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The Rural Voice, 1987-10, Page 14Call and find out why Dairymen everywhere are falling in love with Starline's Grain Brain® Multi Feed System. WE HAVE THE ANSWER SELECT EQUIPMENT SALES R.R. 3, Dashwood 519-237-3205 HOG SLATS CAST IRON :4* 12" Wide x6" 8", 12" 8 24" long. Wrth these multiples, which can be bolted together with stainless steel bolts which are supplied with slats, it is possible to have many different lengths of span up to 48". Non slip sand cast surface. 9 GAUGE PUNCHED Metal -Black or GaNanlzed Up to 12" wide. Any length to 10' long. Buy Direct From ELAM M. MARTIN MACHINERY MANUFACTURING R.R. 3, Wallenstein, Ont. 519-669-3786 12 THE RURAL VOICE THE FARM CRISIS: SOME HARSH CONCLUSIONS Gene Whelan stood at the podium and wondered aloud why farmers aren't "screaming" about the financial attrition in their ranks. The long-time scrapper for farmer rights was more subdued in his rhet- oric than usual. He was giving a eulo- gy at the funeral of a friend and anoth- er battler, Barnie Evans of Embro. It's perhaps fitting that in my first column here I open with a tribute to Barnie. In his brave battle against cancer he continued to file a scrappy column to this gritty publication right up until the month of his death. Following the funeral service, I told Whelan I am as baffled as he is about the silence in the farmers' ranks. I'm a city boy, and Whelan's a country boy. But we both were born and raised in one another's back yard — I in Windsor and Whelan in Essex County just outside the city. We'd talked before about the lack of farmer protest. We think there's more of a 'tendency in Windsor and Essex County natives than in other Ontarians to take no guff when times get tough. It's a healthy habit the so-called Bad Boys from Bruce County display. Too bad it's not catching. I'm not talking revolt here, just standing your ground when you've been wronged. As an outside observer with no farm ideology axe to grind, I'd say the farm community has been wronged. That isn't to say, however, that the farm community is blameless. If it's had any flaw, it's naivety. Responding to chronic food shortages in the 1970s, government, academic, and banking "experts" called on farmers to feed a starving world by getting bigger and better. It was a seductive call because it allowed farmers to kill two birds with one stone — they could be do-gooders and at the same time make a buck. Farmers around the world re- sponded to the challenge so well that they've created huge surpluses and in effect driven many of their own out of business. In hindsight, borrowing to get bigger served only to sink many farmers in a barrel of debt. After covering the growing farm crisis continually for eight years, I've come to some harsh conclusions: • Despite media reports on the crisis which should serve as a warn- ing, many farmers will ignore their downfall until their notes are called. • The farm press in general has committed the cardinal sin of journal- ism; they've ignored the farm crisis, put their heads in the sand, and left the reporting up to the urban media. • "I'm all right Charlie" farmers can be the harshest critics of their failing neighbours. City folk are more likely to sympathize. Government response to the crisis has been scatterbrained and wasteful, both in terms of money and people. However, before government can be forced to get it together, farmers will have to put their own house in order. Unfortunately, that appears unlikely. Farm commodity meetings are often as informative for what can be observed in the audience as for what is said from the podium. When rapid attrition struck the beef industry in the early 1980s, I started to notice a signi- ficant change in the makeup of the audience at the annual Ridgetown College beef day. Not only did total numbers decline, but so did the num- ber of energetic young farmers attend- ing. Many young beef producers have long since been culled from the herd. While counting grey heads isn't a particularly accurate barometer, I've noticed that as the greying factor rises, the vitality of ideas declines. This loss of vigour can't be good for any group. I most recently observed this greying of delegates at the meeting of the Ontario Corn Producers' Associa- tion in early September. Fortunately, vigour still remains on the executive and in the administration.° GORD WAINMAN HAS BEEN AN URBAN -BASED AGRICULTURE REPORTER FOR 12 YEARS.