Bean board member resigned over opposition to merger

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‘I think that was disingenuous of them to suggest once a dealer, always a dealer,’ Steve Twynstra says.

photo: Steve Twynstra

Comments

Like so many other boards, producers found a need to organize, to provide strength and symmetry for production and marketing of a specialty crop. Also like so many other past examples the buyers marketers and processors are never satisfied until they have total control of price setting, grade, moisture setting for the industry all at the producers expense.

You have been blessed to have Mr Twynstra, his wisdom and experience on your board. The commission with a lengthy record of blunders to its name should be concerned that this (Twynstra) resignation notice is a clear indicator something is amiss.

I know Steve to be a level headed clear thinking person. He is not a quitter. It takes a real leader to take a stand that he can not support or lead the people he represents in what he believes is an erroneous direction.

It takes a real man at the commission, to match Twynstra's stand, to step back take a deep breath and understand this is a producers board to serve producers.

You are already loosing specialty bean acres... get this right. Make sure your guiding principals are clear and defend-able to producers. Without producers production it soon won't matter.

Real men and true leaders can admit to a mistake and new thought. Change is inevitable ... success is optional.

Real men and true leaders can admit to a mistake and new thought. Change is inevitable ... success is optional

Find one true farmleader realman who will standup

who sit on commission have grown white and coloured beans and had to deal with being raped by the place of delivery ? To many times the discount schedules that are inplace are not adheared to . There is no premium for quality but the discounts are implemented by dealer staff which is not governed by Ag Canada or the likes . Then when it comes time to cash in depending who you are your contact person at the elevator can and have work in some growers favor and maybe changed the deductions ao offered the grower a side deal on chemicals or fertilizer . The dealers want the power and control and it looks like the commission is going to give it to them . The WBPMB was started to for a reason years ago . Yet we have those who have never grown these crops making the decision ? Just does not sound right to me .

As far as loosing specialty bean acres ... that don't matter jack ! There have been beans coming into this province to be processed and likely mixed in with our home grown ones for years . Would you call that product of Canada ? Funny thing could be how many beans from Ont could end up being sold and shipped to Michigan and then sold and shipped again to be processed in Hensall ?

It is now more than ever obvious that the commission is like gov. They help to make decisions they know nothing about and the farmer is pawn .

farming will always have winners and losers
but seems like the masses are losers generation after generation , should we be questioning whether we have good wise Ministers and farm leaders. We should question what is the makings of a wise minister or leader, or is it just popularity. We should look back at past Omafra ministers and ask were they really that good, were are they at today , should we if had the chance hold them accountable for their screw ups. Why is it in Canada we do not have good watchdogs to prod the powers to be?
We need to have imput into how the person is picked for minister and not just the whim of the premier. We need to understand how the briefing files of the minister comes into being
We brought boards into being in the last 50 years , they were needed now we make changes but are they well thought out non political changes?
There is some big questions on agri and farm issues needs to be addressed because withfarmers aging , the face of farming will change in the next 10 years for better or worse

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty resigns from office
what is the real story????????

Is the information in the voting package sent to growers by the commission correct ? That is the first thing that sets off alarm bells in my head .
Next how are the questions worded ?
How will the results be interpreted ?
Should the vote question should be a Yes or No question or will it be a sliding scale answer choice like was presented at grower meetings which is and can lead to skewed results ?

I read with interest the add by the OCBGA in the Ontario Farmer this week about the producer vote "A Time For Change" . Now after attending meetings I wonder why the OCBGA add reads the way it does . Under the White bean Grower side .... I am not sure that the checkoff fee was too high . There only are two options for marketing and if you kill the power of the board you will only have one option which will be a contract with a dealer . I am not sure you can lower the costs much more . Research and promotion has been done for years .

On the OCBGA side .... Was grower communication not part of their job all along ? There may well not be a grower checkoff increase but then they did not have a way or means of tracking it any way. When you only have one main market and that is by contract you are not going to see a major swing in market information . I am not sure where they think the increase in dollars is going to come from for research and promotion .

I would encourage all who can vote to vote . But know what you are really voting for .

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