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8 THE RURAL VOICE
HEADLINES YESTERDAY
AND TOMORROW
Gord Wainman has been an urban -
based agriculture reporter for 14 years.
The front-page headline yells:
"New Paper Paints Grim Farm
Future." And the first paragraph tells
all:
"The farm depression of the
1980s will accelerate into the 1990s
at such a pace the federal Farm Credit
Corporation won't even be able to
handle its own foreclosure load, warns
an internal government paper."
It could be today's headline, but it
isn't. The date was October 7, 1987
— two and a half years ago — and I
researched and wrote the story for a
local city rag.
I stumbled across the yellowing
paper while searching my files for
proof that I can report and write.
You see, I'm looking for a real, full-
time job. Freelance writing today has
about as much security as farming.
I digress, so back to the all too
familiar bad -news story of 1987:
Unfortunately, the three-year-old
prediction that the farm depression of
the 1980s would stretch into the 1990s
has proved to be correct.
The internal government paper
also warned that in the subsequent five
years, with its limited administrative
resources, the Farm Credit Corpor-
ation would have trouble handling
what was anticipated to be double its
capacity of foreclosures. And fore-
closure problems have proven to be
a problem for the FCC.
The paper suggested that a solu-
tion might be to provide a system to
diminish individual debt loads by
seeking outside capital and involving
farmers in profit and stock option
plans. This suggestion has not, to
my knowledge, been pursued.
Last July, 22 months following
that story, the FCC reported a 10 -fold
escalation in the number of insolvent
farms seized by the corporation in the
previous five years.
And when you did your own
calculations with figures provided in
last year's annual FCC report, you
found that in the previous year the
FCC was in possession of 13 more
properties than it had made loans.
And finally, it showed that
approved loans were four times fewer
in number than the number approved
five years earlier.
The release of that gloomy FCC
report last year — due shortly after
the March 31 fiscal year end — was
dragged out to the last night of the last
working day of Parliament in late
June.
Last year's eleventh -hour release
allowed no time for debate in the
House of Commons. Very conven-
ient, wouldn't you say?
So, you ask, where is this year's
FCC annual report? It's nowhere to
be found. March 31, 1990 is long
gone.
My guess is, folks, that you won't
be seeing this year's report again until
late June ... just prior to or after the
June 23 deadline on the signing of the
Meech Lake accord — another
Conservative -created fiasco.
If it's a gloomy FCC report, and
who has any doubts, the Meech Lake
muckup will obliterate any meaningful
debate on the rapidly declining farm
economy and the loan -sharking FCC.
I think I'll just stop there. You can
see how troubled I can get just looking
through my old newspaper clippings.
And besides, sending that de-
pressing clipping from October 1987
along with my resume to a prospective
employer — a farm organization —
didn't get me the real job I wanted.0
THE WRITE STUFF?
Wanted: Freelance writers with
an agricultural orientation who
can write features or cover news
stories. Write: The Rural Voice
Box 37, 10A The Square
Goderich, Ontario N7A 3Y5