The Rural Voice, 1999-03, Page 3Editor: 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
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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
Dreaming of perfect crops
In covering the farm scene in powers a few months earlier.
western Ontario off and on for 29 Attending the meetings was like
years, the greatest change I've
witnessed has been the retreat of
farmers into an individual world.
Once working together for their
common good brought dozens of
people to even monthly meetings of
farm organizations, but it has become
increasingly difficult to get farmers to
leave their own farm to work for the
good of their enure industry. In the
1970s there were elections for all
executive posts with Federations of
Agriculture. In the 1990s nominating
committees had to beat the bushes to
find enough people to fill the seats at
the executive table — and sometimes
even that wasn't successful.
So it seemed like old times to go
to the annual meetings of the Perth
and Huron Pork Producers'
Associations and see elections for the
council positions. (We have reports
on both meetings.) In Huron, 40
people sought 29 positions. Stirred by
the truly shocking prices of the past
few months, producers at both
meetings demanded united support
for the same marketing board that
some were ready to strip of its
watching the clock roll back before
your very eyes to a time when
farmers strongly believed in working
together. Perhaps even hard times
bring some benefits.
Speaking of turning back the
clock, while the image of horse-
drawn sleds and sap buckets sell
surrounds the maple syrup industry,
those tools are generally long gone
from the sugar bush. But for her
story this month Sandra Orr visited a
Lucknow-area Mennonite family that
still makes syrup the laborious, old-
fashioned way.
Compared to the Stecklc Family at
Huron Ridge Acres near Zurich, even
maple syrup producers get a slow
start on the season. Don, Carol,
Kevin and Lorraine Steckle have
been "harvesting" their crop all
winter, sending potted plants from
their greenhouse to the Ontario
Flower Growers' Co-operative.
Also this month reports from the
Centralia Swine Research Update and
a story on research being done to
control fusarium in corn, plus much
more.0 — Keith Roulston
Update
The politics of hemp production
The hemp industry was born a year ago this month with a decision by federal
health minister Alan Rock to allow the legal growing of hemp in Canada for the
first time since 1938. (We covered stories in February and August 1998.) But
growers who thought the political battle was over have found out differently.
The relationship between hemp and its look-alike cousin, marijuana, still
makes some authorities nervous. They worry about marijuana, with its higher
level of the halucinatory drug THC, being grown under the cover of a legitimate
hemp industry.
In a recent issue of The Grower, the newspaper for the horticultural industry,
Editor Jamie Reaume tells a story of a press conference for The Body Shop that
drew the ire of government. The chain of "green" beauty products shops' planned
to announce a new line of skin -care products made from hemp oil but Health
Canada threatened to seize any hemp -oil products sent to Canadian outlets. The /
press conference went ahead but all the products had to be glued onto a table to
avoid being in violation of the regulations.
Meanwhile The Body Shop's chief chemist met with Health Canada officials
who were apparently worried about multiple exposures to hemp oil. Eventually
the situation was cleared up and the product was put on sale the next day.
Hemp oil is an important potential market for hemp growers. The oil is one of
the richest sources of essential fatty acids and on the skin helps prevent moisture
loss long term.0