The Rural Voice, 2005-07, Page 3About this issue
Building infrastructure
If there's one thing the BSE crisis has taught Ontario
farmers it is that without infrastructure, you're not going to
get a good return for the products you produce on the farm.
Aside from the obvious problem of the closure of our
borders to exports of beef, sheep and other ruminant
animals, the lack of processing capacity here at home has
left us unable to even supply our own markets.
There hasn't been much infrastructure to use the wool
from Ontario sheep for decades. Even as sheep numbers
exploded, the bulk of the market was for meat. Wool was a
side product that often didn't return the cost of shearing. A
Bruce County family has taken a tiny first step in creating a
market for local wool by opening a small woolen mill. In
this, our annual issue focusing on the sheep industry, we
take a look at the Lindenhof Wool Mill.
In modern industrial agriculture the focus is generally
on a few, highly productive breeds, even a few bloodlines
within that breed that offer the highest production. We still
need the genetic diversity of other breeds, but who will
keep those breeds from becoming extinct? Luckily there
are a few rebels like Nancy Hislop and Roy Langford, who
raise rare Navajo-Churro sheep on their Huron County
farm.
Like rare breeds, the value of those wet areas of your
farm, the ones you can't grow corn or soybeans or even
pasture on, are often overlooked. But though it may be
unproductive farmland, these wetlands have huge value in
the larger scheme of things. Anne Judd takes a look at the
gifts these areas bestow.
China, with its rapidly changing economy, is perhaps
the most exciting country in the world right now. Duncan
McCallum of Hanover recently visited China as part of a
group tour. He tells his impressions in an article this
month.
Bonnie Gropp's recipe collection this month puts the
fruits of the summer to good use in sorbets, dumplings,
sauces and more.
Patti Robertson celebrates the imminent arrival of her
first grandchild with a description of decorating the nursery
in her decorating column.0
Update
Good Food Box revived
Huron County Council recently approved $18,000 in
funding for the Huron County Health Unit to resurrect the
county's Good Food Box program (first covered in The
Rural Voice in the November issue, 2001).
HCHU executive director Penny Nelligan said the
funding for the program will be on an annual basis and the
county and the province will have to be updated yearly on
the progress and the success of the program. She said the
program is funded 50-50 by the county and the province.
According to Nelligan, they are hoping to have a
program co-ordinator on board as soon as possible.
Under Huron's Good Food Box program, the co-
ordinator works with local farmers and supermarkets to
provide a box of locally grown and nutritious food.
The program now must be revamped, and the co-
ordinator along with committee members will be
discussing ways of improving the program.
Nelligan said the Good Food Box program is available to
everyone throughout the county. While it is available for
anyone in the county, the approximately $14 price tag
gives people at the poverty line or below, the chance to
have a nutritious meal.
"The more people who take advantage of the program,
the better we are able to keep the food box affordable,"
said Nelligan.0
Rural Voice
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Editor & Publisher: Keith Roulston
Editorial advisory committee:
Bev Hill, farmer, Huron Cry;
Diane O'Shea, farmer, Middlesex Cty.;
Gerald Poechman, farmer, Bruce Cty.
Contributing writers:
Bonnie Gropp, Carol Riemer, Ralph
Pearce, Bob Reid, Mervyn Erb, Sandra
Orr, Janice Becker, Larry Drew
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