The Rural Voice, 1988-06, Page 89GREY
446 10th St., Hanover, Ontario N4N 1P9
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• The Rural Voice is provided to all Grey
County Farmers by the GCFA.
County Federation of Agriculture NEWSLETTER
MEET THE MEMBERS MEETING
On April 9, we held our annual
"Meet the Members" meeting. This
was also our year to host the Tommy
Cooper Award and the two events
held together made an excellent day
well worth attending.
This year's winner of the Tommy
Cooper Award was Don Hill, our past
president of the Grey County federa-
tion. Congratulations, Don, you have
worked hard and given much of your-
self to serve and promote agriculture.
The other nominees have also made a
big contribution to serving mankind
and I give my thanks to each of you
for your many accomplishments. The
Sun Times and CFOS Radio share in
the promotion of the Tommy Cooper
Award and have the honour of making
the presentation to the winner. The
Sun Times and CFOS do an excellent
job of covering agricultural news and
we say thank you. Keep up the good
work.
The Members of Parliament were
sent a copy of our Brief prior to the
meeting and each gave a five-minute
response to our concerns. Ron Lipsett
explained some of the problems that
come with being new to the political
arena. Mr. Lipsett agreed with most
of our concerns and told us of the
many things the Ontario government
has done for us. (Unfortunately we
didn't know what Nixon's budget
held in store for us at the time.) The
check -off proposal for funding farm
organizations is one that the Grey
County federation favours. Mr.
Lipsett didn't sound like he really
liked the idea. I hope, Ron, when you
express your views in parliament, that
you express the views of your con-
stituents and not your personal views.
Gary Gurbin on free trade said that
the signing of the agreement will
enhance mainly what we have already
been doing with the United States.
Gus Mitges responded to a question
about chemical use and said checks
90 THE RURAL VOICE
were done on imported produce to
ensure standards were kept. The
question was rephrased and Gus was
told that we were also concerned with
chemical use and if we in Canada can-
not use a chemical, then any country
that uses that chemical cannot import
produce grown with that chemical into
Canada. Gus also said that one of our
biggest problems as farmers is not
being united in our approach to issues
and government — we don't say the
same thing. He said we have to get
our act together. Gus, you are
absolutely right.
We are facing a very big and
dangerous situation in agriculture if
we don't come to grips with questions
such as: 1. Who is going to speak for
farmers? 2. Who is going to pay for
the food we grow (government subsi-
dies or the market place)? 3. Who is
going to hold and sponsor information
meetings, etc.? 4. Are we inadver-
tently cutting out some of the services
of OMAF and using our own money
to sponsor what the government paid
for in the past? 5. Are we listening to
too many outside influences that pros-
per as we farmers are not united and
bicker amongst ourselves? 6. Are we
willing to individually do something
to help ourselves? 7. Are we going to
keep the (umbrella organization)
Ontario Federation of Agriculture and
the Canadian Federation alive and
healthy? It is the only way we will
survive the future, in my opinion.
The list of questions goes on and
on. I hope you feel inclined to express
your views and I welcome your
comments.°
Murray Clarke
President
REGIONAL
DIRECTORS
NORTH GREY Case Vanderham
R. R. 1, Holland
Centre
794-3561
EAST GREY Clay Schwegler
R. R. 1, Flesherton
924-2770
SOUTH GREY Bill Pullen
R. R. 1, Proton
Station
23-6734
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