The Rural Voice, 1999-01, Page 58w
BRUCE
Email: bruce@ofa.on.ca
County Federation of Agriculture NEWSLETTER
Caps or handi-caps?
Since disasters are an all too often
part of farming, some safety net relief
seems to be the topic of discussion
these days.
Having spent the last number of
years organizing our businesses to
depend on safety net: only as a very
last resort, I'm wonuering if recent
market collapses are a function of
supply/demand, or a manipulation by
someone with more knowledge or
market power than the average farm
family. Reality check:. what is the
retail price of pork these days?
If the old natural law of "diversity
builds stability" holds true, then mid-
size full-time farm families should be
able to weather price swings as
effectively as anyone. Some
exceptions due to expansions, poor
planning, high leverage, over
concentration, or disease outbreak
still apply.
Considering that most subsidy -
style programs are paid on a per unit
marketed basis, will that mid-size
family farm receive enough money to
really make a difference? Will the
BRUCE COUNTY
FEDERATION OF
AGRICULTURE
DIRECTORS'
MEETING
Monday,
January 25, 1999
8:00 p.m.
OMAFRA Boardroom,
Walkerton
Members are welcome to attend
54 THE RURAL VOICE
446 10th St., Hanover, Ontario N4N 1P9
519-364-3050 or 1-800-275-9551
' The Rural Voice is provided to Bruce
County Farmers by the BCFA.
little received be used to look after
the family?
I'm wondering if we should be
paid according to how many units we
shipped (or flooded the market with)
or if we might consider what it costs
to feed, clothe and house the family.
To me, the question really becomes,
do we support commodities or farm
families? There is quite a difference.
Incidentally, it would be much less
expensive to support the few farm
families left in our rural communities
than to try to bail the over supply of
any major commodity.
Perhaps another approach could be
to set a low cap on the number of
units eligible for payout but raise the
amount of money per unit. This
would help smaller producers and not
reward those who are producing the
surplus. A further consideration
would be to base the payout on the
last five year's production and
discount for any expansion. A kind of
cap and handi-cap approach.
I believe our farm organizations
are at a crossroads. The type of
support we seek and achieve will
impact directly on the scale and type
of farms in production. We need to
ask ourselves: do we want a few large
scale, concentrated, corporate -style
commodity factories, or would we
rather have a large number of
smaller, diversified, interdependent
enterprises?
I wonder if the latter would
contribute toward the ideal of
thriving, viable, efficient, clean, safe
and enjoyable rural communities
we've come to desire.
Each program we undertake will
support or handicap one kind of
community or the other. What do we
really want?0
— Submitted by Gerald Poechman
Past President
ONTARIO ENVIRONMENTAL FARM PLAN
Schedule of Workshops
To help Bruce County Farmers to complete Environmental Farm Plans
Daytime Environmental Farm Plan Workshops will each have two sessions
scheduled one week apart.
Evening Environmental Farm Plan Workshops will have three sessions scheduled
one week apart.
Environmental Farm Plans will help Ontario farm families to identify simple,
practical goals for improving environmental quality.
Workshops are being conducted by your local Soil and Crop Improvement
Association, with funding provided by Agricultural and Agri -Food Canada through
the CanAdapt Program administered in Ontario by the Agriculture Adaptation
Council.
Walkerton
Arkwright
Walkerton
Ripley
1999 Workshops
January 13 & 20
February 8 & 15
Feb. 25, Mar. 4 & 11
March 23 & 30
10:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
10:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
10:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
To register call the Walkerton OMAFRA Office 881-3301 or 1-800-265-3025
For more information call John Wilton 367-2408