The Rural Voice, 2000-12, Page 43News
rates at 23 per cent making it hard to
borrow money to upgrade their
farms.
Austria, however, which escaped
communism, benefited from western
technology and it's connection to
western Europe. Here, however,
farmers have problems with a small
land -base that puts farmers in close
proximity with urbanites. In some
cases farmers actually live in the city.
Jayne Dietrich of Mildmay was
acclaimed as the new president of
the Federation, succeeding Murray
Clark of Kincardine. In his farewell
speech, Clark recalled how he first
got involved in the Federation over
the issue of the sale of surplus farm
buildings by Canadian Agra which
he felt would erode the rural tax base.
Clark praised those attending the
meeting who had been involved in
the Federation through the highs and
lows of farming. Too often, he said,
people are willing to quit an
organization as soon as they disagree
with something the group does. "Is
this a result of our decreasing
dependence on out neighbours or
commodity groups?" he wondered.
Clark called on farm groups to
work together to share resources such
as staff and a communications
specialist. •
He praised the people of
Walkerton for not following the lead
of the national media to turn on their
rural neighbours in seeking blame for
the deaths in the town's E. coli
tragedy and asked for a minute's
silence in remembrance of those who
died.
Dietrich, in accepting her new
office, said farmers will continue to
face significant changes. "We've got
our work cut out for us to feed an
extra 80 million people a year," she
said.
The volunteer of the year award
was presented to Allan Smith for his
work on behalf of farmers fighting
for a better deal for drought
assistance. Smith said many farmers
didn't get a payout under the forage
insurance program during two years
of drought when there should have
been, but some did this year when
there was too much rain and they
shouldn't have.0
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