From Prairie Roots: The Remarkable Story of Saskatchewan Wheat Pool

Bruce Grainger is head of Public Services at the Macdonald Library,
McGill University.

In his thoroughly documented and comprehensive history of the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, Garry Fairbairn describes the growth of the Pool from its origins as a cooperative grain marketing association in 1923 to its current expansion into a large cooperative enterprise. The original aim of the Pool was to “pool” or average the prices paid to its members and thus minimize the risk to individual farmers of fluctuating grain prices. By 1924, when the Pool actually sold its first grain, over 50 per cent of Saskatchewan wheat farmers had signed five-year contracts agreeing to pool their wheat. In cooperation with pools in Alberta and Manitoba, through their common Central Selling Agency, control was exercised over the marketing of one-half of all Canadian wheat and one-tenth of all wheat traded in the world. The Depression ended direct selling in foreign markets, and pooling of wheat virtually ceased. The Saskatchewan Wheat Pool was financially crippled, although with government assistance it survived the 1930s as a cooperatively owned grain elevator company.

In describing the origins, development, and later growth of the Pool, Fairbairn provides a good account of the clash of personalities within the cooperative, the often fierce disagreements among farm organizations, the critical role of various provincial and federal politicians, and the hostility of certain business interests to the Pool. This organization has had a far-reaching social, economic, and political influence on Saskatchewan society. With its stable, province-wide organization, it was in a position to play a key role in assisting in the organizing of retail cooperatives and credit unions. In the 1930s and 1940s through its newspaper (The Western Producer), radio programs, film exhibitions, and a lending library, it contributed substantially to the cultural life of the province. More recently, it has become an important book publisher. Politically, Pool activists formed unusually close links with the early Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (forerunner of the NDP) in Saskatchewan. The Pool has persistently lobbied governments on behalf of Saskatchewan farm interests, an example of which is its early advocacy of and continued support for the Canada Wheat Board.

Through acquisition, the Pool has extended its grain elevator business, owns a flour mill, and has interests in vegetable oil processing, life insurance, a fertilizer factory, a grain export company, and an oil exploration firm. Its growth and very success has, in fact, engendered some concern as to the continued vitality of the Pool’s democratic structure and its cooperative values. The book is enhanced by many photographs, a generally adequate index, and several appendices, of which one is the historic 1923 Saskatchewan Wheat Pool Contract. Another appendix consists of a table of the average farm price for wheat from 1916 to 1981, which, with its dramatic fluctuations, graphically illustrates why the wheat producers turned to cooperative action in the first place.