The Rural Voice, 1991-05, Page 12treleaven
HOG — BROILER — LAYER
TURKEY — BEEF — DAIRY
VEAL — FISH — PET FOODS
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8 THE RURAL VOICE
CONVERSIONS ALONG THE
ROAD TO COMPROMISE
Adrian Vos, from Huron County, has
contributed to The Rural Voice since
its inception in 1975.
In the year 33 A.D. or thereabouts,
on his way to Damascus, Saul was
struck by a heavenly light and conver-
ted from a persecutor of Christians to
an apostle preaching Christianity.
Not many conversions happen that
suddenly, but they do happen. One
thinks of the Hippies, the flower chil-
dren of the 60s, who became the Yup-
pies, the business elite of the 80s.
A case in point is Patrick Moore.
This former prominent Greenpeace ac-
tivist is now, as portrayed by the CBC
"Journal", a farmer. He uses fungi-
cides, fertilizers, and antibiotics, and
confines creatures that are meant to
roam the wide expanses of the sea.
He has become a fish (salmon) far-
mer. Like any farmer, he uses chemi-
cals to combat disease and artificial
pellets to feed his charges. He dis-
misses the fear that some of his es-
caped Atlantic salmon may interbreed
with Pacific salmon and pollute the
local stock with new hybrids, one
argument deer farmers face. Moore is
discovering that principles are some-
times costly and don't count. for much
if one has to make a living.
Another convert, at least partially,
is Colin Isaacs, a former director of
Pollution Probe. The attraction of
cashing in on his environmentalism
was too strong, and he endorsed a
capitalist company, Loblaws, that sells
"green" products. His colleagues
didn't like that too well and booted
him out of the organization.
We also have Dr. Chant, one of the
founders of Pollution Probe, at odds
with his creation. Dr. Chant heads the
Ontario Waste Management Corpor-
ation that secks a safe way to dispose
of industrial waste. He wants to re-
cycle when possible and burn at high
temperatures when not, or bury when
neither of the above is feasible. He
found place near Niagara where the
clay bottom is thick, deep, and impen-
etrable, to bury the stuff. But he runs
smack into the not -in -my -back -yard
(NIMBY) people, and into his former
colleagues who denounce him as a
traitor to the cause.
Then we see how the biggest insti-
gator of the animal rights movement,
the Walt Disney empire, runs afoul of
the law for cruelty to animals. It ap-
pears that Disney personnel clubbed
vultures to death when they befouled
the sidewalks, stole fold from Disney-
land, and attacked captive animals.
The men shot at hawks and falcons,
and disturbed the active nests of ibis
and egrets. The fines cost the
company $95,000 U.S.
Of course, the people on that side
of the environmental fence are not the
only ones that change. Every farmer I
know has had a change of attitude a-
bout the use of chemicals and the way
he stables his animals.
It may seem odd, but that's part of
the solution. Just as Patrick Moore
dilutes his fish manure along with his
former convictions, just as farmers get
closer to responsible use of land and
chemicals and modify their former
convictions, so, unobserved, the oppo-
nents get closer together.
As more scientific evidence shows
that residues in food from synthetic
chemicals is actually lower than the
presence of natural chemicals in the
same food, reasonable people will
soften demands for a ban on synthe-
tics. At the same time, farmers will
find alternative approaches to fertili-
zing and pest control that cost no more
than their present practices. The two
viewpoints will come closer together.
Activists will find other causes and in
this manner, life will move on.
We must hope that farmers can
survive the onslaught on Greenpeace,
Pollution Probe, the animal rights
people, the subsidized competition,
the complaints of rural urbanites, and
all the other worries that have beset
them long enough.0