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The Rural Voice, 1994-07, Page 10FREE FINANCING No down payment. No payments and .. . 0% interest . - . until Dec20, 1994, for all Patz Silo Unloaders Then Interest rate of 4.9% A.PR. for 12 months, or 5.9% A.PR. for 24 months, or 6.9% A.PR. for 36 months, or 7.9% A.PR. for 48 months Monthly payments start on Dec. 20, 1994. End your worry *bout rising Interest rates. Choose from the Patz "Fabulous five" Unloaders: 1. Dual -Auger Surface Drive 2. Dual -Auger Center Drive 3. Dual -Auger Ring Drive 4. Gathering -Chain Surface Drive 5. Gathering -Chain Ring Drive Transactions si.Otect to approval by.Patz Fnanaat SwAces Limited -time offer- Contact: • PROGRESSIVE FARMING R R 2, Wellesley 519-656-2709 Rannoch 519-229-6700 SAFE TO FARM & MUNICIPAL DRAINAGE Specializing in: • Farm & Municipal Drainage • Clay & Plastic Tile Installations • Backhoe & Dozer Service • Septic System Installations For Quality, Experience, & Service call: Wayne Cook (519) 236-7390 R.R.2 Zurich, Ont. NOM 2T0 PARKER PARKER L 1 M I T E ID 6 THE RURAL VOICE Keith Roulston What's the messenger selling? Change is inevitable. There, it's been said. But what have I to gain by convincing you of that? Every time we turn around these days we're all being told change is inevitable. No wonder. So many of us depend on convincing people they must change. Start with journalists, for instance. If there were no change, we'd be out of a job. It's our job to tell you about change. If some new product comes on the market, we're there writing stories to tell you about it and why you should be using it. Moreover, since most publishing revenue comes from advertising, we live through the ability of advertisers to convince you to change the product you're buying now and buy their product instead. Thousands of people are employed creating change. There are researchers out there who are creating new products. If you can't be con- vinced you need those products, the researchers soon won't be working. We have futurists writing books and articles to convince us they know how we can deal with, and profit from, the change that is inevitably coming at us. We have business advisors who make more money than many of their clients by telling businessmen how to adapt to change, and by doing so, the businessmen are creating change themselves. Millions of people profit hand- somely from promoting the concept that change is inevitable. As people working close to the land, farmers know that change is inevitable. No matter how much you might want things to stay the same they don't. Trees are either growing and chang- ing or dying. Through water and wind erosion the very earth is chang- ing places. We are all getting older and, as the influences on us change, are changing the way we think. But it doesn't mean we can't question each change and the motives of those who are promoting that change. Playwright Dan Needles says he likes being around farmers because they are highly sensitive to the B.S. quotient and have a healthy skepticism. If farmers sometimes seem maddeningly slow to accept change perhaps it's because they've seen so many changes that have been promoted that were mistakes (remember whcn the government paid farmers to tear out fence -rows while it's now paying farmers to plant trees again?) That slowness to accept change can be dangerous if farmers think they can buck world-wide trends, or it can be the saviour of a farm operation (how many "backward" farmers who refused to jump on the expansion bandwagon in the 1970s saw their "progressive" neighbours bite the dust?) Farmer skepticism can be mad- dening to those who want change to come faster. Listen to the counter attack against those opposed to the introduction of BST, for instance. They're called anti -science, anti - progress, people akin to those who maintained the world was flat even after it had been shown to be round. But many farmers and consumers continue to ask if this is a product that's really needed or if we're just being snowballed into accepting change for the sake of company profits. In the long run, of course, BST supporters don't have to convince everybody that this change is inevitable. They don't even have to convince a majority of dairy farmers. They just have to convince a signif- icant enough minority that they must get on the bandwagon, then the reluc- tant majority will be dragged along. Change likely will be inevitable because people keep buying the argument that it is. Solidarity is difficult to forge among any group, and particularly among farmers. Somebody always wants to be tirst.0 Keith Roulston is editor and publisher of The Rural Voice as well as being a playwright. Ile lives near Blyth, ON.