Corn producers vote to retaliate against grain companies

In an extraordinary move, corn producers in Region 4 have called for the Ontario Corn Producers Association (OCPA) to list the grain companies paying below market prices for corn. The resolution suggests that farmers boycott the listed companies when buying farm inputs.

Region 4 is in north central Ontario.

The mover of the motion at the Region 4 annual meeting, Bruce Pearse, said the resolution is a desperate move. There are record amounts of corn coming into the country even with the countrervail but hardly any Ontario corn is moving.

"Corn is still standing in the field," he said, "because the countervail isn’t working yet."

He cites an example of one farm where 700 acres of corn remains on the field because there is no place to store it.

Pearse said a trade war is looming between producers and suppliers. It will be tit for tat. Farmers will use their buying power to even the playing field.

"It’s a good move," says past president of the Seaway Valley Farmers Energy Cooperative, Bud Atkins. "It will be effective if you can get all the farmers to work together. But farmers don’t stick together."