The Rural Voice, 1981-01, Page 9Hastings County incident where a society
inspector ordered a farmer to have a
veterinarian come out to inspect his dairy
cattle. The reason was that farmer's
Holsteins looked much thinner than the
beef cattle on a neighbouring farm. This
may amuse farmers since they know why
dairy cattle are thinner, but to some less
familiar, as some Humane Society
inspectors, it is no laughing matter.
When the angry veterinarian, called for
an unnecessary visit to the out-of-the-way
farm, sent his bill, the Humane Society
refused payment. The farmer had to pay.
The convention thought it only fair that
in future such bills be paid by the society
unless it could justify its request for a vet.
The breakfast session, with six
provincial ministers in attendance, was
lively, as usual, with the focus on the
recent decision by Dr. Harry Parrott,
Minister of the Environment, that South
The right to farm
"Two things stand out in my mind
about the OFA Convention - one was the
paper on "The Farmerts Right To farm".
There was a new approach to this topic so
our executive have already decided that
we would study it for the February
monthly meeting and go into it in depth.
Also, it came as a bit of a shock to find
out the first choice for an industrial waste
disposal site was Huron County! Harry
Parrott SAYS it will be in South Cayuga
but it makes me a little uneasy - the
ONLY reason it's not here is because the
government owns land in South Cayuga.
There were eight resolutions from
Huron County - one was lost, six passed
and one referred - that's pretty good.
One thing I was particularly pleased
about - all the delegates from Huron
County got up to speak at the mike."
Gerry Fortune
Huron County Federation
Cayuga be the site of the only toxic waste
processing facility in Ontario The plan
is to proceed without further hearings by
the Environmental Assessment Board.
I he meeting demanded, however, that
there be such hearings, but after a group
of environmentalist farmers met with the
minister privately to hear his reasons for
the decision, the stridency went out of the
demand.
In the course of discussions the
honorable minister put much of the
blame for lack of action on the federal
government. For instance Mr. Henderson
was holding off paying $25 a tonne for
feed assistance to Northwestern Ontario
farmers until the feds do the same.Unlike
Manitoba's government, he refused to
take the lead.
Dr. Parrott assured Grey County
delegates that he saw no reason for
cancelling an environmental study on
gravel if it is requested by Grey
residents.
For years now it has been agreed
between both senior levels of government
that the Rainy River area can be
developed, ar3d much class two land can
be made useful, but Lorne Henderson
said that the feds were to blame for the
delay. His claim was reiterated by
Natural Resources Minister Rene
Brunelle.
Mr. Henderson said that he supported
the proposed food strategy outlined in the
OFA paper, and added he is committed to
work on replacing imports wherever
possible.
In all, it was a convention that promises
more than most, if not all, previous ones.
City consumers avid listeners to rural problems
Radio Noon host tells OFA audience
A new dimension was added to the
annual meeting of the Ontario Federation
of Agriculture in 1980 information
programs for the non -delegates.
Roy Maxwell, from CBC Radio Noon
was the guest speaker at an afternoon
meeting. His message, "Media, Friend
or Foe", was very well presented and
informative. He made the audience aware
of how to approach the media with
problems.
Just grumbling at home over an
injustice doesn't benefit anyone. A well
presented complaint will get a lot of
mileage in the media. Roy stated that
consumers in the city are avid listeners to
rural problems. They are all aware of
where their food comes from.
What they are interested in is what we
go through to get it to them. Rural jargon
like MSQ, broiler quotas, dressed weight
and PH balance in soil samples all need to
be explained meticulously. They don't
work with and don't understand our
terminology.
Roy also advised that you can often get
more from opposition party members in
the way of publicity than the members in
parliament. He claims that we often
approach the wrong source with a
negative attitude for problems that arise.
The lines of communication are open
between rural and urban people, all we
have to do is learn to use them to our
advantage.
Forty people at the convention toured
the Ontario Food Terminal. Here is where
the fresh produce from Ontario is
localized and sold. It is a mini -United
Nations with many nationalities re-
presented. The haggling over prices
amused a lot of observers.
At this time of the year, there is a
limited selection of produce available
from Ontario farmers, mainly carrots,
potatoes, cabbages, apples and pears.
Each producer pays rent on a spot on a
yearly basis and is allowed to sell only
what he produces. A lot of the producers
own only two or three acres of produce
and work elsewhere during the day.
The Food Terminal's 4:30 a.m. opening
gives people a chance to sell their product
and get to work. A lot of larger producers
sell direct to major grocery chains, and
don't use these facilities. Most of the
buyers here sell to the smaller grocery
stores across the province.
At the Food Terminal's Import Section
the rent on space is more than triple the
cost of space for Ontario grown produce.
We were astounded at the selection of
produce from all over the world. Sweet
anise, a vegetable that tastes like licorice
when cooked, Jerusalem artichokes and
various Chinese types of cabbage were a
surprise to most of us.
Forty people toured Canada Packers
Inc., on St. Clair Ave. the same morning,
after the Food Terminal. This company
was well equipped to handle information
tours and the tour was all we expected it
to be.
They kill 6,000 pigs there daily, and
some of the braver souls went on the kill
floor to watch the procedure . . . The rest
of the tour involved watching the
processing of the meat from both beef and
pork. Most of us were thankful we did not
have to work on an assembly line doing
the same thing constantly and the guides
admitted that there was a large turnover
of line employees.
When the carcasses were hanging
there, it was easy to pick out the ones
with high back fat. They package three
kinds of side bacon, from premium to
economy, depending on the fat content.
They also package back bacon. The
machines are efficient and costly. They
also make a variety of cold cuts and
package them.
Most of the people on the tour were
meat producers and were interested to
see what happened to their animal before
it hit the supermarket.
Canada Packers is geared for volume,
and for a plant that size, was surprisingly
clean. The people who viewed this
aspect of seeing your product to market
were very impressed.
THE RURAL VOICE/JANUARY 1981 PG. 9