The Rural Voice, 2003-01, Page 49PERTH 1!4k
Jim Van Nes, President
519-393-6712
County Pork Producers NEWSLETTER ount Ruralorkrodu is sbproyidedt°Pert,,
County Pork Producers by the PCPPA
Will our lawmakers make informed decisions?
Any opinions expressed herein may
not necessarily reflect the views of
the Perth County Pork Producers'
Association.
Recently, the people of Florida
voted in a plebiscite to ban the use of
dry sow stalls in that state. One has to
wonder if this was an informed
decision. Did the people of Florida
really know what they were voting
for or against?
Florida is reported to have eight
hog producers. One need not wonder
at the motives of the animal welfare
lobby in targeting a state with
few hogs. Could it be that they could
have an easy win simply because
the voter would be naive about the
issue of stalls and therefore easily
swayed? Did they make an informed
decision?
At our farm we, house about half
of our sows in stalls and half in a
converted finishing barn. My
experience is that when sows are
moved they are quite willing and
prompt to enter a dry sow stall. This
is not the experience when moving
them into a pen to share with three
other sows. They are . quite
apprehensive about entering that pen.
It seems that they aren't keen to enter
into the fighting and aggression that
occurs in establishing and
maintaining a pecking order. There
must be a constant stress of
maintaining their standing. This was
quite likely the very situation that the
dry sow stall was invented to prevent.
A less -stressed sow is likely to be
happier and more productive. Some
of the newer facilities may be
successful in managing group -housed
sows but this won't be a realistic
option for much of existing
production.
What will the decision in Florida
have done to the sows of that state?
In all likelihood most will be forced
into a group housing system where
aggression will be a part of a sow's
life. I wonder if the sows themselves
would have opted for this. Are they
likely to be better off? Did the animal
welfare lobby really make life better
for these sows?
The main point I'm trying to make
is uninformed decisions may not give
the desired result. For me it would be
the equivalent of me, or us as hog
farmers, being asked to decide what
temperature the water should be kept
at on a fish farm. I have no idea but
my participation in a decision on this
could make life miserable for the fish
and fish farmer.
Our democratic system is based on
the representation -by -population
concept. This is or has always been
seen as the fairest system of
democracy. It works well when
dealing with broad-based issues and
issues reasonably well understood by
all. It does however, have the
potential to go wrong or be unfair
when the majority tries to impose its
will on a minority.
As a farmer in Ontario 1 am very
thankful that the prairie provinces are
part of Canada. I think agriculture
would be a totally forgotten industry
without them. In the west the farming
population is still a significant part of
the voting base and thus the higher
level politicians, quite often the
western premiers themselves, bring
the farmers' plight national attention.
The politicians there still need the
farmer's vote. A lot of our federal
farm policies seem to be land-based
and come as a result of western
lobbying. While a lot of these
policies may not be perfect for us,
they are better than not having them.
I for one think we may not have
many agriculture programs at all if
the western provinces were not part
of Canada.
This brings me to this point. Is
rep -by -pop really the fairest way of
being represented? I don't know the
answer but think of it every time
riding boundaries change. Will there
be too much of an urban influence on
our rural riding this time around?
Should the boundaries segregate rural
and urban voters to allow for more
opinions in government?
Will policies and decisions in
regard to agriculture be informed?
Generally to date I think we have
been reasonably well represented by
our politicians. They will continue to
represent us well as long as they are
thoughtful and informed when
making decisions and not necessarily
doing the "popular" 'thing. They need
to listen to the people affected by
their policies.0
— Submitted by Joe Kolkntan
PERTH COUNTY PORK PRODUCERS'
PORK PRODUCTS
• Smoked Pork Chops • Fresh Pork Chops
• Stuffed Loin Chops • Smoked Sausage
• Smoked Cheddar Sausage
• Bacon Burgers • Teriyaki Pork Steaks
• Vittorio's BBQ Sauce
AVAILABLE FROM:
Steve Hulshof (Kinkora) 348-8167
Martin van Bakel (Dublin) 345-2666
Walter Bosch (Monkton) 356-9000
Ted Keller (Mitchell) 348-9836
JANUARY 2003 45