Perhaps Non-GMFarmer you should do your homework instead of telling me what to do. The CAIS (Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization) Program being widely introduced this year is an income insurance scheme. It works like this:

Farmers report on their farm-related income and expenditure for the last 5 years. The highest and lowest are dropped and the other 3 are averaged to produce a reference margin. The producer can then buy into a scheme that insures that margin. In the maximum protection program, if they make a lower margin this year, the Government pays the difference, if they make a higher margin they get nothing. It is possible for a farmer to have a poor yield, but if prices are good, they will get nothing. It is the low wheat prices that are really hurting farmers in western Canada.

The scheme was originally organised for beef producers following the BSE scare in Canada, but has been extended to all farmers this year.

“As you yourself have explained, the specific arctic grass (hair grass) is of the oats family, therefore it would be possible to cross oats with this grass to get a conventional non-GM frost tolerant oat. If an arctic grass was of the Triticeae family (same as wheat), it would be possible to cross that grass with wheat.”

Yes, there is some potential to cross it into oats, but are frost resistant oats that much use to you? There is only one species of grass in Antarctica, so you won’t find one from the Triticeae Tribe that you can cross with wheat. As the gene is not in wheat, otherwise they would already be frost resistant, no amount of marker-assisted breeding will help.

Triticale was from a cross between wheat and rye, both in the Triticeae Tribe – see my comments in the last post.

I am confused. What part of this Canadian government payment to farmers is not a subsidy?

Agronomist, if you make a misleading attack claiming mistruths you have to expect to be reminded to do your homework. In response to my comment “…in Canada they are increasing subsidies”, you asked "... is this something else you have made up?" Surely you can't still deny that Canada has increased subsidies?

"Through today's announcement of $755 million, together with the $439 million provided through the Farm Income Payment program earlier this year, the Government of Canada is making nearly $1.2 billion available to address the immediate needs of grains and oilseeds producers." (Note: Oilseeds mainly refers to canola)

You can learn more about the Canadian Farm Income Program at http://www.agr.gc.ca/cfip/about.html .

"The Canadian Farm Income Program (CFIP) provides funds to producers who have had a sudden and severe drop in income for reasons beyond their control such as flooding, disease, price collapse, or rapidly rising input costs."

The high costs and market rejection of GM would no doubt contribute to the "price collapse" and rapidly rising input costs".

Yes, a non-GM frost tolerant oat would be beneficial to us as we plant thousands of ha of oats and we do get frost damage.

However, GM wheat of any kind is of no benefit to us whatsoever because our customers do not want GM wheat. Consumers don't care if GM wheat prevents frost damage, consumers don't want to take the risk because they are not getting the benefit.

Yes, the triticale was a simple example of how an arctic grass could be crossed with oats... same family. I am confident researchers will find frost tolerant grasses in the same family as wheat - time will tell. It is of course a double edged sword as countries like Ukraine would benefit far more than countries like Australia and lead to an exacerbation of the market problems associated with the global glut of food we experience now.

Sorry, NonGMFarmer, The CFIP finished in 2002.

The initial subsidy was a 3 year run but the latest was 2005 - thats what the political announcement was about. The subsidy is continuing to roll over and if you read how farmers apply, they don't have to refill their initial application paperwork in as they can reuse this information from previous claims.

CAIS is not a subsidy, but an insurance program. Farmers have to pay to get income protection. If their gross margin is higher this year than the protected margin, they get nothing. If they have not had a positive gross margin for the last 5 years they also get nothing. Farmers in the program need to ensure they are making changes to improve profitability, otherwise their protected margin will decrease with time.

If you want to call CAIS a subsidy, you will also need to call Australian programs like Exceptional Circumstance funding a subsidy http://www.daff.gov.au/content/output.cfm?ObjectID=D0C19333-3B03-4933-91BAE3D3975BE27C&contType=outputs. I understand that payments in this program have been increasing in Australia even though you don’t have GM crops.