The Rural Voice, 2001-03, Page 16SCHMIDT'S
FARM DRAINAGE
1990 LTD.
A
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519-338-3484
1-877-798-8821
"We install
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R.R. #3, Mildmay, Ontario
PH. (519) 367-2266
12 THE RURAL VOICE
Mabel
's Grill
"If you're a farmer these days you
can't win for losing," said Dave
Winston the other morning.
"Did you see on TV the farmers
were taking their big tractors and
combines into Ottawa to protest low
prices and this guy in the street
watching them
sees these big
machines and
figures farm-
ers must have
a lot of money
if they can
afford things
like that."
"What can
you expect
about the
intelligence
level in
Ottawa?" said
George
McKenzie.
"You're damned if you do and
damned if you don't" said Cliff
Murray. "If you let people think you
still farm like Old MacDonald, they
wonder why you need so much
money. If you show them why it's so
expensive to 'farm, they figure you're
making too much money already."
"If they bother to think at all,"
said Dave. "I don't see anybody
paying much attention to the
problems we've got these days."
"Probably they're too busy
looking at the losses in their Nortel
stock to worry about the drop in corn
and soybean prices," said George.
"Now they can know what it feels
like," said Dave. "Imagine if they
had to worry about the weather
driving their stock prices down."
"The thing that's frustrating," said
Cliff, "is that people have this image
of the old-fashioned farm so they
think we're not very efficient and
we're to blame for our own mess.
But if you show them a modern
chicken barn or pig barn or even a
dairy barn, they get all upset because
they don't like the idea of us having
so many animals."
"You ever notice," said Dave,
"that people in the city who live
cheek -by -jowl with their neighbours
are always so worried about the poor
farm animals who don't have enough
space?"
The world's
problems are
solved daily
'round the table
at MabeI's
"And the people in the country
who say they couldn't stand to live in
the crowded cities, think there's
nothing wrong with stuffing a bunch
of chickens or pigs in some little
space," said Wayne Bruce from up at
the shoe store.
"See what I mean'T" said Cliff.
How can you win?"
"You grow something like
flowers," said George. "Nobody
cares if you're efficient when you
grow a non-essentialrlike that."
"What do you mean, non-
essential," said Dave. "My wife
thought they were pretty essential
when I forgot to get her some for
Valentine's Day."
"At least you saved the money,"
said Cliff. "Whew, did you see those
prices! I mean people complain about
the price of meat, then they fork out
all that money for roses that wilt in a
few days. It's nuts!"
"And they fly some of those
flowers halfway around the world
and bring them in at prices that beat
our local prices," said Dave.
"Hey, they've been doing that for
years with Iamb," said Cliff. "They
can fly in lamb from New Zealand as
cheap as we can raise it here.
Something's nuts."
"The price of fuel's been too
low," said Wayne. "It's been killing
us on the main streets of these towns
too — people hopping in their cars
and driving miles to shop in big
stores in the cities or other towns.
Our towns were here to serve people
when they couldn't afford to go
anywhere else and now this cheap
transportation is killing us."
"Well, you can't stop progress."
said George.
"How come whenever somebody
says 'you can't stop progress' they
probably wouldn't even if they
could?", said Wayne. "I mean I
haven't seen you in my store in
years, George."
"I'm afraid your prices just aren't
competitive," said George. "With
commodity prices the way they are a
farmer's gotta shave costs wherever
he can."
"Oh George," called out Mabel,
"your wife phoned to remind you to
pick up the airline tickets for your
Florida trip."0