Its Up To Nature Now

FTLComm - Tisdale - June 22, 2000

The year two thousand crop is up and flourishing, what it will turn out to be like is no longer in the hands of the farmers who have tiled the soil, put in the fertiliser, applied the necessary chemicals for weeds, now everything depends on the forces of the weather. The past two weeks have seen excellent moisture conditions and as we move from spring to summer the temperatures are bound to produce ideal growing conditions. As we go out and look at the crops in the Tisdale area there are primarily three crops. Wheat appears to be somewhat more popular, followed by canola and then alfalfa. Flax, barley, Durham, oats and peas are also known to be planted but at this point they are not noticeable Wheat throughout the area is looking very good as the cool temperatures do not retard the growth of the hardy varieties planted in this area. The Canola crops look to be just about ready to flower and alfalfa fields are being harvested for dehydration but appear at this point to be light, which is often the case with the first cut of the season. The picture at the top of the page is a wide view of the experimental plots planted along highway #3 North of Tisdale. This large project is looking good. The whole process of research and development has never been as important as it is today with the need for agriculture to find efficient and high yielding crops that will provide financial return for the grower. This year's wheat and canola crops are actually not expected to produce profits for their growers as the prices of these commodities remains right at, or below the break even margin. Markets this past week have remained stable with modest variations following the amounts of rain in the world's commodity crop producing areas. Below is a QuickTime VR panorama of the plot area shown in the picture above. Since some folks can not see these VR images we have included today composite images of portions of the field of view from the panoramas.

All prairie conversations begin with a detailed review of the weather. If my wife or father calls, the very first thing we do is update each other on the weather we see outside. Rain, wind, sunlight and humidity are so important to an agricultural culture that even though none of us are directly involved, everyone we know is profoundly affected by these overpowering variables. Because we are so obsessed with weather conditions it is not surprising to discover how popular the television weather channel is and how often people leave it as the default channel on their televisions when they are occupied with some other activity. Unlike urban folks, people who live in rural areas, are so much exposed to the elements, they depend on the outside conditions for their recreation, as well as their livelihood. Below is a segment of this morning's sky taken at 0630 about five miles North of Tisdale. The low cumulus scud is often associated with rain and high humidity. This morning it would seem that there have been or continues to be some precipitation falling in neighbouring regions. The general high overcast cloud cover comes from a large low pressure air mass which is expected to work its way East during the day.

The QuickTime VR of this morning's sky is only ninety degrees from due North to due South and a view to the East.

Though we began this morning's commentary by explaining that the farmer has done his part and it now is up to nature to finish the crop off, that concept is unfortunately just to much an oversimplification of the true state of things. The economic squeeze that has been pinching rural life to death for the past five years is really not in any way related to the actual process of agriculture. The economic and financial world has almost always been dominated by the forces of available capital. A significant segment of the world's wealth is transient capital that can be invested, divested and transferred quickly and always to exploit the possibility of ever increasing its over all value. This force, created by money seeking to compound its value, is not a force of nature, but a construct of an economic and political structure. We have seen the volume of this transient capital multiple considerably and it seems that every world event and condition plays a part in this extensive wealth being moved around to position the investor in the most advantageous manner. The net result of this process has been the dramatic devaluation of human life, and the importance of the nation state. Countries which are quite simply, a collection of individuals sharing a common location, have become subjects of the ebb and flow of capital. The governments of nation states have almost continuously been gradually taken over by people who have a vested interest in, or are owned by investors, while in other cases they are people who visualise this game of capital investment as some kind of religion. As a direct consequence, the world that only thirty years ago was divided into two sort of levels, the developed world and the undeveloped world, has seen the quality of life increase as the wealthy nations continue to advance even more rapidly and the "so-called" third world sink into debt, despair and devolution. At the same time, a whole new class of country has emerged, those parts of the world that once were developed but who have embaraced what to them seemed like the inevitable spread of market economy and have crumbled into chaos. Russia, most of its former republics, India and South East Asia are now part of this chronic state of political and social decomposition.

For Canada the process has been diverse, for Canada defies the definition of a true nation state and has within its borders areas like Northern Saskatchewan, which are essentially "Third world" environments, areas like Ontario, Quebec, Alberta and some of British Columbia, that are flourishing as developed countries. While Atlantic Canada and the Prairies are like Russia and India, being destroyed and decomposed as the forces of the market and other portions of the country abuse them for their own gain. When we discover that no matter what happens, the financial investors are able to continue produce paper based wealth as they trade and transfer funds, sometimes minute by minute, we have to understand that in order to create profit, someone has to lose. The losers have been the "third world" and those areas that are being returned to the conditions of the third world. The huge amount of liquid invest able capital has been largely generated by the earnings of the baby boomer's pensions, which have found their way into mutual funds that become almost organic entities, demanding ever increasing profits and slamming their way to what may in fact be a false and contrived economy. You will see that yesterday, Microsoft, despite the worst news a company could have, being broken into parts, actually showed gains and lead investment in the market place. Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, the once upon a time, fairy tale outfit that decided to end profitability, shut down all portions of the company that earned profits, and become a private company, closed trading yesterday at $4.35 per share and opened this morning with a bid of $4.85 after posting yet another record loss for yet another quarter. $30,000,000 in losses and investors thought that was better then they expected and as a result that gain of fifty cents per share from yesterday until this morning, when in real fact, the Pool is completely worthless. Its real intrinsic value could very well be in negative numbers yet the profit seeking investment community props up this dead entity. Agriculture, because of its reduced clout in the political world, is now at the mercy of the financial market-place. This condition is not restricted to Canada but is world wide so that we see bananas in our stores priced less than water. Those nation states that still value the people of their country, or understand the strategic value of having a viable inexpensive food supply, have topped up the marginal agricultural commodity situation, we do not enjoy this atmosphere in our country where the preoccupation of government is with Quebec, first, second, third and all other priorities disregarded. In a few months there will be a federal election, its outcome has already been decided. No changes or course corrections can be expected because the federal government is simply impotent, that is likely the case with almost all countries in the world with the exception of China who's sheer mass makes it a world of its own. Here is an interesting note to leave you on, and remember that you read this here in Ensign. The Saskatchewan Premier is going to wait until just before the federal election is called, when he will announce that he is running for a seat in the house of commons. After years of speculation that he will receive some reward and a federal appointment he has decided that he is young and needs a challenge in his life. He will run in a Saskatoon constituency and be elected. For Paul Martin all we can say is, "can you spell disappointment?" Prime Minister Romanow has an interesting sound to it. Sincerely Timothy W. Shire