so on is of interest but to the whole b the benefit of all 0 get good quality Watford. and also at rson who is eating

Eembarked on a boycott puts the Kraft. Through 'a alk to consumers rt we are trying to )ne thing that has ain groups have .s that the power very good iob of ipear to be people Er own gain, and ‘se. We feel that BUY get it across us that farmers tqua'lity and at a can survive andl

lthe chance to go Pie about what is Ga and get them 5 to be a balance that that is more

or withholding ling needed food Us among the

dollars and can they would play ereby keep the other‘s throats. consumers are

across Canada. ch as Kingston.

producing it can "

Ct. We want to I

explain how that is important to the food that consumers get. and how the NFU demanding that right is a help to the consumer in assuring that he will get good quality food at reasonable prices.

We are giving out leaflets at various stores across the country. We have hit 17 centres in Ontario and covered over 75 chain stores. We are going to expand across Canada. and we hope to get to as many consumers as possible

. about the situation and why we are boycotting

Kraft.

This is our general plan. and it involves not only farmers but farm women. and farm youth. We intend to go across the country talking to consumers trying to create knowledge in people which will stop them from buying from Kraft. This will obviously effect Kraft in terms of money not going through the cash registers.

Kraft has spent millions of dollars on some very soft advertising. They claim to produce the best quality of food. they have the image of being a nice benevolent Canadian company in a free market system. We have had people go into stores after we have started boycotting Kraft and say that they never knew that Kraft was multi-national or as powerful as it was, or how many products it controls. Our contention is. that in a huge corporation like Kraft the

quality will go down because they want to

maximize their profit and in doing so, they cause unnecessary expenses to both the consumer and the producer.

This is what We are trying to point out and this is what people are starting to understand. We are starting with Kraft because we have to start somewhere. and through that we will go on to' other groups who are selling food to the detriment of both the consumer and the producer. if is an awareness campaign that will put pressure on Kraft.

CUP: Has there been any response from organized labour? "

KOSSICK: Actually the response has been even greater than we expected. Organized labour has come through very well. For example, Unions who have a history in Canada of being for 'the working people of Canada for example CUPE. the largest organized group in Canada —'with 150,000 members — passed a .very strong resolution supporting us. and promised to put out in- formation about what was going on with the Kraft boycott and to help us when we get into direct activity.

We have gotten support from other groups such as Church groups and community organizations. it is a matter of people getting informed and wanting to help us.

When a group seeks to support us. we ask for a message of support. We feel it is very important to give public support. We then ask that they distribute information among the

group, and that when we come to town they '

help us out.

For example, i was in Moose Jaw and the District Labour Council there supported us. They are going to be giving out information and giving messages of support. l‘m quite

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sure that when we go in there to picket the stores we are going to be getting support from them. We are tying in '.e:")- much with the working man of this country; trying to get their support and using that as pressure to put on Kraft.

We have been getting the support of university students and so on, and consumers who are interested. People are starting to realize that food is iust as primary a resource as oil or energy. We have had a lot of debate on the control ‘of that. By our actions we have really pointed out to the people that the food that is produced is in the same position of being controlled by multi-national cor- porations. or of being controlled by the people of this country.

If anything is going to come out of the Kraft boycott. it will have to be the awareness of urban people about what is happening in rural Canada. We stand to lose control of our primary resource of food. People are going to be made aware of how groups like Kraft or National Grain operate. They have not been aware of this because of the media and the way newspapers have treated the actions of those groups.

That is why it is important that there be formed some kind of an alliance between the urban and rural population. Since farmers only constitute seven per cent of the population. we really don’t have much of a chance unless we make the rounds of the country to show how urban and rural interests are common. Once the powerful corporations like Kraft have complete control over the food industry. the quality of food is going to go down, and the price is going to go up. It will be easy for them to raise the price of cheese every year and people will not be able to do anything about it because there will be no one to organize with in the rural areas. My point is that we need to have this boycott in order to fill people in on what’s going on so that we can organize in order to have good food produced for the people of Canada. and controlled by the people of Canada.

CUP: What has been the reaction both from Kraft. and from the consumer groups in urban centres that you have contacted so far? KOSSICK: Kraft is being very sneaky with the whole thing. One of the reasons why Kraft is so powerful is that they do have a lot of in- fluence with certain government agencies particularly in the field of agriculture. They have put pressure on those government agencies to put pressure on us. We are getting accusations of being irresponsible and outrageously militant and unfair to a responsible corporation such as Kraft.

We feel that these tactics on the part- of Kraft and the government will increase. They tell us that farmers have no right to be critical of a benevolent corporation such as Kraft who is trying to help the people of Canada. .

As we expand our boycott. this pressure will increase in the form of advertising cam- paigns. For example they have a big sale campaign going on which might be attributed to the boycott. Kraft is doing everything it can to sell Kraft right now. Consumer groups are interested in more information and are in- dicating that they will support us. We are also willing to support other groups in issues such as pollution which is also of importance to rural people. -

Kraft will obviously go right.to the core of

our organizational strength, so we have been ‘

trying very hard to organize Kraft boycotts in our own rural areas. Because of this we have made sure that these stores are very well informed about what is going on.

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.: g

it. .e-s‘ig exziain to people in urban areas about the boycott. you have to talk about their own situation. You have to talk about the quality of food they are getting in their store, and what it means to have food controlled by Kraft.

Kraft sees one of its biggest markets in the future in institutional food. They are counting - on the fact that 95 per cent of the population will be concentrated in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. They intend to operate huge cafeterias or institutional food setups. That means that the quality of food will go down. Everyone will be eating inorganic food full of preservatives. When you start talking about things like this to the consumer. showing exactly what is going to happen to the food they eat. and whattsgoing to happen to the rural community of Canada. you start to get a basis for alliance and things are going to start to happen. They start to see food as a primary resource being controlled by someone other than the people.

CUP: is there anything that you would like to add to this?

KOSSICK: We are just into the boycott. it’s going to take a long time I think. in order to expand the boycott we will have to talk to a lot of people. One thing that has reaiiy bown our minds is trying to operate in Ontario where there are eight million people mostly living in urban centres. This is a very difficult iob.

It almost seems that it is a designed plan that the urban and rural centres are isolated from each other and it is really affecting us. We have to develop strategies of reaching the people and We know now that it is not going to happen overnight. We also expect to have more response from Kra‘ft as our actions progress.

But our basic need is to have a rural and urban alliance on this question if we are going to defeat multinational organizations in their“ attempt to totally control food in Canada. We need support of urban Canada for the benefit of us all.

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