Kevin Auch has been putting in long hours on his southern Alberta farm harvesting durum wheat — and also fretting about distant trade negotiations that may affect the price.
He wasn’t pleased, earlier this week, when Canada’s foreign affairs minister vowed to defend supply management on Canadian farms in the NAFTA negotiations just getting underway.
The system of controlled production and price protection doesn’t directly affect wheat farmers. But Auch, who is also chairman of the Alberta Wheat Commission, wonders who will pay the price of shielding supply management from competition.