…And caneros will take farmers association to court

Meanwhile, a breakaway group, United Cane Farmers, comprising farmers from the two northern districts are being represented by attorney Hubert Elrington. Elrington plans to file documents seeking an injunction by the Court on Wednesday morning. He has been working with United Cane Farmers for some time and has a unique perspective about the QIP. Elrington also attended the BCFA meeting on Sunday.

Hubert Elrington, Attorney for United Cane Farmers
“After the very large group just got up and walked out, there were many heated exchanges and they were trying at first to have the votes done quickly on the basis that the Ministry of Health did not want the meeting to go on long. So they were trying to truncate the meeting. In terms of whether or not to approve the QIP agreement, I was concerned to see that the farmers were given a presentation which told them the truth, made them aware that this whole procedure and this whole agreement is more than likely designed to weed out the smaller farmers and to arrive at a situation somewhere down the road, maybe a year down the road, where you will only have a very small amount of farmers, much bigger, much more properly equipped who will be taking over the industry.”

“They are talking about they want the industry to be competitive and they want to be efficient in a short period of time. Competitiveness and efficiency within a short period of time and they want approval for the measures that they feel are necessary to be taken but they are not spelling out those measures and they are not saying to the farmers look if you are small and you don’t have machinery and your field is in bad shape, then you may not get any assistance at all because you will just be phased out. If we make a decision, that is the group that is going to make the decision as to who is to get the assistance. When we make a decision, we are going to tell you that decision is final; there is no right of appeal against what we do. If you ask us why we don’t have that right of appeal, we will say to you that on Sunday, do you remember that Sunday you went to San Roman? You remember that day that you took the vote? You voted to give up your right of appeal. I don’t know any group of people who will give up their right of appeal in this day and age.”