The Rural Voice, 1991-10, 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
laserset: with the McIntosh Classic
printed & mailed by: Signal -Star
Publishing Goderich, Ontario
subscriptions: 516.05 (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 Rural Voice, Box 429, Blyth
Ontario, NOM 1 HO, 519-523-4311 (fax 523-
9140). Publication mail registration No.
3560 held by North Huron Publishing Co.
Inc. at Goderich, Ontario.
BEHIND THE SCENES
by Jim Fitzgerald
General Manager/editor
It's the time of year when we should be
rejoicing at the bountiful harvest. In this
area, we were lucky this year that all the
right ingredients carne together and, with a
few exceptions, we'll have near record
breaking crops. At our home, we had one
of the best gardens in years, from platter -
sized cabbages to grapefuit-sized peppers.
Even the late tomatoes, which weren't
started until the first week of May, have
already yielded bushels of juicy, ripe fruit
that have found their way to the freezer.
That's why it seems almost sacrile-
gious for this writer to join farmers in
complaining that things are not well on the
concession roads. Cash crop farmers in
particular are facing returns for those crops
that are the lowest in about 15 years, in
real dollars, while costs to plant and
harvest them have escalated at the rate of
five per cent a year. That's put many
farmers behind the eight ball, and many
won't survive the winter without short
term financial assistance from govern-
ments until new (but inadequate) GRIP
and MSA kick in next year. But govern-
ments are reluctant to help this year, even
though farmers' problems in the past de-
cadgthave been caused by an international
grain trading war, high interest rates and
an absurd exchange rate. We've lost a third
of our farmers in the past ten years, while
the debt level has remained unchanged —
some $20 billion.
So why are farmers so frustrated that
they need to take the drastic actions
proposed at the recent "line in the dirt"
meeting, and still going out of business in
record numbers? And what does that say
about the future food supply of Canada if
those food producers are not around,
making us dependent on foreign countries
for our food supply? Can you have an in-
dependent nation if you're not self -
subsistent in food? The Japanese, Europe-
ans and Americans don't think so.
In fact, the gap between U.S. and Ca-
nadian agricultural policy is rapidly widen-
ing. American food policy is carefully
defined and implemented under the U.S.
Farm Bill, which tells their farmers (and
the whole world) what farm policy will be
five years ahead of time. Americans tell
their consumers how important agriculture
is to the well-being of America. As the
world's largest exporter of farm products,
the U.S. know that each dollar earned from
agricultural exports stimulates another
$1.52 of output in the U.S. economy —
about $100 billion in 1989. In fact, most
people are surprised when told that agri-
culture gives the U.S. its greatest competi-
tive advantage in trade, ahead of high tech,
finished capital (cars and manufactured
goods), intermediate manufacturing,
mining, and fish and forestry.
It's no wonder then, that American
agricultural policies are structured to
encourage, promote, protect, and gain
access to markets for its farm products.
However in Canada, big business, the
media, academics, and politicians talk of
how much farm subsidies "cost" the
treasury and that protection of markets
"costs" consumers and leads to ineffi-
ciency. They tell Canadian farmers they
must learn to be more competitive in the
trading world. Even the Federal Progresive
Conservative party — traditionally looked
upon in rural Canada as strong supporters
of farmers — voted at their recent policy
convention on resolutions to undermine
the Canadian Wheat Board, as well as get
the Farm Credit Corporation out of direct
farm lending. Both were Tory creations.
Delegates even refused to confirm support
for supply management, and instead called
for a study of the impact of the farm pro-
ducts marketing system on consumer
prices. Now if George Bush's Republican
Party even suggested those resolutions in
the U.S., he'd be a footnote in the history
books as the only president to put both feet
in his mouth and swallow his shoes whole!
It's time that Canada and our politi-
cians got behind their farmers as strongly
as the Americans do because our farmers
contribute just as much to this country's
prosperity as the U.S. farmers do to theirs.
This latest farm crisis dramatically points
out that Canadians need to have an attitude
change if our farmers are to survive in a
',world market. And we need to implement
solid government assistance programs to
back them up. Please give us a made in
Canada agricultural policy.0