The Rural Voice, 1994-01, Page 6HURON
SOIL
�S�IA r AND
CROP
SPRING UPDATE 1994
Wednesday, January 12, 1994
9:50 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Goderich Township Community
Centre, Holmesville
COST: $10.00 per person (includes lunch)
FEATURE SPEAKERS:
• STEVE HAWKINS
Purdue University
"Starter Fertilizers and
Managing Fertility"
• BRIAN DOIDGE
Ridgetown College of
Agricultural Technology
"Market Outlook"
• JEFF REID
C & M Seeds
"Hard Red Wheat
Production"
• JACK CAMPBELL
OWPMB
"Hard Red Wheat
Marketing"
• ROB TEMPLEMAN
Ontario Ministry of
Agriculture and Food
"Coloured and White
Bean Update"
• ALAN McCALLUM
Ontario Ministry of
Agriculture and Food
"Corn Hybrid Maturity
and Selection"
To pre -register for lunch
contact the
Ontario Ministry of Agriculture
and Food office in Clinton
(482-3428 or 1-800-265-5170)
6 THE RURAL VOICE
Keith Roulston
Guess I'm just a slow learner
I was a slow student when my son
was trying to teach me how to use a
computer. He'd show me how the
computer was supposed to work and,
in a nice bit of role reversal, I'd keep
saying: "But
why?"
The problem
was that at age
10 or so, he was
quite willing to
accept the rules
of the computer
game. Mc, I kept
trying to make
sense of it all,
kept expecting
the computer to
think the way
people did.
When people
start talking
about trade, I sometimes think I'm
suffering the same kind of mental
block. I know that in the new world
we're supposed to live by the law of
competitive advantage, that those
who can produce a product cheaper
should make it for all of us. It's just
that it often doesn't make sense to
me.
It has always seemed a little
strange to me, for instance, that
chilled lamb from New Zealand
could be flown in to Toronto, half
way around the globe, and be sold
cheaper than Ontario -raised lamb. I
can never quite figure out the sense in
shipping fresh flowers from South
America and Israel and Europe to
North American markets when we
could grow them here for only
slightly more. I'm slow enough that it
doesn't even make sense to me that
some of us insist on fresh tomatoes,
even corn on the cob, in January
while we ignore winter -stored
vegetables grown right here at home.
I know, I know, it's the
marketplace. If, with transportation
included, that larnb can still be sold
for a few cents less than Ontario
lamb, then it's right and good that the
airplanes should be kept flying. If
flowers can be flown in from half-
way around the world for less than
Ontario growers can produce them
for, then the consumer has the right
to save money.
Why should consumers subsidize
money-losing Canadian producers,
goes the argument from economists
and consumer groups. Yet money is
never really lost. My accountant may
say I lost money producing some
item but if I lost it, somebody else
gained it: the guy who sold me my
supplies or the guy who bought my
finished product at less than cost.
Money goes round and round inside
the system.
What is lost forever is the jet fuel
it took to fly those flowers or that
lamb to Canada. What is lost is the
damage it does to our environment.
What is finite in the world is the air
and water we depend on for life.
Deficits in these don't show up in
bookkeeping systems. On the other
hand, using up all that irreplaceable
jet fuel looks good on the books of
companies like Imperial Oil. Even
cleaning up the pollution caused if a
tanker sinks while carrying that jet
fuel to North America looks like an
economic gain when you look at the
Gross National Product.
I know trade has often not made
sense. As a student of history, I know
I wouldn't be here today if not for the
whim of rich Europeans for hats
made of beaver skins and their
willingness to pay enough so ships
acrossed the ocean to trade with the
Indians and voyageurs explored the
whole continent looking for more
beaver pelts. I know that before that,
the spice trade sent ships to the edge
of the then -known world to bring
back something that would cover the
"off" taste of their food. These were
trades of whims but at least they were
things the Europeans couldn't
produce themselves.
I know we're all better off mat-
erially because of freer trade in the
past. Ideally I can see that common
rules benefit everyone. I can agree
with the argument that poor countries
have to have a chance to work their
way to the top. It's just those flying
lambs from New Zealand that I can't
make sense of, no matter what the
dollars and cents of it.0
Keith Roulston is editor and
publisher of The Rural Voice as well
as being a playwright. He lives near
Blyth, ON.