The Rural Voice, 1991-06, Page 3R.V.
general manager/editor: 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:
Adrian Vos, Gisele Ireland, Keith
Roulston, Cathy Laird, Wayne Kelly,
Sarah Borowski, Mary Lou Weiser -
Hamilton, June Flath, Ian Wylie-Toal,
Susan Glover, Bob Reid, Mervyn Erb,
Peter Baltensperger, Darene Yavorsky,
Sandra Orr, Yvonne Reynolds
marketing and advertising sales:
Gerry Fortune
production co-ordinator:
Tracey Rising
advertising & editorial production:
Rhea Hamilton -Seeger
Anne Harrison
Brenda Baltensperger
laserset: with the McIntosh Plus
printed & mailed by: Signal -Star
Publishing Goderich, Ontario
subscriptions: $16.05 (12 issues)
(includes 7% GST)
Back copies $2.75 each
For U.S. rates, add $5 per year
Changes of address, orders for subscriptions
and undeliverable copies (return postage
guaranted) are to be sent to The Rural Voice
at the address listed below.
Canadian
Magazine Publishers
Association
All manuscripts submitted for consideration
should be accompanied by a stamped, self-
addressed envelope. The publisher cannot
accept responsibility for unsolicited manu-
scripts or photographs, although both are
welcome. The opinions expressed herein are
not necessarily those of the publisher. Edi-
torial content may be reproduced only by
permission of the publisher. Published
monthly by The RuralVoice, Box 429, Blyth,
Ontario, NOM 1HO, 519-523-4311 (fax 523-
4311). Publication mail registration No.
3560 held by North Huron Publishing
Company Inc. at Blyth, Ontario.
BEHIND THE SCENES
by Jim Fitzgerald
general manager/editor
The situation is so ridiculous it would
be funny if it weren't so damaging to our
food producers. One of my environmen-
tally conscious friends was praising a TV
advertisement the other day of a major
multinational petroleum company. It
pictured a number of different species of
animals and birds applauding a new inno-
vation in oil tanker design — a double -
hulled construction that was supposed to
prevent the ship from cracking open and
spilling oil on its way down the Pacific
coast from Alaska oil fields. My friend
was convinced that this new design would
save the environment by preventing such
ecological disasters as the Exxon Valdez
spill of several years ago.
He looked somewhat puzzled when I
asked him where the oil in those tankers
was going. "What do you mean?" he
replied as a sudden cloud of doubt crossed
his face. I pointed out the oil was almost
assuredly going to a refinery down here,
and would be converted into gasoline,
plastic bags, car tires, and thousands of
other consumer products that would
eventually end up polluting the environ-
ment either as greenhouse gas, unsightly
and undisposable garbage, or ozone de-
stroying CFCs.
Studies have shown that our urbanite
friends (whom we feed so cheaply) use
two to 10 times as much fertilizer and
2,4,D on their lawns as farmers do. And I
understand that the lumber yards can
hardly keep up with the demand for
pressure treated lumber used to build huge
decks which are all the rage right now.
What happened to saving the forests and
preventing toxic wood preservative from
polluting the soil? They argue they put out
their "blue box" once a week and have a
nice compost heap going in the back yard
in one of those new outrageously expen-
sive plastic compost bins.
That's why it's all the more exasperat-
ing to those of us who support and cover
agriculture, to read a story in the city
newspapers during "Earth Week" written
by Southam environmental reporter Anne
Mcllroy. She writes that government
spends billions each year on agricultural
programs and policies that create pollution
and encourage environmental degradation.
Mcllroy's story, which was widely distri-
buted, claimed that quotas, intensive
livestock farming, pesticide use, and subsi-
dies from governments encourage produc-
tion at the sacrifice of the environment.
Despite all the hard work of farm
groups, government, and farmers who
have taken enormous steps in the past
decade to cut pesticide use, prevent
erosion, and clean up the environment with
new programs, the only message that
seems to be getting through is an errone-
ous, irresponsible, distorted view by an ill-
informed urban media who wouldn't know
a PTO shaft from a pile of sheep dung.
So as you can see, most of the environ-
mental movement is full of hypocrites.
They are people who would deprive a
farmer of his livelihood, but would think
nothing of driving 10 miles out of their
way in an air-conditioned vehicle, spewing
greenhouse -warming and ozone -destroying
gases, and maybe even running over an en-
dangered turtle on their way, to buy "or-
ganic food." Really, city consumers, for
the most part, have their heads in the sand.
Unless farm groups try to re-educate them
(a daunting task), the pressure on the gov-
ernment will continue to build to eventu-
ally cut off farm subsidies, which will
result in farmers being put out of business.
* *
Effective June 1, The Rural Voice has
gone full circle. We have a new owner —
North Huron Publishing Co. Inc. of Blyth
— operated by Keith Roulston, who
founded The Rural Voice in 1975. Keith,
'who operates The Citizen , a weekly
newspaper, and townsman magazine, has
purchased this magazine from Signal -Star
Publishing of Goderich. Signal -Star had
purchased the magazine from the Gunbys
in December of 1989.
We will continue to produce this mag-
azine with the present staff of Gerry
Fortune, Tracey Rising, and myself, and
we will be moving intact from Goderich to
The Citizen office on Main Street in Blyth
in June. You can reach us at 523-4311
(fax 523-9140) or at P.O. box 429 Blyth,
NOM 1H0.0