling of the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB).

Earlier this month, the Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench, certified a Class Action lawsuit brought by Manitoba farmer Andrew Dennis against the Government of Canada and G3 Canada Ltd. The lawsuit alleges financial irregularities occurred during the privatization of the Canadian Wheat Board.

“We will, at long last, have an opportunity to ask the Court to rule on whether the Government of Canada or Minister Ritz unlawfully manipulated CWB accounts, depriving farmers of money rightfully owing to them,” stated Andrew Dennis, in an April 9th media release announcing the successful certification of the class action.

The certification of this class action lawsuit has been a long time coming — close to 10 years. It is only the first step in the actual lawsuit. Certification means that Dennis, on behalf of these farmers which forms a legally recognized class, has the right to pursue this lawsuit. The lawsuit itself can now proceed.

Throughout the past decade there have been several dizzying legal twists and turns. There have also been several appeals, delays, denials and various forms of stonewalling, but these activist farmers are still standing, urging us to listen to the backstory and why this class action suit could potentially impact each of us.

Meanwhile, neither the former federal Conservative government, or the current federal Liberal government, have wanted to fess-up to what most of us watching this show already know or, at the very least, suspect.

The saga of the dismantling of the CWB is covered in a rabble.ca column which I wrote in 2019. Read it here for a detailed picture of the importance of the CWB, the legal issues, and how the loss of the CWB is impacting farm incomes and family farms.

There is also a timeline on the CWB Class Action where you can read the Statement of Claim and the April 5 certification of the class action.

Dennis is the Manitoba farmer who is the face of this lawsuit. He is accompanied by the Friends of the Canadian Wheat Board (FCWB) and potentially tens of thousands of grain producers. This suit is the first step in the one remaining lawsuit among the several that were pursued in various jurisdictions across Canada by farmers challenging the privatization of the CWB. Along the way there have been wins and losses.

The certification of this class action will allow the courts to hear the case of potentially 70,000 Canadian farmers. These are farmers who sold grain through the CWB between August 1, 2010 and July 31, 2012 and did not receive full payment for that sale.

The dismantling of the CWB shows just how easily governments intent on pursuing their own agendas, often in the name of corporate concentration and privatization, bend the rules. They exercise authority through very questionable methods despite being holders of a public office and public trust, all the while insisting on the legitimacy of their actions.

It takes hope, and yes stamina, to avoid throwing up your hands in frustration and walk away.

The FCWB is a coalition of farmers and other Canadians who support a farmer-controlled CWB. In its April 9th media release about the court granting certification, it explained the crux of the lawsuit:

“The lawsuit alleges former Minister of Agriculture Gerry Ritz committed misfeasance in public office by unlawfully sheltering $145,000,000 of farmer’s money into an account that could be transferred to the Wheat Board’s purchasers in connection with the Wheat Board’s 2012 privatization. The Manitoba Court of Appeal accepted in a 2020 ruling that if this money had not been sheltered by the Government, it would have been paid to farmers. The claim also alleges that the CWB is liable to farmers by not paying them the full amount required under their contracts.”

-FCWB

Essentially the lawsuit calls for farmers to receive $145 million in moneys transferred from the CWB pooling accounts into a CWB contingency fund, along with $5.9 million used in the CWB transition to privatization. The lawsuit also calls for $10 million in punitive damages plus interest — an amount estimated, after 10 years, to be close to $190 million today.

In the end, the suit of $145 million might average out to an estimated $2,000 for each farmer. Exact amounts are dependent on the volume of grain each farmer delivered to the board during the 2011-2012 timeframe.

Meanwhile, just as importantly, and perhaps more-so many might argue, are the actions taken by then Minister of Agriculture Gerry Ritz. This is where this class action lawsuit could potentially affect each one of us and how we are governed.

The lawsuit alleges that the Minister of Agriculture, who through the use of Orders in Council, transferred farm payments into a general contingency fund, instead of paying out farmer contracts. In his ruling certifying the class action, the Justice’s clarity on the common issues startles. Read the decision here and skip to page 20 to read about the issues related to “misfeasance of public office” by the then Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

By the way, misfeasance is defined, more specifically, as the misuse of power; misbehaviour in office; the wrongful and injurious exercise of lawful authority.

Basically, the issue at the core of the class action lawsuit is whether then Minister of Agriculture withheld CWB contract payment to farmers using Orders in Council that overrode legislation passed by Parliament. Did the Minister of Agriculture, Gerry Ritz, have the authority to do so, and did he do so knowingly, and willfully?

As Stewart Wells, Saskatchewan farmer and chair of the FCWB notes in a recent interview for this column:

“There are very important legal questions to be solved, related to the nature of authoritarian governments. This case will turn on whether or not the Orders in Council that Gerry Ritz, then Minister of Agriculture and the rest of the Harper cabinet passed in October of 2011 were legal. These Orders in Council directed the Canadian Wheat Board to put every nickel they could find into the contingency fund –- a fund to be used for whatever they wanted it to be used for later on. If a minister of the government can override legislation passed in Parliament with just a Cabinet Order then you are in a real authoritarian system and laws and legislation are meaningless at that point — that is what we believe was done in October of 2011.”

-Wells, Chair FCWB

While this class action lawsuit is now certified and will be heard in court, there are still miles to go before final outcomes are known.

Meanwhile, Stewart Wells and the coalition of members belonging to the FCWB, understand their role and the importance of persistence on fundamental issues such as this one. Wells explains:

“Do we live in a democracy or some sort of authoritarian dictatorship, and does anybody have the temerity and perseverance to bring this kind of case forward and get it in front of the courts? Because if nobody had challenged this — and it would have been easy for all of the farmers just to walk away and say ‘well they did it and that is the end of it’ — But at some point you do not have a functioning democracy if people are not willing to stand up to have these matters adjudicated in a court.”

-Wells

By certifying this class action, Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Martin has directed that the questions and actions taken in October of 2011 surrounding the CWB finances must be answered and accounted for.

Wells emphasizes: “We have maintained for over a decade that the Government of Canada and CWB took money that belonged to farmers and sold it as part of the asset base taken over by the Crown and then provided to G3 Canada Ltd. the nominal legal successor to the CWB, and owned by the multinational Bunge and the Government of Saudi Arabia.”

For updates on the lawsuit, follow the Canadian Wheat Board Alliance.

The Road to CWB2

I found this news aggregator covering the Tories plan to dismantle the Wheat Board in favour of granting more powers to Corporate Agribusiness to purchase and distribute Canadas western wheat and barley. Gee I wonder if he likes the idea of dismantling the Wheat Board, do ya think?!

The Daily the Road to CWB2

Chronicling The Policy Issues Debate And The Moves Towards Implementation of Wheat Board Changes

Bob Rempel has worked for federal and provincial departments of Agriculture, as well as in all three Western provinces. He is a public relations and communications advisor with a political science background, who has had an ongoing professional and personal interest in the Wheat Board single desk debate. That mean’s he’s been watching this for some time.

CWBII has been proposed by a federal task force in October, 2006 with full implementation by 2013. The blog will watch the progress along the way with an ongoing interest in the policy decisions and the communications choices.

See:

Wheat Board

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Wheat Board Makes You Money

Just the fact ma'am.

The facts that Chuck Strahl and the Tories don't want you to know.

A new analysis of the Canadian Wheat Board's marketing of barley says the current system nets farmers $60 million more annually than the alternative.

The report, completed for the wheat board by a team of researchers, including the University of Saskatchewan's Richard Gray, looked at the world trade from 1995 to 2004 for malt and feed barley. It shows consistent benefits for producers under the current single-desk system.

Coverage of the Wheat Board from the Left

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Wheat Board

WTO

Farmers


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They Lied

The Harper government lies....again. This time over the dismantling the Canadian Wheat Board.

Wheat board dismantling on back burner, Strahl says

Gina Teel, Calgary Herald

Published: Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Strahl, also minister of the Canadian Wheat Board, said it's in the best interest of the industry to concentrate on the immediate issues facing the grains and oilseeds sector.

This includes focusing on the World Trade Organization agricultural negotiations in Geneva in April, which will deal with export subsidies and domestic subsidies.

"I've just decided for this spring, and certainly until the WTO negotiations are behind us, that's my priority and that's what I'm working on, and so the Canadian Wheat Board changes are on the back burner," Strahl told reporters.

The WTO has not resolved the farm subsidies issue.


SEE:

Albertans Tax Dollars At Work

Conservatives Attack Prairie Farmers

Which Priority Is This?

The End of the Wheat Board

The Truth About the Farm Crisis

WTO Who Cares?

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Slap Upside The Head

Well the Federal Court has slapped down the Harper Government in its attempt to arbitrarily and autocratically dismantle the Wheat Board.

While claiming a populist mandate to change the Wheat Board, Harpers attempt to rig a plebiscite has been given its just demise. It never fails to amaze me that while claiming to represent the popular interest of farmers, the Conservatives are afraid of a fair fight over the Wheat Board. That is of course because the right wing farm lobby they represent is a minority of Prairie farmers, and is even a minority in Alberta and Saskatchewan, where it has its biggest base.

Fearing defeat at the hands of the real popular base of Western farmers, the Tories attempted to pull a fast one, and thanks to this ruling they have to go back to the drawing board.

For other coverage of this from fellow progressive bloggers see here.

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Wheat Board

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Albertans Tax Dollars At Work

NDP Slams Money Spent On Anti-CWB Ad Campaign A million dollar PR campaign by the Ralph Klein gang against the Wheat Board, which the MAJORITY of Alberta and Prairie farmers support...money well wasted for a minority of Reform/Alliance/Conservative party supporters.

Folks whose interests are not those of their fellow farmers but of the social conservative political agenda .

While the Harpocrite government is not allowing farmers any say on dismantilling of the wheat board. Instead they appointed an opponent of the Wheat Board to the board. Ottawa names new director to Canadian Wheat Board

See:
Conservatives Attack Prairie Farmers



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Corn Crisis

Once again the State interferes in the marketplace and prices jump on commodities exchanges.

In the U.S. George Bush announced subsidies for bio-fuels not once but twice in State of the Union addresses.

And while he talked about switchgrass and other waste material based biomass, no funding opportunities have been created to subsidize this.

Instead bio-fuel announcements have fed the monopoly agribusiness oligopolies like ADM, who specialize in corn and wheat based ethanol production.

In Canada part of the Governments Green Plan and its efforts to undermine the Wheat Board was to announce subsidies for ethanol production.

While the only existing wheat straw based bio-fuel company in the world with new technology, remember that new technology that the government talks about is going to solve the global warming crisis, can't find anywhere to pedal its technology in Canada and is looking for investors. Just as its American counterparts are.

Meanwhile in Mexico tortilla prices have skyrocketed on ethanol speculation as corn is transformed from a basic food stuff into a fuel for financial speculation.

In Canada and the United States the increase in corn speculation has led to higher costs for pig farmers.

Bio-fuels are not a green solution, in fact they are not ecological at all, but a way to subsidize big Agribusiness like ADM and the financial markets. The only green about them is greenbacks.

And their impact on climate change and global warming will be minimal since they only blend with existing fossil fuels not replace their use.

Last year Mexico had the largest corn harvest in its history – more than twice as much as in 1980. Yet the price of tortillas has doubled and in some regions tripled over the past few months.

Corn is a key ingredient in poultry feed because of its high energy yield and increasing demand for ethanol has nearly doubled the price of corn over the past year. Corn futures on the Chicago Board of Trade traded in the $2.20-per-bushel range one year ago; now they go for over $4.00. Corn is also an important component in hog feed. However, Hormel was able to keep costs in check in this area because it uses outside farmers to raise hogs, unlike its turkey operations, which are in-house. This deflected some of the higher costs to the contractors, explained Agnese

An explosion in U.S. production of corn-based ethanol has strained supplies of the grain for human and animal consumption. Making ethanol from inedible feedstocks such as bagasse, grasses, and agricultural waste could be a better way, but commercial success has been elusive despite years of efforts.

In fact, in the fall of 1998, Celunol, then called BC International, announced plans to build a cellulosic ethanol plant in Jennings with Department of Energy assistance. The plant was never built, a spokesman says, because the company wasn't able to secure the rest of the financing.

Today, Celunol has competition in the race to build the first cellulosic ethanol plant. The enzymes company Iogen operates a small wheat-straw-based facility in Canada and is scouting locations for a larger plant.

Kansas became America’s top wheat grower, regularly producing close to one-fifth of the country’s total harvest. With their sheaves of wheat, called shocks, stacked upright everywhere in the fields to dry, wheat became so ingrained in the Kansas mind-set that Wichita State University adopted the name Shockers for its mascot.

But in the last two decades, farmers have increasingly turned to corn and soybeans, which need nearly twice as much water.

“That part of the state is going to be out of water in about 25 years at the current rate of consumption,” said Mike Hayden, the secretary of the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks and a former Kansas governor.

See

Real Costs of Bio-Fuels

Conrad Black and ADM

Bio Fuels = Eco Disaster

GMO News Roundup

BioFuel and The Wheat Board

The Ethanol Scam: ADM and Brian Mulroney

ADM

Wheat Board

Farmers

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Canada, agriculture, wheat, Canadian Wheat Board, farmers, Western-Canada, barley, wheat, Strahl, Government, Conservatives, Harper, Elizabeth May, corn MexicoUSA, Bush, ADM, ethanol, biofuels,