The Rural Voice, 1989-02, Page 18And the OFA will be speaking out
about the progress of the GATT (Gen-
eral Agreement on Tariffs and Trade)
talks too. "It's just too important to be
sitting on the fence for political rea-
sons," George says.
DEBT REVIEW
Another tough issue is debt review.
"That's been a painful issue for OFA,"
George says. "It's one that I'm proud
that we tackled head on because it's an
issue that we've taken a lot of flak for
from both sides. We get flak from the
people who have no debt and wonder
what the heck we're doing even talk-
ing about it, and we get flak from the
people who are in it, thinking we're
not doing enough."
"It's obviously a very emotional
issue, on both counts. It's an emo-
tional issue for the people who are
going through debt review and it also
becomes an emotional issue for the
people who don't give a damn about
debt review because they just perceive
that OFA is doing nothing else than
trying to help people that shouldn't be
helped in the first place."
"Without OFA," he adds, "I don't
think we would have got debt review
in the first place. We put tremendous
pressure on the government at the
national level to CFA. CFA wouldn't
have had a policy on debt review if it
hadn't been for Brigid Pyke and Jack
Wilkinson (former OFA first vice-
president and now a "neighbour" of
the Georges in the Near North) — no
question about it."
OFA DIPLOMACY AND
COMMODITY BOARDS
The challenges that the OFA faces
in arriving at a firm decision about
controversial issues are long-standing,
however, an inevitable result of the
federation's diverse membership. The
most public sign of that diversity are
squabbles with commodity boards.
Commodity boards, George says,
don't always stop to think of the im-
pact of policy decisions on the agri-
cultural industry as a whole, and the
OFA's role as a general farm organ-
ization is critical.
"A lot of commodity boards have
changed very much in the last 10
years," George says. "They've
become a lot more powerful and well-
financed. It becomes a tough one."
"While we're never going to agree
on all issues," he adds, "I think that
we have to make more effort — and
so do they — to communicate and try
to develop some sort of cohesive
relationship." Otherwise, the OFA
and commodity boards waste time and
effort arguing among themselves and
duplicating their efforts, he says.
There is the positive side, too:
"People would think that the OFA was
at constant loggerheads with commo-
dity boards and that's far from the
truth. We might have three or four
issues that greatly divide us, but for
every issue we have where we might
be arguing, there are many many more
issues where we're working together."
CHECKOFF
Internally as well, the OFA has
some hard thinking to do, particularly
with the Ontario government's recent-
ly stated commitment to getting a
checkoff proposal worked out. The
checkoff, under which all farmers will
contribute to a general farm organiza-
tion (with the option of requesting a
refund), will bring an influx of much-
needed financial support for the OFA.
It will also mean new problems.
"If we look on the positive side,
there are more members and resour-
ces. That is exciting, but it is also
going to bring us many challenges...
16 THE RURAL VOICE