The Rural Voice, 1981-06, Page 7world when he attended the organization
of Economic Co-operation and Develop-
ment conference of the United Nations in
France, last year.
There are different opinons on what a
family farm is. Pullen finds it is basically
a farm where a father with a son or/and a
son-in-law runs the business.
Iowa Farm Bureau president, Dean
Kleckner, defines it as one where the
family supplies the labour.
Peter Hannam, past president of OFA,
says his company, where he and two
neighbours work together co-operatively,
is also a family farm, and a model for the
future.
Still others disagree and find such
definitions too narrow. They consider any
farm owned and operated by a family,
regardless of size and number of
employees, a family farm.
Bruce Whitestone, the economist.
thinks Canadian agriculture, and its
family farms, so important that he goes
against the academic economists of the
B.C. Fraser Institute and the U. of
Guelph, who have convinced the Cana-
dian Association of Consumers that
border tariffs are bad.
Whitestone points to the policies of the
European Community, which he calls
"sensible" because they let farmers
operate behind protective tariffs.
Merle Gunby, past president of the
Huron Feeding
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Huron Federation of Agriculture. says:
"Our family farm industry is one industry
that has proven its ability over the years
to produce abundantly."
Some farmers find there is too much
abundance and would limit production to
increase prices. Whitestone is critical of
such programs, " . . . which help the
corporate and large scale operator more
than the family farm."
He reasons that corporations stay away
from uncertain returns. They want
assurance they can pay their share-
holders a dividend.
Whitestone also criticizes the property
tax policies of the Ontario government,
because they put the farm on the same
basis as other property, which policy he
calls "counter productive", as it ignores
the cash bind of most farmers.
Elbert van Donkersgoed, spokesman
for the Christian Farmers Federation of
Ontario, says that family ownership is
crucial for foodland, because if many
people are involved in the control of
agriculture, the result will be a free and
decentralized society.
A study for the Ontario government by
former deputy ag minister Gordon
Bennett concluded that in Ontario the
family farm is still dominant.
He defined the family farm much like
previously quoted individuals, as having
ownership of the land, significant labour
and control of management all in family
hands.
This raises the question of those
farmers who depend for their financing
on the friendly neighbourhood feedmill.
While`ihis has helped many a young
'farmer get established when banks were
unwilling to take the risk, it should not be
forgotten that the feedmills don't act
from charity. They loan money or
supplies on the condition the farmer buys,
his feed from them. This leaves the
farmer very dependent.
There are considerable pressures on
the family farm. Bennett found high
production costs by far the greatest,
followed by high land costs and low
prices.
Whitestone writes: "It becomes in-
creasingly clear that we are ignoring our
agricultural sector at great cost."
He advocates income supports for
farmers where needed rather than re-
stricting production, and reinforcing
those parts of agriculture where Canada
has natural disadvantages.
Ameaningful federal -provincial
stabilization program would go a long
way to give that support.
Whitestone concludes with: "It is
about time that we realize how dependent
we are on our farmers, both to pay for
imports and to bring inflation under
control." Amen.
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THE RURAL VOICE/JUNE 1981 PG 5