The Rise and Fall of United Grain Growers

The Rise and Fall of United Grain Growers
Author: Paul D. Earl
Publisher: Univ. of Manitoba Press
Total Pages: 303
Release: 2019-10-18
Genre: History
ISBN: 088755590X

For much of the twentieth century, United Grain Growers was one of the major forces in Canadian agriculture. Founded in 1906, for much of its history UGG worked to give western farmers a “third way” between the competing poles of cooperatives like the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool and the private sector. At its peak, more than 800 UGG elevators dotted the Canadian prairies and the company had become a part of western Canada’s cultural psyche. By 2001, then known as Agricore United, it was the largest grain company on the Prairies. The UGG’s history illuminates many of the intense debates over policy and philosophy that dominated the grain industry. After the Second World War, it would be a key player as the western Canadian grain industry expanded into new international markets. Through the rest of the century, it played an important role in resolving major disputes over regulation and grain transportation policy. Despite its many innovations, the company’s final decade and eventual demise illustrated the tensions at the heart of the grain industry. In 1997, to finance the rebuilding of its grain elevator network, UGG went public and entered equity markets. While successful at first, this strategy also weakened the company’s cooperative structure. In 2007, it was purchased by Saskatchewan Pool in a hostile takeover. The disappearance of Agricore United marked the end of a century of voluntary farmer-control of the grain business in western Canada. Paul Earl’s history reveals UGG’s central role in the growth and transformation of the western grain industry at a critical period. With meticulous research supplemented by interviews with many of the key players, he also delves into the details and the debates over the company’s demise.

The Future of Grain

The Future of Grain
Author: Michele Veeman
Publisher: James Lorimer & Company
Total Pages: 148
Release: 1984-01-01
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 9780888626226

Written in the early 1980s, The Future of Grain examines Canada's growing grain exports and the outlook for the industry's future. The authors examine the prospects such an increase holds for the largely static Canadian industries connected to grain: manufacturers of agricultural machinery, pesticides and fertilizers; processing industries such as feed and flour milling, canola crushing and barley malting. And they suggest improvements to every aspect of government involvement--from measures to conserve Prairie soil to macroeconomic policy--that affects this important sector. The Future of Grain offers a valuable analysis of this important agricultural sector at a vital time in its history.

The Canadian Wheat Board

The Canadian Wheat Board
Author: Andrew Schmitz
Publisher: University of Regina Press
Total Pages: 348
Release: 2000
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780889771345

The Canadian Wheat Board is a monopoly seller of western Canadian wheat, durum, and barley for human consumption, and feed wheat for export. In this study, the authors first examine Canada's position in the world wheat & barley markets and the Board's role relative to multinational grain companies (MGCs). Chapter 3 presents the regulatory framework governing the Canadian grain industry. The single- desk selling concept of the Board is examined from a theoretical perspective in chapter 4. This chapter also describes the structure of the world wheat & barley trade in which MGCs play key roles. Recent changes in government policies in the US, the European Union, and Canada are discussed in chapter 5. Chapter 6 discusses state trading in grain, the World Trade Organization (WTO) attempts to discipline state trading enterprises, and the Board's impact on trade in the WTO context. Chapter 7 covers the numerous confrontations concerning Canada-US grain trade. Chapter 8 focuses on the debate over creation of a dual market for feed barley. Chapter 9 examines the Charter of Rights case brought against the Board by barley producers & organizations. The focus of chapter 10 is grain transportation, its regulatory framework, and the Board's roles in the grain transportation system. Chapter 11 examines the Board's economic performance. Chapter 12 discusses the marketing of flax and canola in order to better understand how the Board can achieve price premiums and eliminate inefficiencies when marketing grains. The Board's ability to introduce additional price & marketing flexibility is discussed in chapter 13, including the implications of providing the option for using futures markets. Chapter 14 explores the debate over dual marketing and its viability for western Canadian grain producers. The final chapter draws overall conclusions.

International grain companies

International grain companies
Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Foreign Relations. Subcommittee on Multinational Corporations
Publisher:
Total Pages: 392
Release: 1977
Genre: International business enterprises
ISBN:

Mac Runciman

Mac Runciman
Author: Paul D. Earl
Publisher: Univ. of Manitoba Press
Total Pages: 361
Release: 2000-10-12
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0887550746

One of the most turbulent periods in the history of prairie agriculture is chronicled in a new book about the life and times of Alexander "Mac" Runciman, the Saskatchewan farmer who led the United Grain Growers as president from 1961 to 1981. Mac Runciman earned the respect and admiration on both sides of the great agriculture debates of the 1960s and 1970sófrom individual farmers to Pierre Trudeau, who offered Runciman a cabinet post in 1980 (Mac turned him down).Mac Runciman: A Life in the Grain Trade tells the story of how Runciman rose through the ranks of the UGG to play a central role in the fierce debates over the modernization of grain handling, subsidized freight rates, and the role of The Canadian Wheat Board. Runciman's reminiscences give new insights into the events and personalities of that critical period in Canadian agricultural history, a time in which the rural community began to question highly centralized and regulated marketing and transportation systems. The events and decisions of those years continue to reverberate in today's controversies over grain marketing and grain transportation.

U.S.-Canadian Agricultural Trade Challenges

U.S.-Canadian Agricultural Trade Challenges
Author: Kristen Allen
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 235
Release: 2016-03-17
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1317338669

The Free Trade Agreement between the United States and Canada was established in 1988 despite the U.S.’s controversial proposal to eliminate trade-distorting government subsidies to agriculture. Originally published in 1988, this volume brings together a collection of essays which identify and debate the difficulties associated with agricultural trade between the U.S. and Canada and explore common interests in the resolution of global agricultural issues. This title is a valuable resource for students interested in environmental studies and international agricultural relations.