The Rural Voice, 1990-06, Page 8men
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4THE RURAL VOICE
CYNICISM:
A BUMPER CROP
Keith Roulston, a newspaper publisher
and playwright who lives near Blyth,
is the originator and past publisher of
The Rural Voice.
Dan Needles, the playwright who
invented Walt Wingfield (the busi-
nessman turned farmer whose adven-
tures in a trilogy of plays have had
audiences across Canada in stitches in
the past few years), says he likes writ-
ing about farmers because they have a
healthy cynicism about the world.
Mr. Needles, a former insurance
executive who now tends sheep on a
farm near Collingwood when he's not
turning out hit plays, says that cynic-
ism makes farmers excellent subjects
for his kind of theatre.
Lord knows farmers have a right
to be cynical. For one thing, it could
have been a farmer who invented
Murphy's law — anything that can go
wrong will go wrong. After all, if a
farmer is looking at a bumper crop,
experience tells him one of two things
can happen: the weather will turn bad
and the crop will be ruined, or the
bottom will drop out of the market.
Cynicism helps farmers get
through the tough times, just as their
optimism perennially persuades them
that even if things were rotten last
year, this year is bound to be better.
That cynicism can also be a safety
measure. The cynics will weigh with
their own judgement what experts in
the field of economics, politics, and
banking tell them, and will take it
with a large grain of salt.
In fact, maybe when people talk
about survival of the fittest in agri-
culture, they mean that those who sur-
vive long enough will become cynical
enough to remain on the farm.
Take a look at the lessons farmers
have had in cynicism. Remember the
mailings they got from banks telling
them to come in and borrow? Then
the same banks blamed farmers for
borrowing too much. How about the
government grants to encourage
farmers to clear out fencerows and
make fields bigger? Today farmers
hear seminar speakers say they should
plant windbreaks because crops do
better next to a row of trees — not to
mention the prevention of erosion.
And of course there are politicians.
What could make a farmer more cyn-
ical than listening to them? Have you
ever heard a politician who didn't
plead eternal fidelity to the concept of
the family farm? Yet in the past four
decades, how many government pol-
icies have really protected it?
So farmers are understandably
cynical when they listen to politicians
and civil servants (scary John Crow
comes to mind) who say what they're
doing is in the best interests of farm-
ers. That claim is something to
remember when you hold the auction
because you can't carry the high inter-
est rates. It's something to remember
when you worry if your quota is going
to be worthless because of changes in
trade regulations. It's something to
remember as you take an off -farm job.
Yes, for farmers there is one crop
that always seems to grow in bumper
proportions: cynicism.
•••
Fifteen years ago this month, this
magazine was born. It was a pretty
scrawny baby and there were times
when its survival was in doubt.
Over the years, much has changed.
The magazine is now one of the most re-
spected voices for the farming community
in Canada. A couple of years back when I
was interviewed by Country Canada be-
cause of a play I had co -written about the
farm situation, the crew from Winnipeg
already knew me because my face
appeared monthly in The Rural Voice.
The magazine really started to take off
when Sheila Gunby and Bev Brown took
over and Merle and Lise Gunby and others
came on board. Now Jim Fitzgerald and
his people will carry The Rural Voice
through the next stage of its life.
It's easy to start a magazine. It's much
more difficult to make it into something as
successful as The Rural Voice is today.
Congratulations to all who have made
it come true.0