The Rural Voice, 1991-08, Page 3general 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
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BEHIND THE SCENES
by Jim Fitzgerald
General Managerleditor
The new "world order" in agricul-
ture, according to some economists,
academics, and big business people is
a world in which farmers would only
receive returns from being efficient
producers growing superior products
in a highly competitive world. At
least that's the dream of economics
professor, T. K. (Sandy) Warley, of
the University of Guelph.
Warley, in a recent address to the
Diploma in Agriculture graduates,
says that farmers should give up on
lobbying govemments to help them.
"For better or for worse," says Warley,
"the course is set. It would not, in my
opinion, be altered materially by the
election of governments of other
political persuasions. We have to set
our hand to creating an agrifood sector
that generates rewards for its partici-
pants from competitive markets by
supplying superior products to con-
sumers at home and abroad. Re -turns
are to be earned by productivity rather
than by politicking."
"Farm development is to be
achieved through overall sectoral de-
velopment. The role of government is
to provide the tools and common ser-
vices that foster competitiveness, to
share the downside risks of unstable
markets, to assist adjustment, and to
deal with the external effects of
individual actions," says Warley.
Boy, this guy must dream in
Technicolor or believe in tooth fairies.
You know, it always amazes me that
people who already have positions of
power and security, or a monopoly on
goods and service, have the gall to tell
the rest of us that we need to be com-
petitive and efficient. If we can't keep
up, then we should, they preach, fall
by the wayside. Ah, such is the life of
a tenured university profcssor, —
guaranteed job and guaranteed pay for
life. As former agriculture min-ister
Eugene Whelan, used to say about
professors: "one of the strongest
marketing boards in the world."
The sad thing, though, is that these
fellows can't see the forest for the
trees, and if farmers are to be asked to
submit themselves to the cold, cruel
winds of competitive, cutthroat
economics, then so should everyone
else. In the perfect world they envi-
sion, we could disband all the lobby
groups, cut the government down to a
mere fraction of what it is now, and let
the law of the jungle prevail, with just
a few cops around to make sure things
don't get completely out of hand.
Now, can you imagine powerful lobby
groups such as the Ontario Secondary
School Teachers Federation', or the
Ontario Medical Association, or the
professors' guild not asking for what
they perceive to be a fair share of the
pie?
Can you imagine that each fall,
we'd have a host of professors fired
after a review, not by their peers, as is
the case now, but by the consumers —
the general public? "Sorry sir, but we
have to let you go," the scenario might
go, "as only 59 per cent of the stu-
dents polled thought you did a good
job teaching last term, and you need at
least a 66 per cent to stay on. Besides,
we have a young fellow who just came
from overseas who will teach for half
the salary we were paying you."
Why is it that time after time, far-
mers are singled out to take a licking?
Why should farmers be forced to take
low world prices for their sweat and
toil, and, at the same time, be forced to
pay high prices and taxes to support
other domestic groups who are insu-
lated from the real world? In fact, the
problem is that Canadian farmers
haven't been very good at "politick-
ing" and could take a few lessons from
Warley and his ilk. That is, if there
are any farmers left!0