The Rural Voice, 1987-09, Page 35NEWS
FULLER TO STUDY
DIVERSIFICATION
Like Canada and the U.S., Europe
has an oversupply of agricultural prod-
ucts. But many European farmers have
taken it upon themselves to diversify,
thus saving their farms.
Over the next five years, University
of Guelph professor Tony Fuller will
lead a $5.4 million investigation into
how 7,500 European farm families have
managed to survive the poor fortunes of
the industry.
The study, commissioned by the Eu-
ropean Economic Community (EEC)
and managed by the Arkelton Trust, a
European -based independent educa-
tional foundation, will involve 25 study
areas in 12 European countries. Fuller is
research advisor on the project and is the
only non-European involved.
A rural geographer, Fuller studied in
Britain and Italy and has published
many articles and a book on part-time
farming. What European farmers have
done to survive the farm crisis could
serve as a model to other countries, he
says. Some 87 per cent of all European
farm families (a rate far higher than in
Canada) eam more income from their
non -farming efforts than they do from
farming.
European farmers have diversified
on their own intitiative, Fuller notes.
The problem in North America, he says,
is that the government and the public
expect farmers to be all or nothing. "We
keep insisting that they should be full-
time farmers, or something else alto-
gether."
Fuller suggests that governments
might provide farmers with funding for
processing equipment or renovations
instead of providing them with incen-
tives to produce more food when there is
already a surplus.
The study is intended to generate
recommendations on how European
governments can promote a diversifica-
tion policy. Less dependency on farm-
ing will put less pressure on the land in
the form of chemicals and machinery,
Fuller says. When the need for more
agricultural outputs swings the other
way again, the land and the farmers will
still be there, and the ecological savings
in the meantime will have been consid-
erable.0
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ack Riddell
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• 14 Year Veteran in the
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ON SEPTEMBER 10
RE-ELECT
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da't
IBERAL
SEPTEMBER 1987 ' 3