The Rural Voice, 1991-01, Page 3general manager: Jim Fitzgerald
editorial advisory committee:
Bev Hill, farmer, Huron County
John Heard, soils and crops extension
and research, northwestern Ontario
Neil McCutcheon, farmer, Grey County
Diane O'Shea, farmer, Middlesex Cty.
George Penfold, associate professor,
University of Guelph
Gerald Poechman, farmer, Bruce Cty.
Bob Stephen, farmer, Perth County
contributing writers:
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Peter Baltensperger, Darene Yavorsky,
Sandra Orr
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Merle Gunby
production co-ordinator:
Tracey Rising
advertising & editorial production:
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Anne Harrison
Brenda Baltensperger
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BEHIND THE SCENES
by Jim Fitzgerald
General Manager
"You can't see the forest for the
trees" has become a tired old cliche
that certainly applies to those of us
who follow the agricultural scene on a
day-to-day basis. Many times we do
indeed get so involved in our every
day struggles to do our jobs, feed the
family, or break even in our business,
that we fail (or perhaps don't want) to
look at the "big picture" as they say.
During my four-year tenure in the
office of the Ontario Minister of Agri-
culture and Food in Queen's Park,
advanced planning was a regular part
of the ministry's agenda (there is a
great difference between minister and
ministry: the first is elected and exists
at the whim of leader or elector, while
the latter is there to stay, through thick
and thin). Planning at the government
level involves a wide -range of fields,
from predicting how the economy will
look in the next quarter or next year,
to what consumers are going to eat,
and how changes in technology will
affect farming and food processing, to
where the ministry itself is headed in
the next one, three and even 10 years.
Each year, a bevy of experts from
across the industry assembles in a
conference to look into the crystal
ball. We even tried to practise plan-
ning in the hectic environment of the
minister's office, but that can be both
frustrating and perhaps futile when
you're not sure whether you'll even be
there next week, let alone next year.
Like politicians, those involved in
food production today are operating
on a day-to-day, hand-to-mouth
existence more so than any time in
recent history. As of this writing, the
GATT talks appear to be stumbling
toward failure. Canadian farmers, like
many around the world, are holding
their breath, unsure of what the
outcome will be. Here in Canada,
even our basic fundamental beliefs in
supply management marketing
systems, the bed -rock of agriculture
for two decades, are being attacked
from within and without the country
(most unfairly, I believe) for failing to
adjust to the "new order" of being
competitive with subsidized, or lower-
cost nations.
So as we start a new year, a time
when we all look ahead, it seems that
1991, more than any other year in
recent memory, will be hard to predict
— a very cloudy crystal ball, if you
will. In conducting a number of
interviews for a cover story on the
future of agriculture in Canada, and in
particular midwestern Ontario, there
appears to be a wide diversity of opin-
ion, ranging from doom and gloom to
outright optimism. On the one hand,
many farmers are fed up with poor
returns, and an unsympathetic public
and are prepared to leave the industry.
On the other hand, some say farming
has been through its tough times and is
now slim, trim and ready to take on
new challenges, say the optimists, so
you might as well accept it and change
too. Farming has never stood still
over the past say the optimists. It's
going to change, it's just that the rate
of change may speed up. We might as
well adjust to it, and drive on.
"Fools rush in, where wise men
fear to tread," so if the experts this
year are wary of prognostications, far
be it for The Rural Voice to climb out
on a limb and make definitive predic-
tions on where the industry is headed.
However, food production will remain
paramount in a world where the
population increases by three new
mouths a second, and arable land is
shrinking at an alarming rate. We may
not be able to afford to feed all these
new people, but we should be capable
of continuing to feed ourselves and
not become too dependent on unse-
cure, and maybe unsafe imports.