HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1998-12-02, Page 7A turn at page
Grey Twp. Reeve Robin Dunbar, left, presented Joel
Hemingway as page to the session of Huron County
council on Thursday. Also pictured it Warden Jack
Coleman.
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THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1998. PAGE 7.
Council supports cemetery restoration
Continued from page 4
wither?"
He explained that in a family
business like a family farm the
profit equals the return to labour,
management and capital and it
stays in the local community.. In a
corporation labour is purchased as
cheaply as possible and the profit is
the return to management and
capital and it leaves the
community.
His description of what occurs
with vertical integration and
concentration has particular
relevance to hog farmers today.
When four companies control 40
per cent or more of the market you
no longer have price competition..
To use hogs as an example, when
one major buyer stops buying this
is the signal to the others to exit the
market as well and let the price
plummet. The family farmer takes a
beating but the vertically integrated
operation makes up its losses on
the sale of its live hogs with the
increased margin on its packed and
processed product. It reaps an
additional bonanza at the expense
of family farmers when their losses
in the live market become its gain
at the packing plant.
Heffernen ended by saying that
Transnational Food Corporations
have taken over the control and
regulation of the food system from
national governments. In the U.S.
they are now saying only 20 to
30,000 farmers are needed to run
the globalized industrial food
system and are talking of how to
drive the remaining 720,000
commercial U.S. farmers from
agriculture in the next five to 10
years.
He said the faith community
must get involved and get
consumers involved by helping
them understand that this is a food
issue not just a farm issue.
The second speaker was Dennis
Howlett, director of Ten Days for
Global Justice. He said that the
farm crisis is part of a larger global
crisis. We are seeing an appalling
increase in the concentration of
wealth and power and the resulting
social and environmental damage.
But there is an alternative vision
growing which traces its roots to
the biblical concept of Jubilee. It is
becoming a global movement with
Jubilee campaigns now in 40
countries working to cancel the
debts of the 50 poorest countries in
the world. It is a recognition that
these countries have already paid
back much more than their original
loans but that the monetarist
policies of the Reagan and
Thatcher governments laid an
impossible interest burden on them.
As well much of this debt was
incurred by wealthy dictators and
elites whereas it is the poor and
middle class of these countries that
are now being.squeezed to repay
with disastrous social and
environmental results.
In Canada the Jubilee movement
is an ecumenical project of a
number of churches with a three-
year program. The theme for the
first year is "Release from
Bondage" and seeks to address the
slavery of debt bondage and sweat
shops through the power of
consumers to support ethical
production practices in addition to
a petition campaign to cancel third
world debts.
In year two "Redistribution of
Wealth" internationally and in
Canada is the focus. They will be
addressing obscene corporate
salaries, raising the minimum
wage, job creation, sustaining
social programs and a progressive
tax system.
Howlett said, "It is not wrong to
have abundance, our creation is
able to sustain life in abundance,
what is sinful is great wealth where
abundance is hoarded by the
powerful and stolen from the rest."
In the third year the theme is
"Renewal of the Earth" which will
look at ways to deal with global
climate change, pollution and
renewing our communities.
"We are at a crossroads of
Several Huron County council-
lors, at their Nov. 26 meeting,
voiced support for a group that has
opposed the county's removal of a
cairn marking the grave site of 124
former residents of the home.
Concerned about the weathering
of the tablets on the cairn, the coun-
ty had earlier approved removal of
the cairn, now in the middle of a
farm field, and placing the tablets
in the Huronview Chapel. But a
group led by Reg Thompson, Rhea
Hamilton-Seeger and Grace Adkins
appeared before the Nov. 12 meet-
ing of the Health and Seniors Com-
mittee to protest the action. They
asked the cairn be rebuilt and that
suffering and hope. But as
Apartheid and slavery were ended
so to can this be done," concluded
Howlett.
The third part of the day's
program was a panel discussion on
"Biotechnology: The Promise and
the Peril. John Langlois moderated
the discussion between Dr. Gordon
Surgeoner, Victor Daniels, myself
and Peter Johnson. Views ranged
from one holding that biotech is
just another tool which can be used
to improve yields and performance
to calling it a "Titanic" misadven-
ture which will lead to new
diseases and major unforseen
problems as have earlier
technologies.
The need for clear and accurate
labelling was stressed.
Daniels said people should write
Health Canada and their MP
demanding that they have labelling
information which will adequately
inform them.
Concern was also expressed that
with the growing concentration in
the seed industry and the terminator
technology that farmers are loosing
genetic diversity in the agricultural
system. During the panel discus-
sion I suggested that one way to
work toward a more localized food
the entire cemetery be fenced off.
For many years the only part of
the cemetery that was fenced off
was the cairn. The rest of the ceme-
tery has been returned to farm
fields since World War II.
The idea that the cemetery was
being used to grow crops upset
Goderich Reeve John Doherty. "I
don't think that is really a proper
action to take," he said, arguing in
favour of fencing the cemetery.
"This disturbed me quite a bit,"
said Bert Elliott, reeve of Morris
who said that he has made it a spe-
cial project, since he was elected
reeve in his township, to see all
cemeteries were properly main-
system would be for churches to
help link hog farmers in their rural
congregations with consumers so
that both could get a fair price.
The day ended with prayer. The
day was video and audio taped and
copies would be available from the
Catholic Rural Life Conference, at
P.O. Box 339, Dresden, ON.
Yours sincerely,
Tony McQuail.
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"We should really respect these
cemeteries," Elliott said. "They (the
people buried there) are the people
who helped found this county."
Often, he said, these people worked
under conditions we today couldn't
even begin to imagine.
Council authorized the Health
and Seniors Committee to meet
with the group and look at options
for the cemetery.
Writer among conference speakers
110 Queen St. N., Blyth 523-4700
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