The Rural Voice, 2005-05, Page 58BRUCE
Email: bruce@ofa.on.ca 519-364-3050 or 1-800-275-9551
website: www.ofa.on.calbruce
446 10th St., Hanover, Ontario N4N 1P9
County Federation of Agriculture NEWSLETTER 'The RuralinBruce Voice is my by thde
to OFA
Members in County by the BCFA
Civilizations fail when they mess up food production
At the November Annual OFA meeting
in Toronto, guest speaker Dr. Alex
Jadad, a visionary in the area of food,
health. and consumers' needs,
mentioned to the audience a book
called A Short History of Progress by
author Ronald Wright (ISBN -088784-
706-4). Dr. Jadad told the group that
everyone should read this book, and if
you cannot read, then get someone to
read it to you.
The importance of agriculture in
past civilizations is made evident, and a
dire warning to the world's present
leaders as to the frightful speed and
direction our civilization is going, is
quite disturbing. He looks at the rise
and fall of four civilizations, which
collapsed mainly because of the abuse
of nature (agriculture).
The collapse of the first civilization
(the Sumerian civilization located in
Southern Iraq) affected only half a
million•people. This collapse was
caused by long-term irrigation projects
that made the cropland worthless due to
the salt buildup.
When Rome fell, it affected tens of
millions of people, and part of the
collapse was caused by excessive
erosion of agricultural lands.
When the Mayan civilization
collapsed, the most convincing
explanation was overpopulation, and
agrarian failure. Cities began as small
villages on good bottomland beside
rivers, a rational and harmless
settlement pattern at first. But as
growth continued, they paved over
more of its best land, and forced the
farmers onto hilly fragile soils whose
anchoring timber had been cleared, and
eventually caused erosion, mudslides,
and basic agrarian failure. Today we
see millions of excellent class "one"
farmland acres around the world being
paved over to make room for exploding
populations.
The only civilizations that survived
are the ones that looked after their
farmland stewardship, and that was
China, and Egypt. In Egypt's case, they
knew better than to build on the fertile
areas around the Nile River, and it paid
off. In China's case, they were blessed
BRUCE COUNTY FEDERATION OF AGRICULTURE
DIRECTORS' MEETING
MONDAY, MAY 30 — 8:00 P.M.
Bruce County Administrative Building,
30 Park Street, Walkerton
Members are welcome to attend
54 THE RURAL VOICE
with hundreds of feet of loess topsoil in
much of their country, and therefore
have a very forgiving land.
In the magnitude of its
consequences, the author states that no
other invention rivals farming (except
the invention of nuclear weapons in the
1940s). The Farming Revolution
produced an entirely new mode of
subsistence. which remains the basis of
the world economy to this day. Our
problem now is with the exponential
increase of the human population. and
the wasting of our agricultural lands by
paving them over. How long have we
got? How song have we got until this
fragile balance of feeding more and
more people with fewer and fewer
acres goes out of balance?
At Rome's height. there were about
200 million people in the world. By the
1500s there were about 400 million. By
1825, the start of the Coal Age. there
were about one billion people. Two
billion by 1925. the start of the Oil
Age. Six billion by the year 2000. Even
more startling than population growth.
is the acceleration of growth. Adding
200 million after Rome. took thirteen
centuries. Adding the last 200 million.
took only three years.
Based on this information, maybe
our political leaders should rethink
agriculture's role in the world, and give
it and its farmers the stature so needed
to prevent the tragic failures that have
been so well documented in these past
civilizations.0
— Submitted by Jim Cooke,
Brant Township Director
TOMMY COOPER AWARD
We wish to extend our congratulations to
Dr. Kenneth Bridge from the Kincardine
area who was the recipient of the 2004
Tommy Cooper Award on April 15. Ken was
nominated by the Ripley Agricultural
Society.
Ken teaches livestock medicine
education courses to farmers in several
commodity sectors. He initiated the Ontario
Premium Added Calf (OPAC) project which
is the forerunner of today's pre -vaccinated
and pre -conditioned calf sales. Currently he
is working on raising funds and awareness
concerning a third OPAC project to assist in
furthering the pre -vaccinating and
preconditioning used by the beef industry.
Ken understands the importance of food
safety and works to promote good practices
on both the livestock growing and crop
growing aspects of agriculture.
He has been involved in varying
leadership roles in the Ripley Veterinary 4-
H club for 20 years. Ken is a volunteer on
the Huron -Kinloss Emergency Management
Committee. 0
Co41Sra tukstiovts!
Elaine Lang was presented with the Bruce County Federation of Agriculture "Award of Merit"
on April 15, in recognition of her dedication to bring Agri -Food education and awareness to •
Bruce County students.
Elaine is a founding member of the Roots of Bruce, Agriculture In The Classroom program
and has served as teacher liaison, co-chair, and chair of Roots of Bruce.
She was instrumental in raising funds to have 31 "Nutrition Kits" placed in Bruce County
elementary schools. The Kits are comprised of five components including website produced
teacher lesson plans and activities that complement the Ontario curriculum, a resource kit, and
a food growers video about local farm operations.0
ROOTS Of BRUCE HOSTS 813 STUDEI1TS
Another year is over for the Roots of Bruce. Nineteen schools participated sending 813
students to visit the farm exhibits located in the three buildings of the Walkerton Agriculture
Society on April 7 and 8. There, the students saw a variety of foods produced in Bruce County.
This year, the Ontario Pork Producers sent their "Pig Mobile" to the event, which allowed
the students to see live pigs who were kept in a climate controlled environment. Another visitor
this year was Food Land Ontario's, "Aggie."
The teachers deserve high praise for their work in co-ordinating their students at this year's
Roots of Bruce. All students were very involved in their learning at the commodity stations.
Thank you teachers and parent volunteers!
A new group of volunteers offered to help the Roots of Bruce. The Rotarians of Walkerton
were present to assist in co-ordinating the movement of the students from station to station. We
are grateful for their assistance, as well as the support from the Bruce County Women's
Institutes, the food commodity groups present at this year's event and some students from the
Walkerton District High School and Sacred Heart High School.
Finally, a big thank you to the Roots of Bruce Executive, which helped in the co-ordination
of this event. The dedication of the executive and volunteers ensures that this educational
event for students continues each year.
Also thank you to the Bruce County Federation of Agriculture for providing insurance
coverage for the event.0 — Submitted by Louise Ahrens, Chairperson, Roots of Bruce