HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Times-Advocate, 1969-03-27, Page 14Pay 14 Times-Advocate, Mi.rch 27, 1969
GROWERS AND CANNERS MEET At the annual Can-Crop goodwill banquet at the Exeter Legion
Hall, Wednesday, Gordon Hill, a member of the select committee on farm income was the guest speaker.
Above, Mr, Hill, extreme right is chatting with Ted Wright, head fieldman of the Exeter branch of
Canadian Canners and area farmers Walter McBride and Rheiny Keller. T-A photo
Claim clock set back
To form national union
The Provincial Board of
Directors of the O.F.U. met in
Guelph on March 18 and 19.
The Board reaffirmed its earlier
decision to integrate into a
National Farmers' Union.
Following the unco-operative
attitude of the Federation of
Agriculture, their continuous
recedings on agreements, and
their decision to accept the
Government's Farm Income
Committee G.F.O. proposals,
the Board felt that it would be
useless to waste more precious
time.
The opinion was expressed
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Two more men speak out
on the success of Treflan
"Now I've no time
for hoeing"'
says Louis Ducharme.
"Last year
I even broadcast
my soybeans,'
says Ralph King.
Examples like these say a lot more about
Treflan than we ever could.
Take Louis Ducharme. He found himself in a
situation where hoeing labor costs were cutting
deep into his profits. Now careful incorporation
of Treflan to the right depth into his white bean
crop has eliminated the need to hand hoe.
Or take Ralph King's example. Broadcasting
soybeans means big savings in cultivation
costs, and often increases in yield per acre .
But, like Ralph, you have to know your weed
control plan is completely effective. Treflan
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Unified voice may assist
.fair return for farmers
A unified voice for farmers
may be the solutipn to helping
farmers get a fair return for their
investment and labor, a group of
Huron and Perth farmers were
told at the eighth annual Can
Crop banquet held at the Exeter
Legion Hal, Wednesday,
Gordon Hill, Varna, a
member of the special
committee on farm income, said
farmers needed one organization
whichcan speak with one voice for
farmers,
The single organization was
one of the many recommen-
dations presented by the special
committee and another member
of that committee, Malcolm
Davidson, Brucefield, is
presently working towards a
vote of Ontario farmers to see if
they agree with the idea.
Hill said that the June vote
would require support of 60
percent of those voting to be
carrie.
Hill, a former president of the
Ontario Farmers' Union,
explained there was presently
two organizations in
Ontario representing farmers and
sometimes they opposed each
other in an attempt to gain new
members. He said some of the
opposition was not in the
farmers' best interests.
He said lack of finances, along
with the duplication and waste
involved in having two groups,
made them both ineffective.
The Varna farmer also said
the marketing boards control the
Fed. of Agriculture, while the
Farmers' Union understands
very little about the operation of
marketing boards.
"The best the marketing
boards can do is get the price the
market allows," he said.
Hill said the new organization
should use the best of both
present organizations and should
be aggressive and militant. "It
should strive to gain this if it
can't achieve its goals
otherwise," he said.
The need for farmers to
control farming was also one
of the points made by the special
committee. Hill said farmers
must join together and take
control of farming to develop
programs with the other
segments of the food
cahin. "To compete (with
other countries and areas) we
must increase our efficiency, but
we musn't depend on efficiency
alone to solve our income
problem," he said.
Speaking about subsidies, he
said subsidies which helped
develop farmers' abilities were
good, but product subsidies have
not answered the farmers' needs.
He said they have glutted
markets, kept people in farming
who shouldn't be and have
increased land value and
therefore production costs.
However, he Said if other
segments of the economy were
to be subsidized, then farmers
would have to be too.
In the field of credit, Hill said
there was a need to get away
from security as a guideline in
borrowing and replace it with a
system where the capacity of the
farm management to repay was
the basis for loans.
OTHERS INVOLVED
Taking a look at those
associated with farming through
the "input industries," Hill
noted that only 10 percent of
the consumers' dollars go to the
farmers and therefore those
getting the other 90 percent
must also be as efficient as
possible so food can be as cheap
as possible and still provide an
adequate income for all
concerned.
"If we're going to compete,
we'll have to buy inputs at prices
comparable to our competitors,"
he advised, adding that people in
the input industries would have
to put their own houses in order
or the government should be
asked to step in and make them
do so.
President claims
deception, untruth
Walter Miller, of Tara,
President of the Ontario
Farmers' Union, says, "The OFA
campaign committee for a
General Farm Organization,
headed by Malcolm Davidson, is
founded on deception and
half-truths when this committee
calls itself "an independent
body."
Miller made this statement
after the Wingham telecast
"Focus on the Farm" held
March 16, 1969.
Mr. Ken McKinnon, a
member of the OFA Finance
Committee which reported a few
months ago at the Federation
annual convention and presently
a newly appointed member of
the OFA Campaign Committee,
said during the Wingham telecast
"we are a committee of
independent people really not
working for anyone, but
attempting to gather support
across this province."
Further, during the telecast,
Mr. McKinnon, who is a director
of the Ontario Milk Marketing
Board, went further to skirt the
issues when questioned about
the members of the campaign
committee and their relationship
to the Federation of Agriculture.
Mr. Miller Is presently saying,
"I challenge the statement made
by the OFA Campaign
Committee that it is an
independent body."
The farmers were told they
would also have to become more
aggressive marketers and would
have to learn "what, where and
when" the market wants and
then follow these guidelines.
He was highly critical of
governments urging people to
get into farming when in fact
there were already almost twice
as many farmers and land in
Ontario than was needed,
Hill pointed to the fact there
were millions of acres in Western
Canada producing goods for
which there was no market and
yet the government was
spending public money clearing
more agricultural land.
He noted that the Ontario
government had also "lured"
some people into farming in this
province when it was impractical
and he urged this be curtailed
immediately and that a program
be developed to help these
people adjust to other
occupations.
It was also noted that
marketing was one of the main
areas in which changes were
required.
"The problem is not how to
produce enough, but bow to
market it so we can produce
adequate incomes," he stated.
He said farmers would have to
use the same basis as any other
industry and market their
produce in the quantities and at
the time it can be absorbed.
WILL IT WORK
In a question and answer
period, Harry Strang asked if all
the diversified elements found in
farming could be held together
in one organization.
Hill replied it would depend
on the organization and it would
need people who would listen to
radicals or they (the radicals)
would start another
organization.
However, he said if the single
organization did its job, there
would be little appeal for other
organizations which may start.
"Don't build an organization
because we want to," Hill said in
conclusion, "build it because we
need it." He said this is what
prompted the formation of the
Farmers' Union.
He said farmers would be
"daft" if they think they can
build an organization and then
sit back and watch it work.
"Build it and then the work
starts," he said, adding it would
require the active participation
of all farmers.
He said emphatically it would
have to be a business
organization, and not a fraternal
one, and men who can do the
job should be the only ones
elected.
"The only thing standing in
our way is farmers," he
concluded, "and the only thing
that will hold it back is
farmers."
Co-chairmen for the banquet
were Jules Del3rabandere and
Jack Urquhart,
DeBrabandere said in his
remarks that the farmers and the
processors must work together
to bring success to both.
Other head table guests
included Don Pullen, Huron ag
rep; Newt Ashton, Perth ag rep;
Ted Wright, head fieldman at
Canadian Canners, Exeter;
Exeter Mayor Jack Delbridge,
and their wives.
The wives of the farmers in
attendance were treated to a talk
by Dr. Louise Elder, a chemist
with Canadian Canners. She told
of the canning process and also
showed slides of Europe taken
during her recent trip there.
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that the Government's Farm
Income Committee G.F.O.
proposals are like setting the
clock back 20 years and that
they have proven inadequate
throughout farm organization's
history.
"Farmers today recognize
that their problems are National
and cannot be solved by a
Provincial organization or
government. Farm leaders who
lead farmers to believe otherwise
are being less than honest. For
the past fourteen months we
have shown our goodwill ,and
talked and listened to the
proposals of the Establishment
only to find that they betrayed
us each time," said Mr. Miller,
President of the Union.
At the Convention held in
Kingston, last November, the
grassroot members voted for a
plan that would set up a totally
integrated National Farm
Organization, in which the
locals, districts, and Province of
the Ontario Farmers' Union as
presently constituted would
function' as. a•-: Region of the
N.F.U., and would be then
better equipped to deal with
regional (or Provincial) matters
as it would be backed by the
resources of a National
Organization.
At the same time, it would
enable farmers across this
country to unite and to stop
allowing the production of
farmers in one part of the
country being used to lower
prices in other parts.
A National Farmers' Union
will be able to deal more
effectively and on the same level
with the Farm Supply and Farm
Product Processing
Corporations, to increase
farmers' net incomes.
The Convention's delegates
decided last November to
integrate into a National
Organization after 90 days. The
Provincial Board has now
authorized the Executive to
proceed with the plans in
accordance with the
membership's decision.
The founding convention has
been set by the National
Farmers' Union's Committee for
July 30th, and 31st.
Hog producers
meet in Toronto
More than 500 delegates
attended the annual convention
of the Ontario Hog Producers
Marketing Board held at the
King Edward Hotel in Toronto
last week.
Ross Love, who represented
Alf Warner for Goderich
township told the T-A Tuesday
afternoon "It was the largest
turnout I have seen in my 20
years at the meeting and every
township in the province was
represented.
Township representatives
from Huron, Grey and Bruce
made up Zone 6 and presented
three resolutions that were
passed by the delegates.
Love said the most important
resolution passed was one that
would scrap the present farm
organizations, the UFO and F of
A and come up with a new
group with a new name. Also,
each marketing board would be
a part of the new organization.
A second resolution asked
that promotion of pork products
be increased rather than
decreased. In 1968 the budget
for pork promotion was down
by 25%.
The marketing board was
urged by it's delegates to take
strong action to prevent pork
and pork products from entering
Canada at prices lower than that
—Please turn to page 15
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