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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1990-03-28, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 28, 1990. Opinion. Why always hit at farmers? The expected assault on farm marketing boards by Canadian food processors has begun in earnest. Headlines daily relate the cries of Canadian food manufacturers like Ault Dairies that they cannot compete under free trade with American food companies if they have to pay the higher costs brought on with marketing agencies like the Ontario Milk Marketing Board. It is exactly the situation that many of the opponents of the free trade agreement predicted would happen. Farmers of products controlled by commodity marketing boards are being put in a tough spot. Supply management is responsible for giving them some control over the price of the product they sell rather than having to take whatever is offered. Having a stable income has made Canadian dairy farmers, for instance, among the most efficient in the world (in the past 10 years milk yields per cow have increased by 70 percent in Canada compared to 46 percent in the U.S. and 31 per cent in New Zealand). At the same time, however, under free trade if the processors are right and they lose sales, the farmers won’t have anybody to sell to. If the companies move south of the border to get cheaper raw materials, all the supply management in the world isn’t going to help the Canadian farmer. But life isn’t as easy as the processors and urban enemies of supply management would have us believe. Canadian farmers aren’t making so much money that cutting milk prices or chicken prices by 10 to 15 per cent as the processors want, and still prosper. Supply managed commodites are among the few areas of farming that are healthy todaybutthey won’tbeif supply management is abandoned. If the dairy and poultry farmers go broke the companies won’t have supplies for their factories either. We in communities that depend on the health of farming will be hurt as even the few healthy areas of farming are put under pressure. Why is it the companies are crying only aboutfarm prices? Why not labour prices? Why not ridiculously high interest rates compared to their American competitors? Probably because they see supply management as the weakest link, the easiest to break. Urban consumer groups and the media have targetted supply management for years. While newspapers carried stories of the plight of the Canadian farmer throughout the hard years of the 1980’s, they still attacked marketing boards as if farmers were making immense profits. The only conclusion is that food processors and the Canadian consumer want farmers to lose money because they can get food at “bankruptcy-sale” prices. The problems is that you can’t live forever on going-out-of-business sales. Sooner or later there’s nobody left to go out of business and sell you things at a loss. If supply management dies there will be a lot of other businesses in Huron County that depend on sales to farmers that may die with it. Tragedies waiting to happen The idea that someone could abandon a helpless child in a snowbank to freeze brought media attention to the Bowers murder case from all over the world but every day we can see cases on our own main streets that could have just as sad a result but nobody ever seems to notice. Take a look as you walk along any place where cars park and you’ll see many parents who risk the lives of their children without a second thought. Take a look and see how many people still don’t use seat belts for their children, some of them even letting children stand up on the seat as they drive? These are deaths waiting tohappenthefirst time something unexpected happens and the driver has to stop quickly, let alone is in an accident. These parents would never consider themselves in the same class as the person who abandoned poor Dustin Bowers but they’re only an accident away from being just as guilty. Once a giant Mabel’s Grill There are people who will tell you that the important decisions in town are made down at the town hall. People in the know, however know that the real debates, the real wisdom reside down at Mabel 's Grill where the greatest minds in the town [if not in the country] gather for morning coffee break, otherwise known as the Round Table Debating and Filibustering So­ ciety. Since not just everyone can partake of these deliberations we will report the activities from time to time. MONDAY: Tim O’Grady was read­ ing about the elections in East Germany and said these terms they throw around get really confusing. “1 guess what can you expect when the country used to be called the German Democratic Republic when it was never democratic in the first place,” he said. Now, says Tim, they say a “conservative” party has won the election over there but what is conservative. Is that conservative in a left-wing country which would mean it wasn’t want many changes in the system or conservative in a western style which would mean that it looks for communists under every bed. “Is their right wing left or our left wing or is their centre, right of our left wing or are our reporters just so mixed up they don’t know their left from their right?” he wondered. TUESDAY: Ward Black said he was thinking about going south for the next couple of weeks so he wouldn’t have to listen to Pierre Trudeau when he goes on his tour promoting his book. “I thought we got rid of him but he keeps coming back like a bad dream,” he said. Hank Stokes said how you see Trudeau’s return is sort of like judging whether you’re an optimist by whether you think a glass of water is half-full or half empty. Either you see the old guy and realize that no matter what you used to think of him he looks pretty good beside Mulroney, or you think that Mulroney may be a bum but Trudeau’s enough to make you glad you’ve got Mulroney so you don’t have to live through having to put up with Trudeau again. WEDNESDAY: Julia Flint was saying she bets there’s a sale on throat lozenges in Ottawa these days with the NDP members talking for up to four hours to keep the GST bill from being approved by the Commons. “1 think they’re getting a little carried away,” Ward said. “No,” said Billie Bean showing him a picture of protestors being hauled off by police for demonstrat­ ing too close to the Parliament buildings, “that’s what’s happen­ ing outside.” THURSDAY: “Wasn’t that terrible what happened in Ottawa?” Julia was saying this morning. “Everything’s terrible that hap­ pens in Ottawa,” said Hank. No, Julia said, what she meant was the army personnel roughing up one of Prime Minister Mulroney’s personal staff when the PM returned from Mexico and Barbados because they thought the guy was a security threat. “Damn,” said Tim, “can’t the army ever get anything right? They roughed up the wrong man.” % FRIDAY: Billie was saying all this business about the Soviets moving troops into Lithuania because the country wants to be independent makes him nervous. “It makes it sound like things really haven’t improved after all,” he said. Yes, said Hank, can’t you just hear the sigh of relief in defence plants all across the United States that maybe the world is unfolding as it should? The Citizen P.O. Box 429, BLYTH, Ont. NOM 1H0 P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, Ont. NOG 1H0 The Citizen is published weekly in Brussels, Ontario by North Huron Publishing Company Inc. Subscriptions are payable in advance at a rate of $19.00/yr. [$40.00 Foreign]. Advertising is accepted on the condition that in the event of a typographical error, only that portion of the advertisment will be credited. Advertising Deadlines: Monday, 2 p.m. - Brussels; Monday, 4 p.m. - Blyth We are not responsible for unsolicited newscripts or photographs. Contents of The Citizen are © Copyright. Serving Brussels, Blyth, Auburn, Belgrave, Ethel, Londesborough, Walton and surrounding townships. Phone 523-4792 Phone 887-9114 Editor & Publisher, Keith Roulston Advertising Manager, Dave Williams Production Manager, Jill Roulston Second Class Mail Registration No. 6968