GinoLicious

Arlite... well i would like to say i do support them. This gov is fuked... They are fuking up our farmers and come on... Soon we will have no food grown in Canada, no farmers, and.... Due to the mass house production, no farms will be left.. I do support them 100%.

OPP saying they r going to *** the farmers up... They can STFU.. Listen to them.. Those sons of bitches.

imported_SW20 MR2

I have no sympathy for them (or any other industry). **** happens no matter what industry you are in. You adapt to what goes on in the economy and consumer tastes. When there are issues such as mad cow, you deal with it. Did tech companies get any aid when the markets crashed? Nope. The good companies innovated and survived, and the bad ones failed. It should be that way in any industry.

Cynikal.Mindset

as long as the wine keeps flowin in niagara thats all that matters to me

imported_kIeRaN

i wouldnt mind it if the 404 came to keswick itd have to pass through a few farms tho meh

bbarbulo

iTrader: (2)

adapt or starve I say. if you can't be productive enough to compete on the world market, find a better use for your land

and most importanly, don't turn YOUR problems.... into everyone's inconvenience! I mean, shut down 400's??? fack that!! there are truckers out there trying to feed their families y0

imported_gatherer

I have no sympathy for them... they farm and if the cost of farming exceeds the revenue fromt he stuff farmed well then find another line of work. or raise the price of the product you produce. if every farmer raised the price... well everyone needs food and currently north america needs to import food to support the demand... so if you raise the price people will still pay it....

J

but the bubble bursting on tech stocks on the NYSE is totally different than the U.S banning for mad cow.

your stock takes a plunge, you deal

you product gets banned by your number one buyer....you just don't deal with it...thats dumb to think that.

i think the gov. should help out, not always just in certain cases...like the mad cow thing

imported_kIeRaN

how will they shut down highways?

J

drive their slow as tractors up and down it in all the lanes

imported_SW20 MR2

It should be equal treatment for everyone. When SARS hit, did the government provide aid to businesses that were involved with tourism? Nope. They came up with great ideas like Summerlicious.

Should they provide help to restauranteurs by ACC since they're suffering from the hockey lockout? They are probably hurting as bad if not worse than farmers. They must innovate and attract new customers.

Why should the farmers be treated any differently? Similarly, I don't agree with the government giving money to Air Canada as well. Unless the free money is going to create a tonne of new jobs, it's a waste of money. Personally, I could care less where my food comes from. If domestic and foreign products are the same price, I will gladly take the domestic stuff. However, if the exact same product is available for half the price from foreign suppliers, I'll take the foreign stuff.

In an age where anything and everything is accessible due to advanced technology, the sky reallly is the limit. I don't care if you're a farmer or a rocket scientist.

J

but in your examples those businesses like the retaurants around the ACC...they can still do business, they haven't been banned from anything, ranchers have been banned, thats all i was saying.

and probably for this topic mad cow and beef hurders aren't the best examples, a better one would just be an ordinary vegetable farmer and in that case i'm more on your side, but not 100%

imported_SW20 MR2

Ranchers have been banned by the U.S., who happens to be their largest customer. Without knowing the industry in depth, I am sure that there are other places to sell their product. Maybe they need to do some more promotion/awareness of the quality of CDN beef outside of North America. What about partnering with some other CDN food companies to produce other beef products? What about marketing a "beef week" in Canada and selling/promoting stuff like steaks, burgers, etc? There are ALWAYS other possibilities.

My guess is that the beef industry has become very "ritualized". That is, they have been doing the same thing for years and years without any change. Well, it's time to innovate. Years down the road, what happens if a company comes up with a total synthetic substitute to beef (identical and just as healthy)? Do we give them free money then?

This is a good discussion, and we don't necessarily need to agree.

J

ranchers did have a big promotion once, during the sametime SARS was out of here and th had SARSstock, they had the 1/4 mile bar-b-que and it did wonders for their business, but when you keep getting shut down for the same thing by the most influential country in the world, it hurts...it hurts a lot.

I would say getting banned by the states could be one of the most damaging things that could happen to a business.

like the only other time (that I know off) that the gov. has stepped in to give aid is when the flooding happened out west and many a farm lost their entire crop, and in that situation i also agree that it was a good idea for the gov to step in.

but in any other situation than i would say no, like if business is just slow, then yeah get out while you can and cut your losses, take that money left over...if any and go invest in something on the rise.

synthetic beef? ahhh that's nasty the picture in my head right now is just wrong.
see in a case like that i think they would have lots of warning and there would be reports of this "new" beef that would be hitting the market in however many years and if they couldn't get their act together then and change or build up a nice "real" beef ad campaign to coincide with the "new" beef, that's their fault totally.

and yes we don't need to agree, argueing is a good time as long as its done right

GinoLicious

I say, stay the *** off of those highways lol... U'll get fuked.

imported_SW20 MR2

In cases where there were "acts of God" (ie. flooding, hurricane, etc.), I could see the need for a little more help. In the Mad Cow case, I think much of it could have been avoided due to the feeding practices that they follow.

The "synthetic" beef was more or less a far-fetched scenario for that particular industry, but it's a very real scenario for many industries. Those other companies that innovate will come out with a latest-and-greatest product that beats the original in price and quality. It is much more unlikely in the ranching industry, but never say never. What is more likely, however, is if people decide to cut down heavily on beef consumption in the future for whatever reason.

This discussion for me is not necessarily about the ranchers only. I like to treat all industries equally. If we give handouts to ranchers, we need to give them to others as well. I'd rather not give to anyone at all.

nashall

and if the farmers do shut down the highway ill be there with them.....screw the gov.....they never helped me!!!!!!!!!

imported_viper_2_4

Good point, but our government(s) do make a habbit of giving out money to other industries. Just this week the Ontario government gave General Motors a whole bunch of money to create new jobs in Oshawa. Personally I am agaisnt it in principle, but I can understand politically why they do it. Say GM starts doing poorly they lay off a bunch of workers in oshawa, the government gets blamed, tossing money at things is definitly the easy answer that our government loves to take.

Now, personally as much as I don't like the government assisting private industries (like farmers), I think the farming industry is different. Its borderline an essential service in my mind, having good, fresh local crops I think is a great value, and see having it subsidized from the government to help keep prices down.

CIVilized99

giving the farmers some money now is a good idea. with out some help alot of them will lose everything, and then they will end up on wellfare which will cost alot of money as well.so which is worse some help now or alot of support later. don't forget if a farm goes under then that farm will not be buying a new tractor,feed for his cows, and what ever else he needs to run his farm. heres something else to think about, no cows to slaughter, local slaughter houses go out of bussiness more people out of work. and so on,and so on. a nice downward spiral and before you know it we become a country that is fully dependent on everyone else but ourselves............oh wait a minute we are already half way there, we hardly produce anything now. take away the beef industry and all it's supporting industries and that will just be one more thing we will not be producing. we should be a counrty of exporters not a country of importers.....and just in case, don't forget, the civic is built in ontario buy ontario workers.

imported_gatherer

from what I've heard Ontario gets most of it's meat from the USA, where as Alberta ships most of it's beef to the USA it's been a good relationship based on geographical area. but with alberta not able to sell to the USA they should be trying to sell to Canada.

best steak I've ever had was when I was in Alberta.... tasted like it just came off the cow...

GinoLicious

My point exactly. No matter what. I take the protestors... That Gov, always **** us somehow...