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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Rural Voice, 2004-07, Page 58BRUCE Email: bruce@ofa.on.ca website: www.ofa.on.ca/bruce 446 10th St., Hanover, Ontario N4N 1P9 519-364-3050 or 1-800-275-9551 • The Rural Voice is provided to OFA Members in Bruce County by the BCFA County Federation of Agriculture NEWSLETTER The world around uS seems to be getting bigger. Amalgamations. consolidations. centralizations abound in our schools. governments. equipment dealers. buyers. processors. retailers. Yet, somehow it seems many farm families resist this trend toward modernization and economies of scale. Well, my theory is. we get what we pay for. Most of us shop at big box stores and shop in the city for "bargains" and eat at fast food outlets. Are we the cause of the trend? Every dollar spent on fast food, imported goods, out -of -season fruit and vegetables or cheap mass-produced commodities from bread to chicken and pork - is a dollar pulled out of the pocket of a neighbouring family farm. This is because of the small portion of retail that goes to the farm gate. We have the ability to exercise change - in a positive direction. If you believe the global market has the answer to many decades of sliding CONTACTS Animal Care Helpline (Ontario Farm Animal Council) 1-905-821-3880 Queen's Bush Rural Ministry (collect calls accepted) 1-519-369-6774 The Farm Line 1-888-451-2903 Distress Line of Grey Bruce (2:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. - daily) 1-888-371-8485 Crisis Team (24 hours per day) 1-888-525-0552 Kids Help Phone (24 hours per day up to age 21) 1-800-668-6868 Parent Help Line 1-888-603-9100 54 THE RURAL VOICE Blame the big guys margins in agriculture, then keep with the status quo. It'll get you where it's going, all soon enough. But somehow I don't believe all the export rhetoric. Several hundred thousand peasants in Mexico displaced by "cheaper". tasteless American corn. have another perspective. At the WTO, it seems a large number of small countries banded together to call the G7 into a different kind of global economy. Small groups of Central American peasants organized into selling co-ops and contract with "fair traders" in the western world for sustainable prices - prices that allow shoes and education for kids and community development projects for their parents. I think maybe Canadian beef farmers have learned a lot about the global marketplace. Exports can be vulnerable to many kinds of politics. the lowest denominator being the sensitivity of the buyers. These feelings dictate their willingness to purchase. Maybe the global market is a better place to help with excesses not needed domestically. We producers need to decide who will control our destiny. We too, can create a Netter agriculture community. We each need to do what we can, where and when it is possible. We can buy and sell with a sense of vision - or we can keep doing what we do now - and blame the big guys.0 - Submitted by Gerry Poechman Brant Township Director BRUCE COUNTY FEDERATION OF AGRICULTURE THERE WILL BE NO BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING IN JULY Next meeting will be Monday, August 23, 2004 BRUCE COUNTY FEDERATION OF AGRICULTURE - Who We are and What We Do - Bruce County Federation of Agriculture Activities: For over 45 years BCFA has maintained a full-time main street office in Hanover jointly with the Grey County Federation together with the OFA The county boards share employment of the Secretary -Treasurer, while office operating costs and equipment are a three-way split with OFA, which provides the Member Service Rep OFA members and the public call the office for information and service. The Grey- Bruce offices the busiest county/field office in the OFA The Board provides representation and input on the following • Grey -Bruce BSE Task Force • Forest Stewardship Network • Farm Safety Association • Saugeen Conservation Low Water Response Team • Grey -Bruce Humane Society • Grey -Bruce Trails Network Jointly with OFA and Grey Federation, we organized a bus trip for farmers to participate in a rally on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. The demonstration was to show support for the petition, known as the Cattle Drive, to support farmers affected by the financial crisis caused by closing of the borders due to BSE. — more to come in future issues —