The Rural Voice, 1999-01, 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, Lisa Boonstoppel-
Pot, Bonnie Gropp,
Bob Reid, Mervyn Erb, Sandra
Orr, Carl L. Bedal, Janice Becker,
Allison Lawlor
marketing & advertising sales manager:
Gerry Fortune
advertising representative:
Merle Gunby
production co-ordinator:
Joan Caldwell
advertising & editorial production:
Dianne Josling
Anne Harrison
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Behind the Scenes
A crisis too big to ignore
Being a monthly magazine with
limited space, it's sometimes hard to
know what to do with some stories.
The Rural Voice usually tries to leave
up-to-the-minute news -style coverage
to other publications or radio and
television and instead look at more
indcpth subjects that others can't
devote the time to examine.
But a story like the collapse of
pork prices is just too important to
leave uncovered and so we changed
the story schedule for this month to
accommodate it. It so endangers the
industry that it caused hundreds of
local farmcrs to leave their barns and
descend on Queen's Park December 1.
The impressive thing about the
rally was the way the rural commun-
ity came together in support of
farmers. I met feed dealers and build-
ing contractors among the crowds on
that unusually -warm day on the
legislature's lawn. They'd ridden thc
buses down from the country in a
show of solidarity. One businessman
told me it was the first time he'd ever
taken part in a rally of any kind.
It was heartening to see this unity.
Once it would have been taken for
granted rural people stuck together
but in recent years we too often have
gone it alone rather worked together.
Even without the current crisis in
pork, the effects of the drought, low
beef prices and low prices for wheat,
corn and soybeans, the trend toward
fewer, bigger farms would likely
continue. Before he retired as Ag Rep
in Huron County, Bob Humphries
took some time to research where
we've been and look ahead to where
agriculture might be in 2010. We
look at his findings and conclusions.
Nearly five years after the
February 1994 meeting where the
Grey and Brucc Federations of
Agriculture launched Market Grey -
Bruce, one of the ideas from that
meeting is getting new emphasis. One
of the speakers at the original Owen
Sound conference was Kate Finley
Woodruff of the Vermont
Department of Agriculture who spoke
on her state's "Vermont Seal of
Quality" logo. Today, the "Pride of
Grey -Bruce" logo is showing up on
more and more local products as
Market Grey -Bruce tries to tie the
scenic geographic area to the idea of
quality products.°
Keith Roulston
Update
Rural schools win reprieve
Our November issue's article on the crisis in rural schools under the provincial
government's new funding formula reached homes in the region at the peak of
the concern over the future of rural schools. Ironically, it was thc announcement
that hundreds of schools in Toronto were likely to close under the same formula
that brought swift action by the provincial government to change thc formulas.
The government's formula had designated 100 square feet per elementary
student and 130 per secondary student. While these figures remain in the
formula, the Ministry is now concentrating on "loading" of schools to maximize
capacity, according to information prepared for the Avon Maitland District
School Board in early December. The updated Ministry calculation for capacity
in public schools in Huron and Perth, for instance, is now 15,099 while the actual
number of students is 12,527. Secondary school capacity is 9,158 while
enrollment is 7,601. In both cases enrollment is 83 per cent of capacity. In
addition, instead of the Ministry's one-time deadline for declaring surplus space,
school boards will now conduct annual reviews.
The changes, plus some creative planning by school board officials, has
dramatically altered the picture in Huron and Perth from that described in the
November article when up to 17 schools were listed for possible closure. The
Avon Maitland board now feels it can meet the new requirements by a series of
boundary adjustments, elimination of portable classrooms and leasing of excess
space in some schools without any schools having to be closed at this time.°