The Rural Voice, 1990-05, Page 26AGRICULTURAL
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22 THE RURAL VOICE
Guest Column
RAMSAY TO
THE RESCUE
Bruce Whitmore, not known for his
lack of irony, farms near Walton in
Huron County.
It used to be that we just worried
about plain old pollution. Oh yes,
government and industry paid lip
service to our concerns about acid rain
and auto emissions, but precious little
improvement was made.
Now we're into environmental
concerns in a big way. Why we've
got the greenhouse effect, the hole in
the ozone layer, and cows walking
into the river for a drink of water and
doing heaven only knows what else in
the water. Then there are those awful
nitrates and chemicals leaching from
crop land into the water table.
But lo, help is at hand. Ontario
Minister of Agriculture David Ramsay
may have stumbled unwittingly onto
a solution to our environmental mess.
Reliable sources inform me that
Ramsay wants small industry to locate
in rural areas to provide off -farm jobs
for farmers.
Now that's a noble sentiment in
itself. Just imagine: an agriculture
minister seeing to it that every farmer
has a second income at the industrial
wage level so he can go on producing
cheap food in his after hours (I do
concede that everybody does need
recreation!).
But enough of this gloom and
sarcasm. Obviously Ramsay realizes
that once farmers earn an industrial
wage from their off -farm job they will
be able to make their farm mortgage
payments. Moreover, you'll be done
work at 4 o'clock in the afternoon.
You won't even have to farm to pay
the mortgage.
Just think, it will be just like living
in town. Except urban lots are so
expensive and so small. Farmers will
have it made in the shade, sitting on
their lovely big lots — anywhere from
five to several hundred acres.
We could seed out the farm, give
the land a well-deserved rest from
being mined, stop spreading all that
nasty fertilizer and spray, stop spew-
ing diesel fumes into the ozone, and
even let the earthworms go back to
building homes in our soil.
Imagine, if you will, paycheque
in hand, sitting on the deck surveying
your fields of clover and contem-
plating the sunset, all the while know-
ing that you are finally serving your
fellow man by earning a proper living
without once having to complain
about the price of corn or hogs.
(I know it's hard not to think
about a crop, but if you still had the
need to feel like a proper farmer, then
you could buy a couple of paper op-
tions on corn and soys just in case
Chicago noticed that we didn't plant
a crop.)
This may sound like an impossible
Utopia. But think positively. David
Ramsay's real interest and area of
strength is clearly the environment.
But government does not have a long
track record of putting people in the
positions where they can do the most
good. So there's no doubt about it:
Ramsay will not be moved to
Minister of the Environment.
Instead, as your agriculture
minister, representing your interests,
he will bring industry to the country
to give farmers a second income.
Therefore, hand in hand, Ramsay
and we, the farmers, will save the
ozone layer. May God bless our
united endeavours.0
THE WRITE STUFF?
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agricultural orientation who can
write features or cover news
stories, or send in reports of local
meetings or community activities.
Write: The Rural Voice
l0A The Square, Box 37
Goderich, Ontario N7A 3Y5