Since the 1940's, wheat and barley farmers in western Canada have been required to sell their grain through the Canadian Wheat Board. But now, changes to the single-desk selling system for wheat, durum, and barley have the National Farmers Union and the Canadian Wheat Board Alliance up in arms.

The two organizations disagree with open-grain marketing. They say prairie farmers will lose out when the wheat board's single-desk selling system is eliminated August 1.

Terry Boehm, National Farmers Union President, says the single-desk system was the best format for the farmers. “It had a huge economic value to farmers.  It's a $6-plus billion to sales, and they could undertake surveys of farmers. Farmers have direct input to their directors in regards to issues around transportation, for example.”

Boehm says ending the CWB.'s monopoly will weaken the powers of producers and strengthen corporations. He's worried that without a large-scale collective marketing system, many producers will quit farming.

There's also the concern that open marketing may downgrade the quality of Canadian wheat, which could hurt international sales.

But Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz is confident an open market will be a boon to prairie farmers. “We have delivered on our long-standing commitment to our farmers to remove the monopoly.”

Last week, Ritz told an international forum in Saskatoon that ending single-desk selling will create more processing opportunities and add value to grain. " Whether in the grain business here in Saskatchewan and in the United States, marketing freedom will bring new transparency, certainty and flexibility to the grain trade on both sides of the our border."

The Nation Farmer’s Union, however, questions Ritz’s logic.

“We've seen that argument made with factory hog barns.  We've seen it made with the end of the crow, a whole assortment of times.  We've seen exactly the same arguments.  If we get rid of this, we're going to have value-added.  We're going to have more processing and it hasn't happened or minimally it's happened,” says Boehm.

The new era for grain marketing in western Canada officially arrives in August, but just how it will impact agriculture remains to be seen.