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The Rural Voice, 1991-12, Page 61GREY 446 10th St., Hanover, Ontario N4N 1P9 519-364-3050 • The Rural Voice is provided to all Grey County Farmers by the GCFA. County Federation of Agriculture NEWSLETTER INVOLVEMENT IS MOST IMPORTANT Will there be any farmers left? You might say, "what a question, of course there will be." But the doubt is there. Ten years down the road, if present conditions still exist, today's farmers will be gone, and the next generation are going to seek their livelihood elsewhere. We question if even the most settled farmers can stand the crunch, let alone the ones with a debt burden. The spread between the farm gate prices and what the consumer is paying is becoming larger every week. Wheat prices over the last 11 years have declined dramatically. The retail price of wheat based products have in- creased significantly, such as cookies, 135 per cent, and soda biscuits, 235 per cent. Bread in the chain stores sells from 79 cents to around 89 cents a loaf, and to over $1 for special brands. The farmer has been receiving around $80 a ton for his wheat, or approximately $3.49 a bushel (60 pounds). According to a recent statement published' in a local newspaper, a bushel makes approxi- mately 70 loaves of bread. This means the consumer, if he/she pays 80 cents for one loaf of bread, is paying $560 for that bushel of wheat. When we dig a little deeper, we find in 1991 it takes a ton of wheat to buy one pair of high cut work boots. In 1930, a ton of wheat would buy 10 pairs of work boots. Is this not ridiculous when the farmer doesn't even receive five cents for a beef hide? Again, when we purchase a large box of shredded wheat, a farmer must sell a bushel of wheat to pay for it. In 1989, the price of corn had de- clined 13 per cent since 1980. Another drop has occurred from 1989 to 1991. Yet, a large box of corn flakes has al- most doubled since 1989 to $4.28 in 1991. Oats, barley, and oil seeds have also dropped to a dangerously low level. Not only are grain prices depressed, but the beef and hog industries are hurt- ing as well. Cattle prices in the first week of November were $74 for top steers with a heavy discount for being over finished. Old bulls bring in as 58 THE RURAL VOICE much as heifers. Hogs are as low as $1.15 a kilogram. These prices are be- low the cost of what it takes to produce these animals. Ask yourself if you can make a decent living at these depressed prices. The Canadian farmer is the most efficient there is in agriculture as to production per man per acre. Yet with all this to his credit, he is finding it extremely difficult to come even near a balance at the end of the year. Yes, he is noted now as being well below the poverty level, and would be better off on welfare. In the last 10 years, the spread has been increasing between the farm gate price and the consumer to the point of now being completely ridiculous. In the report "Compare The Share" by MP Ralph Ferguson, Dr. Anthony Winson, University of Guelph, says "in Canada's food system, the bulk of supermarket purchases are funnelled through only four wholesale buying organizations, actually controlled by the chain stores themselves." Is the con- sumer being taken advantage of? It appears as if the consumer is being charged as much as the wholesaler thinks the traffic will bear. An article printed November 6 in The Sun Times, written by Jim Romahn, states food prices rose at twice the pre- dicted rate of four per cent, to 10 per cent this year. Do these statements make farmers angry? Yes, it makes them very, very angry. The thousand people who gathered for the meeting in Lucknow, the meet- ing in Dresden, and the demonstration in Guelph, are examples of farmers being hurt. Consumers, businesses, and govern- ments must become aware of the ex- treme urgency to ensure Canadian farm- ers receive a fair share of the food dollar. As it is in many cases today, if the farmer gave away his product, the consumer price would scarcely change. The money given by the federal and provincial governments will help, to a degree, the grain and oilseed producers. But you must remember there are other farmers in the business of beef and hogs, chickens, etc. who are hurting badly too. Before any demonstration takes place in Ottawa, we must have a long range program in place to present to our gov- emments, one that is solid, one that prevents the prices of our products from plummeting, as they have in this past year. The Ontario Federation of Agricul- ture, the Farmer's Union, the Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario, and our commodity groups had better get their heads together to come up with solu- tions immediately for their producers. Now that the ball is rolling, we cannot stand to lose this battle. The man on the land producing food must not be tramped into the dirt any longer. Let's become united, for surely, if we are divided, we will fail.0 Lorne Eccles, past president Grey County Federation of Agriculture GCFA DIRECTORS' MEETING Thursday, November 14, 1991 OMAF Boardroom, Markdale 8:00 p.m. Members are welcome to attend.