Danny

I’ve been following these editorials of yours and they are getting more amusing all the time, but sooner or later someone is going to call you on them. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but as an ABP past chair and current delegate you should be a little better informed than what your current opinions are leading us to believe. To try to make the connection that ABP is a branch of government is ludicrous. As you well know, in order to fulfill our mandate with producers we need to be at the table with government (no matter what party). As producers we represent 0.5% of the population (not big leverage). Nobody at ABP puts government ahead of producers (I suppose this could be proven by the fact we are all elected by producers not appointed by government) I believe this is one of your points on democracy. Common sense says that we need to get along with those that set regulations. This is done not by confrontation but by conversation. I’m not going to get into a debate on who or why some people request a refund but I do know that with the reduction in government spending the industry needs more money. If all the refund money went back into industry somewhere it still is too diluted to be of much good. You say that if the ABIDF were so good people would voluntarily contribute, this is the idea but it needs to get started first. You go on to say that the ACFA was “granted privilege” for their endorsement. I wouldn’t call it granted privilege so much as negotiated terms. Whether you believe it or not the ACFA is an important part of the industry who realize that to move forward we need all hands-on deck (the same deck). You are right, they will receive a fixed amount of the checkoff which (you may not be aware of) can be redirected to the ABIDF. By the way WSGA was invited to the table as well but for their own reasons chose not to participate. I’m going to quote a full paragraph of yours because I cannot believe that someone engaged in the industry would actually say this “Choice and competition is what will bring out the best from ABP. They must compete for your funding support. At the end of the day, why don’t they want to answer to you?” Lobbying government for what’s best for the beef industry should not and cannot be competitive!!! You know yourself that going as one gets things done!

You stated that ABP supports the Governments Climate Leadership Plan. This is absolutely not true but we approached it in a mature and reasonable manner that allowed us to hopefully influence where it goes. If you want to see ABP’s position maybe you could go to the website or I can forward it to you. At the same time I could also forward to you our response to the environment ministers comment on eating less beef and her subsequent apology! A small amount of research goes way farther than a rant! You also state that ABP supports the carbon tax, again not true! I can only think that the reason for your thinking this way is the defeat of your resolution last year. I would say democracy at work only maybe not your version of democracy. Maybe the selling of the resolution was flawed “just a thought”. A past chair once told me “never underestimate the brilliance of the delegate body” I believe that the Alberta Beef Producers organization is the shining example of democracy (elections every two years as delegates and every year as board and executive) If you don’t like what we’re doing lots of opportunity to change it. Danny, I can only think you believe in democracy if it suits your needs otherwise it’s everyone else’s fault. Maybe you should have one of your supporters write the next letter. Don’t risk what’s left of your credibility.

Bob Lowe