The Rural Voice, 1989-02, Page 17told himself, "I don't want to go
there." But soon after he came across
an advertisement in the British Farm-
er's Weekly: farm managers wanted.
Within weeks — "papers came flying
through the mail" -- he was installed
at the Powassan farm managing the
owner's 80 -sow farrow to finish
operation. And while Roger, lured by
the forestry industry, had plans to
move to British Columbia before long,
those plans were laid aside when,
married after one of Roger's return
trips to England, the Georges bought
into the farm and eventually bought
the owner out.
"We bought this place at the top of
the market," Roger adds. "We did all
the classic things: we borrowed a lot
of money, we bought a lot of expen-
sive equipment, we put up new build-
ings and bought land, and we got
caught in the same cost -price squeeze
everyl•,ody else did. So in '83 when
we had to make some decisions on a
major financial restructuring it became
very clear either make some tough
decisions and stick it out or take the
easy decision and get the heck out of
the business."
The decision was helped along by
a talk with Jean -Jacques Blais, then
the local Member of Parliament, who
encouraged the Georges to stick it out.
The farmers of northern Ontario, he
told them, needed a voice from the
north. "Try the tough way," said
Blais.
They did. "We sold land, we sold
machinery, we sold livestock, and we
did a total restructuring package, and
we brought some more capital over
from Britain." In 1981, they were
instrumental in the founding of the
East Nipissing and Parry Sound
Federation of Agriculture. In 1984
Roger was elected to the OFA
Executive Committee.
"I realized after that," George says
of the crisis on the home farm, "that
the best thing I could do for Ontario
agriculture would not be to produce
my 2,000 pigs a year — there are
plenty of other people who are going
to put the bacon on the table. I real-
ized that my contribution to Ontario
agriculture may well be in the direc-
tion of policy and leadership, and that
if I had any skills in that area I'd give
it a try."
Today the farm is modest but
successful. The valley bears 110 acres
of barley and another 60 acres are in
grass. The sheep are unprecedentedly
free from attacks by wolves thanks to
five miles of wire fence carrying 7,000
volts. The flock has grown from the 8
the Georges first accepted in lieu of
Roger and Rosemary George
payment on a debt owed to 100.
Since 1984, they've marketed 500 to
600 pigs a year, all to a local abattoir
— producers don't work through the
pork marketing board up in Powassan.
Rosemary keeps very busy.
"We get flak from the
people who have no debt and
wonder what the heck we're
doing even talking about it,
and we get flak from the
people who are in it, thinking'
we're not doing enough."
And Roger continues to develop
his broadly based perspective on rural
life and policy. "He's a fast study,"
says OFA president Brigid Pyke.
"He's works diligently on every issue
that comes up. Certainly he has a
desire to make inroads into new
policy areas that would strengthen
agriculture."
George's perspective is one that
owes much to his political history as a
farmer, which began when he cut his
teeth in the Young Farmers of Britain
(as did Rosemary, who was a county
vice-chairman in the organization).
"The Young Farmers over there," he
notes, "are political."
"Here Junior Farmers are just
apolitical. I think that's pathetic.
We were very political. My county
(George was county chairman) fought
against Britain going into the Com-
mon Market. For good reason. We
lost our fruit industry in our county
back then ... Europe has been good to
Britain over the long term, but some
major changes had to be made, and
when I go back there now, agricul-
ture's totally different in my county."
He pauses before noting the
connection. "I feel that I've been
through this before."
FREE TRADE
"This" is the analogy that can be
loosely drawn between Britain's
adjustment to the Common Market
and the adjustments Canadian farmers
will face under free trade with the U.S.
"I think free trade could conceivably
be good in the long term for Canada,"
he says, "but there are going to be
some segments of the industry that
are going to have to face some major
upheavals."
"Farmers have got to be prepared
to be flexible ... they're going to have
to either go with the flow or to change
their business. It's as simple as that."
And there remain many unan-
swered questions about the free trade
deal. George refers to it as "still only
half written," adding that farmers need
to do some market assessment to find
out just what opportunities are out
there.
The OFA position on free trade,
a rejection of the agreement, was a
difficult one to reach, he adds. But
George is proud of the OFA's re-
sponse to the issue. "If there was one
time in our 51 years of history that we
should not have been sitting on the
fence it was on this particular issue,
and regardless of whether we were
right or we were wrong, l think we can
look back and say that at least OFA
spoke out." (cont'd)
FEBRUARY 1989 15