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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2004-01-29, Page 4Publisher, Keith Roulston Editor, Bonnie Gropp Advertising, Jamie Peters and Alicia deBoer The Citizen is published 50 times a year in Brussels, Ontario by North Huron Publishing Company Inc. Subscriptions are payable in advance at a rate of $30.00/year ($28.04 + $1.96 G.S.T.) In Canada; $80.00/year in U.S.A. and $100/year in other foreign countries, Advertising is accepted on the condition that in the event of a typographical error, only that portion of the advertisement will be credited. Advertising Deadlines: Monday, 2 p.m. - Brussels; Monday, 4 p.m. - Blyth. We are not responsible for unsolicited newsscripts or photographs. Contents of The Citizen are © Copyright We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Publications Assistance Program (PAP) toward our mailing costs. Publications Mail Reg. No. 09244 Canadian Publication Mall Agreement No. 40050141 The Citizen P.O. Box 429, BLYTH, Ont. NOM 1140 Phone 523-4792 FAX 523-9140 P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, Ont. NOG 1H0 Phone 887-9114 FAX 887-9021 E-mail norhuron@scsinternet.com Website www.northhuron.on.ca OCna 4C4NA Member of the Ontario Press Council ,gt ','<nos" MILEOZONI BOY, LOOK, AT THIS LIST: STEALING CASH aoPRoPERTY, SELLING WEAPONS auto DRUGS. SEXUAL ASSAULT... ADD TO THAT UNLAWFUL CONFINEMENT, SWARMING, BEATINGS, ASSAULTING POLICE, FALSE TESTIMONY, SHOOTING DEATH, RACISM, AND MORE. Looking Back Through the Years Jan. 29, 1959 The Brussels United Church held a potluck dinner. Poor weather conditions limited the number of people who attended Pollard's Chain Saw Jamboree. During the annual county meeting of the Ontario Farm Union, Mrs. A Nesbit of Auburn, suggested that everyone should write to their member of parliament concerning the rabies disease. Newspaper columnist Marie Torre, appeared to the media, holding her daughter in her New York home after being released from jail. She served 10-days for contempt of court for refusing to tell a, judge the source of a disputed news item about singer Judy Garland. Brussels council decided to give the library $750 for supplies. Jan. 23, 1969 The Brussels recreation committee appointed its members for the year. They were: Ted MacLean as chairman, James Prior as secretary-treasurer, Roy Cousins, Max Oldfield, Jim Valiance, Jack McDonald and Jack McCutcheon. After 20 years, Hugh Pearson resigned from the recreation committee as chairman. Morris councillors decided to give a $15 grant to St. John Ambulance. Jan. 26, 1972 Huron County plowmen and the the local committee of Perth plowmen pulled together to host the Huron Plowing Match. Brussels Lions member Gordon McGavin, who was in charge of the World's Thunder Mug event at the Polar Daize program, kept a close eye on the activities to see that competitiors followed all the rules of the contest. Preparations were being made in Brussels for the February visit of the minor hockey teams from Garden City, Michigan. Jan. 25, 1989 All the students in Grades 2 to 8 at East Wawanosh Public School became "Armchair Travellers" for two days during a special enrichment program designed to allow everyone involved to visit four countries of their choice over the course of the project. After only one month in office, there was a split on Blyth council that was eventallly taken to the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs. The Blyth Bears Girls Volleyball team were the top winners in a tournament at St. Joseph's School in Clinton. Jim Hunter of Belgrave was elected president of the Brussels Agricultural Society. Craig Metzger, a student working with the Huron County Planning Department and Joanne Richter, project co-ordinator with the Huron County Waste Management Master Plan, looked at graphs on display at the first public meeting. Fred Meier of Brussels, was elected chairman of the Board of Gay Lea Foods Co-operative Limited. Morris Township began recycling some of its garbage, making it the third municipality to implement the recycling plan. Jan. 1994 Despite fighting a fire for several hours, volunteers from the Blyth Fire Department were unable to save a home in Moths Twp. A 21-year-old gas station worker was taken to Victoria Hospital in London after being beaten during a robbery. Hullett Twp. was struck with two burglaries on Jan. 12 during the working hours. Blyth Public School girls volleyball team topped Clinton Public School by just three points during a tournament making them the championship winners. Christina DeWit was the winner of the Jeanne Ireland award for highest points in school work exhibits at the 1993 Brussels Fall Fair. Jennifer Cucksey won the Brussels Agricultural Society 4-H Horse Club award. Grey council received favourable financial statements from the township auditor indicating an accumulated surplus of $105,000 due in part to lower costs for calcium chloride and a new truck that was not being fitted with snowplow equipment. The Blyth Sno-Travellers clubhouse celebrated its grand opening. Ron Jamieson of: Lucknow got a surprise when his five-year-old Holstein cow gave birth to triplets. Jan. 27, 1999 F.E. Madill Principal Wayne Tessier talked to concerned Brussels parents and students, about a proposal which would see a boundary change resulting in local students attending Seaforth District High School rather than Madill. Blyth Public School student Kirk Stewart presented a plaque to Eldon Montgomery of the Friends of the Environment Foundation, to say thank you on behalf of the student body for donating $500. Brussels Lions donated uniforms to the Brussels Novice Houseleague and Rep teams. Brussels-area pork producers Cathy and Jeff Cardiff, were presented with the Producers of the Year award at the annual meeting of the Huron County Pork Producers' Association. Huronlea in Brussels was given the all-clear after being closed for 14 days due to a large number of flu cases at the facility. PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JANUARY 29, 2004. Editorials Opinions Opportunity for change in food The cover and a large portion of the inside of last week's Maclean's magazine was devoted to concerns about whether Canada's food is safe. CBC's The National ran a series of programs on the issue and The Nature of Things did a two-part series on the effects of large-scale animal agriculture on the environment. There's obviously a lot of concern out there among urban consumers about their food and how it is produced. There's a lot of worry on the producer side of things too. Ron Woodisse, president of the Ontario Cattlemen's Association recently spoke of a window of opportunity to change his industry as producers realize they have no bargaining power in a system built on a free market that depended on sales to U.S. packers who now can't export cattle. Canada has already been losing farmers at an astounding rate (some 34,000 between 1991 and 2001) even before the current BSE crisis hammered the beef and sheep industries. Of those farming in 2001, 80 per cent of their income came from off-farm jobs. Whether you're talking about the consumer or the producer, there's obviously something wrong with the food industry. Part of the problem is that to produce cheap food, it has become an "industry". Where once consumers grew their own food or lived near, and often bought directly from those who did, today the gap between the source of food and those eating that food has widened. And as U.S. farm and food activist Bill Heffernan points out, between the many food producers and the even more abundant consumers, all contact is controlled by a tiny number of processing and retailing corporations, turning the food "Industry" into a sort of hour-glass with a constricted middle. In the current situation, the "Marketing The Tastes of Huron" conference held in Clinton last week, looked at taking tiny baby steps in finding ways to bring consumers and producers together, simplifying the process of putting fresh, quality food on the tables of homes and restaurants. Despite the fact that Huron County produces more farm gate income than any of the four Atlantic provinces, the modern, concentrated food industry has not treated this breadbasket of the province well.. Little of the bounty of the county is processed here, and though our farms are so well kept they appear prosperous, the number of farms continues to drop yearly. The problem,, is, how do you change the entrenched system to make it favour producers rather than the middlemen when Canadian consumers see so little need to change while their supermarkets are heaped with cheap, attractive-looking fruits, vegetables, meats and processed foods? The current concerns expressed in the media may provide a small opening. But in a system that increasingly depends on big business can these changes be made? Look at agricultural research, for instance. Where once our governments sponsored research that was in the best interest of farmers, research must now be co-sponsored by private industry, assuring no radical alternatives to the current system will be attempted. One chance to change the situation locally has been the Huron Good Food Box, sponsored by the Huron County Health Unit. It connected producers of fresh fruits and vegetables to consumers through a monthly box of nutritious, fresh produce. The Field To Table Network, which sponsored the "Marketing the Tastes of Huron" conference, had hoped to use the Good Food Box program to put more locally-grown food on the plates of more consumers by expanding the customer base (there are currently 300 buyers each month) and adding more products, perhaps becoming a sort of wholesaler of locally produced food. The problem is that even though the money people pay for their Good Food Box covers the cost of the fruits and vegetables it contains, it takes someone to organize the whole process. The dream has been that the expansion of the program would eventually lead to it becoming self- sufficient but to get the ball rolling, the co-ordinator of the project has been employed on a grant. Recently Huron County council's committee of the whole said it couldn't afford to fund that position. So it comes back to the question of how do you change a system that many producers and consumers are unhappy with when governments are cutting back and private industry has no incentive to change. How do you convince the heads of the franchises who control local food chains, for instance, that it's in their best interest to let local store managers stock locally-grown foods if there is no competition from something like the Good Food Basket program? We've got a long way to go before we really change the food system to benefit producers, consumers, and small retailers not big business.— KR Letter to the editor THE EDITOR, Groups, individuals, churches, I would like to acknowledge all businesks and schools cared those who worked so very hard to enough to make a difference. help make the Huron County This year the Wingharrr Bureau Christmas Bureau such a great provided assistance to 173 children success this year, for every prayer of and their families. Surely this is a support and word of encouragement, reflection of the true meaning of for the countless hours of work Christmas. which so many put into advertising, God bless you all. collecting, organizing and Wingham Bureau, Sacred Heart distributing. Church.