Pubdate: Thu, 18 Jan 2007
Source: Lethbridge Herald (CN AB)
Copyright: 2007 The Lethbridge Herald
Contact:  http://www.lethbridgeherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/239
Author: Shannon Pahara

GOVERNMENT'S MOTIVATION IS ALL ABOUT GREED

Editor:

I feel compelled to answer Bal S. Boora's letter (Herald, Jan. 10) 
which asks Canadians to "ask the Harper government why it is so set 
against the Canadian Wheat Board when the majority of farmers support 
it. Whose interests are they representing?"

Stephen Harper and his pals are serving themselves. They are not 
farmers. I doubt they have ever had soil under their fingernails in 
their lives. However, it is very easy for them to get their 
secretaries to look at sheets of paper and have them report back 
which numbers equal greatest profit for their pockets.

If a wheat farmer receives fair payment for their crop, labour and 
expenses, it means the federal government is not maximizing their 
greed. They have looked at the savings they can make by selling us 
genetically modified foods. If food is produced in a lab, there is no 
farmer to pay. It is a prelude to what happened with our cattle 
producers. The government scares the population into believing our 
beef is contaminated (even though "mad cow disease" has been around 
forever and cattle ranchers know how to deal with it). Now they are 
introducing cloned cow meat. Government made dinner. They do not want 
to label these "foods," yet they have not even been tested on primates.

Maybe they can't get a monkey to eat a clone burger. It's the same 
reason Ms. Mryden who writes about "receiving minimal relief" for her 
multiple sclerosis pain because the government allots her such 
minimal amounts of legal marijuana. They want her buying 30 pills a 
day from the "legal" drug dealers even though the pills do not 
adequately relieve her suffering. Marijuana will never be legalized 
because the government cannot control a plant or crop that can grow 
in someone's yard or living room. Cigarettes and alcohol are 
perfectly legal because they are made in government controlled labs.

What can an individual do? Don't be a consumer of things you don't 
know much about. Don't take more medication to "numb yourself" out to 
the reality of the forces against our natural health and well-being. 
Do ask "how did people live before the British North American Act of 
1867?" Uncontrolled, that's how. Not wildly, how we are taught to 
believe, but honestly as respectful caretakers of the Earth.

Shannon Pahara

Lethbridge
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MAP posted-by: Elaine