The Rural Voice, 1998-06, Page 3R.V.
Editor: Keith Roulston
editorial advisory committee:
Bev Hill, farmer, Huron County
John Heard, soils and crop extension
and research, northwestern Ontario
Diane O'Shea, farmer, Middlesex Cty.
George Penfold, associate professor,
University of Guelph
Gerald Poechman, farmer, Bruce Cty.
contributing writers:
Gisele Ireland, Mary Lou
Weiser -Hamilton, Ralph
Pearce, Bonnie Gropp,
Bob Reid, Mervyn Erb, Darene
Yavorsky, Peter Baltensperger, Sandra
Orr, Carl L. Bedal, Janice Becker
marketing & advertising sales manager:
Gerry Fortune
advertising representative:
Merle Gunby
production co-ordinator:
Joan Caldwell
advertising & editorial production:
Dianne Josling
Anne Harrison
printed & mailed by: Signal -Star
Publishing, Goderich, Ontario
subscriptions: $16.05 (12 issues)
(includes 7% GST)
Back copies $2.75 each
For U.S. rates, add $5 per year
Changes of address, orders for subscrip-
tions and undeliverable copies (return
postage guaranteed) are to be sent to The
Rural Voice at the address listed below.
Published monthly by:
The Rural Voice,
Box 429, Blyth, Ontario,
NOM 1 HO
Telephone: 519-523-4311 (fax 523-9140).
e-mail: norhuron@huron.net
Publication mail registration No. 3560 held
by North Huron Publishing Co. Inc. at
Goderich, Ontario.
All manuscripts submitted for consideration
should be accompanied by a stamped, self-
addressed envelope. The publisher cannot
accept responsibility for unsolicited
manuscripts or photographs, although both
are welcome. The opinions expressed here-
in are not necessarily those of the publisher.
Editorial content may be reproduced only
by permission of the publisher.
The Rural Voice makes every effort to see
that advertising copy is correct. However,
should an error occur, please notify The
Rural Voice office within 30 days of
invoicing in order to obtain a billing
adjustment
Behind the Scenes
Meeting the demand
While the great growth stories in
agriculture in the past decade have
been based on perceived export
markets (pork) or dreamed -of niche
markets (emu and other exotics)
there's one almost -forgotten sector of
traditional Canadian agriculture
which just can't grow fast enough to
fill the existing domestic market.
Sheep farming, long the poor
cousin of Ontario farming, is
undergoing a boom that's attracting
new producers from other fields.
Steve Hallam, for instance, had
barely seen a sheep a few years ago
when he was working full time as a
dairy farmer. Today he and his wifc
Tracy are full-time sheep farmers and
there are four sheep farms in their
neighbourhood. We explore this
growth in our cover story this month.
Sheep farmers, like many other
farmers, often depend on small local
abattoirs to slaughter and process
their farm products but the changing
world of government cutbacks
combined with increased consumer
food safety concerns is putting the
squeeze on small packers. There arc
demands for improvements to
facilities and difficulty for small
plants to get the inspection hours they
need. If they can't get the hours
needed, they must pay the extra
inspection costs themselves.
Janice Becker this month talks to
people in the industry about the fears
that the small abattoirs may be lost to
local communities.
Our Profit$ section this month
looks at the pork industry. This being
the 25th anniversary of the Pork
Congress in Stratford, Bonnie Gropp
looks at this Industry showcase's past
and future.
While practicality has always been
essential in rural life, there have
always been those among us who
have stopped to discover the beauty
in the world around them. Stuart
Taylor has long been one of those.
Though he is 90 years old now,
Taylor is still working away in his
Nile workshop, creating beautiful
carvings from wood. Janice Becker
visited him recently.
We welcome back an old friend
this month. With Robert Mercer off
in England, Adrian Vos has
contributed a guest column.
In her decorating column, Patti
Robertson delves into the mystical
world of `Yong shui". Bonnic Gropp
passes along strawberry recipes.°
Update
Getting high — a different way
Ontario's first legal hemp crop in 60 years is in the ground (including some
local plantings) and the uses for the versatile plant just keep expanding (see
February 1998 article). Newest product created from hemp is Hemp Cream Ale,
a beer brewed by Bowen Island Brewing, a microbrewery in Vancouver.
With regulations on the growing of hemp loosening up, throe people met at the
tiny brewery a year ago with the idea of using hcmp seed to create beer. Despite
the reputation of Vancouver as a place where marijuana is popular, there have
been careful steps to avoid making any connection between the hemp beer and its
cousin, according to Les Patterson, brewery sales manager. The brewery uses
only industrial hcmp seed that has been steam -treated to eliminate any remaining
THC, the hallucinatory component that makes marijuana popular. "It tested less
than 10 parts per million, as low as the testing equipment could go," Patterson
said. The beer will be randomly tested to make sure it stays that way.
The original batches of the beer, tested by the British Columbia Liquor
Control Board, were made with imported seed, but the brewery expects to switch
to Saskatchewan -grown seed this year. The seed is used to enhance the flavour of
the beer, much as hops are used in other beers. In the future, a defatted hemp
meal will probably be used instead of seeds, which will reduce costs.
So now not only can you wear clothes made of hemp, read papers made from
hemp, and drive in a car with parts made from hcmp, but you can drink it too.°
1