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8 THE RURAL VOICE
Scrap Book
No beef in rainforest destruction
The destruction of rain -forests
in South and Central America is
primarily the result of indigenous
government policies, not North
American beef consumption, a
study by University of Guelph
agricultural economists shows.
"If there is a link between rain-
forest depletion and beef
consumption in North America it
is an extremely flimsy one," says
Glenn Fox who conducted the
study review with graduate
student Samuel Bonti-Ankomah.
"If someone has a desire to do
something to protect the
rainforest, there are better ways
than cutting beef consumption."
Government subsidies in
various forms are driving
environmental degradation, even
though they have no valid
economic basis, says Fox. Bonti-
Ankomah's research found that
landowners paid higher taxes if
they kept the land undeveloped
and were offered negative interest
rates to develop their lands.
"Government policies encourage
individuals to use more land for
pasture," he said. "In the early
'80s, a lot of incentives were
given to landowners to clear
land." The study was done at the
request of the Canadian
Cattlemen's Association after a
member complained about a
primary -school textbook that
claimed beef consumption in
Canada — especially at fast-food
restaurants — was directly
causing rainforest destruction.
The study found that only 2.6 per
cent and 1.3 per cent of the beef
consumed in Canada and the U.S.
respectively, is imported from
South and Central America.
Only one-quarter to one-half the
land cleared in the two -decade
study period went into animal
agriculture. The other reasons for
land clearance include subsistence
production, (which forces farmers
to clear land and move on),
inflation rates, population growth,
foreign debt, a communal land-
ownership system, fuel wood and
charcoal production and
inappropriate farming methods.°
—Source: University of Guelph
New co-ops may stimulate rural life
A new wave of co-operatives
could be the answer to rural
Saskatchewan's woes, says Murray
Fulton, director of the Centre for the
Study of Co-operatives at the
University of Saskatchewan.
The name "new gencration co-
operative" has been applied to 70
new co-ops formed in Minnesota and
North Dakota in the last four or five
years, Fulton told a seminar.
These co-ops, engaged mostly in
value-added activities, differ from
the traditional organizations in that
they have restricted membership and
two-way delivery rights.
Membership is restricted by the
selling of shares, he said. For
example, a group of farmers in North
Dakota wanted to raise money to
build an equip a pasta plant. Each
share purchased entitled the farmer to
deliver on bushel of durum.
The Co-operative "got equity
capital up front and restricted its
membership," Fulton said. Under a
two-way delivery system, the co-op
guarantees it will accept a certain
amount of product from a farmer.
"Farmers have the right to deliver
but they also have the obligation to
deliver," Fulton said. "If you don't,
the co-op buys it somewhere else and
charges you."
New generation co-ops bring
people together, create jobs and gain
power for rural residents. Members
must be strongly committed, able to
work together and think long term,
he said.
But there arc dangers of copy -cat
co-ops, said Bill Patric, rural
development director with the North
Dakota Association of Rural Electric
Co-operatives. "If that happens you
discount your product to get market
share and nobody makes money."0
—Source: Western Producer
i