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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1995-01-04, Page 18Cl k Page 18 Times -Advocate, January 4, 1995 Fun in the snow Students from Precious Blood School make the most of the first day back to school after the Christmas holidays. Sundt y evening's drop in temperature and snowfall made for perfect sliding conditions in the playground. ANNOI!NCI:NIIi,N'I'S Angelo's Pizza Now Open in Exeter Wed. to Sun. 12 noon - 10 p.m. Exeter LIONS TV BINGO Game #1: Anne Lawrence, $50; Game #2: Claire Damm $50; Game #3: Irene Kenney, $50; Game #4: Deb Price, Duane Costain, Elaine Riley, $25. ea.; Game #5 Ken !rich $100. Jackpot $100. Rita Lessard Exeter Legion Ladies Auxiliary BINGO Thurs., Jan. 5 7:00 p.m. 10 Regular Games 5 Specials 1 Share the Wealth Jackpot $650 No one under 18 admitted Lic. #M125539 care DANCE HALL 9 p.m. - 1 a.m. 349-2678 Line dancers welcome Fri., Jan. 6 Shades Sat., Jan. 7 Lee Davidsonn& Sagebrush Vilit)/f#0101301Wif Lucan Community Centre Bingo Wed. Jan. 4 Bingo starts 7:30 p.m. Regular Games $1000 Jackpot Game 55 calls or Tess $1200 bonus r\ Total prizes $3000 Due to the licence regulations, no one under 18 allowed to play Licence «537495 znznnzxzxxxXZX; Happy 20th Ci Birthday Puy From Everyone XX - 1111 .:XXIXXXIIX It(' l\I.'sS 1)11 11(1 'TIES! \I()\1 1 1'U(t1;1 1 \IS? :1(.(.01 \1 O\I id )P \w\ 111:111\11 1\ 1'O1 R I' \\ \II \ 1 • FOR RFT ( ()\tit I. t.\1lO\ (.II PAUL ,J. PICKERI\(► TRl Sll.l. I\ It1\FR' Pit 1 .1\1) 11\A\(:I.IL C.0\oI.TI\(. J. Paul Aitken, \tanager 3 R 11 L1•:\Itt RY ST. L.. (I I\1'O\ (519) -182-1241 or Toll I.rcc 1.800.561-'•151 Ik:uI 1 tllicc 111 \1;113 rloo `trcct. London (,-2-2 tot ARE YOU HUNGRY FOR GOD? Each Saturday Evening in January Exeter Pentecostal Tabemacle presents Winter Camp Meeting '95 Anointed preaching, believing God for miracles 7:00 p.m. January 7, 14, 21 & 28 Exeter Pentecostal Tabernacle, Exeter. Telephone (519) 235-2991 GAR'S' BAR & GRILL 236.2773 Buy one medium plea and get 10 wings FREE Qther menu hot snots, home( style 6 oz. burgers, English style fish & chips. at in or take out :r..r�.r.�.f✓.f✓s..r..rr.�..rrr✓..r✓..r_'�..r..r.1��.�.1-.r✓..r..rrrffJ Happy 90th Birthday Charles Hendy Love . your family Open House Sun., Jan. 8, 2.5p.m. at the home of Doug and Donelda Lewis, Credlton "No gifts please" Country & Western Dance Lessons Dashwood Community Centre Line Dance Lessons: Starting Wcd., Jan. 11 • Intermediate, 7 - 8:30 p.m. Thurs., Jan. 12• Beginners, 7 to 8:30 p.m. Thurs., Jan. 12 - Intermediate 8:30 to 10 p.m. partners/Couples Lessons. Starting Fri., Jan. 13 - 8 to 10 p.m. Times subject to -change due to response. limited spaces available. Call to register after 5 p.m. Buckles, Boots 'N Spurs Joe Arnold Sharon Romphf 237-3558 237-3248 Members of the National Teachers Association XXXXXXXXuXXXXXXZXXXX 1 Happy 75tb Birthday Mildred Jones 11 Sun., Jan. 8/95 11 open Beim= 1-5p.m. 84 Gidley St. Exeter Best wishes only Ctrl Away3�3-$"' of*Ear� *; sr Our office is:happy to announce that we are currently fitting a cow* pletely in -the -Canal hearing instru- ment. This remarkable new hearing instnxnent is not ony more discreet and comfortable to wear, but may also provide important hearing bene fits because of its deep placement n the ear canal. The Tympanette is the smallest hearing instrument ever manufac- tured by Starkey Laboratories, the world's leading manufacturer of cus- tom hearing instruments. Its extremely small size wit be very pop ular, so call now for your hearing assessment and consultation. CaII today to schedule your appointment. THE HEARING CARE CENTRE: 1 RUTLEDGE STREET, UNIT 15 LONDON, ON (51%473-2700 • Serving you locally 11: WALTHER§ PHARMACY: MITCHELL 348-8833 CLINTON PHARMACY: CLINTON 482-5037 DUNLOP BIG V DRUG STORE: GODERICH 524-2195 HURON APOTHECARY: EXETER 235-1982 GRAND BEND BIG V DRUG STORE: GRAND BEND 238-8540 .•..••. 1 Federal announcement TORONTO - Ontario Premier Bob Rae and Minister of Agricul- ture, Food and Rural Affairs Elmer Buchanan welcomed the Decem- ber 22 announcement by the feder- al government regarding a new na- tional program that will provide a $70 -million, government - guaranteed line of credit to eligible manufacturers or ethanol. "I'm pleased that the federal government has decided to come on board in our commitment to supporting this promising industry with its National Biomass Ethanol Program," Premier Rae said. "With this announcement, the eth- anol industry will be able to create jobs and investment in rural Onta- rio, as well as providing consu- mers with a more environmentally sound fuel." According to the Ontario Corn Producers' Association, the Com- mercial Alcohols facility alone will provide a new market for an estimated 20 million bushels of Ontario corn. A similar facility is being proposed by the Seaway Valley Farmers' Energy Co- operative of eastern Ontario. The federal announcement in- cluded a commitment to maintain the exemption for the duration of • its current mandate. Ontario's Eth- anol Manufacturers' Agreements have been offered since February 1994 and secure for 15 years the 14.7 cent per litre provincial road tax exemption for ethanol. Ontario also committed $5 million in infra- structure funding to support the proposed Commercial Alcohols plant, and financed a number of studies on the industry over the past four years. "Early on, we recognized the po- tential this industry had for diversi- fying and boosting the rural econo- my," Premier Bob Rae said. "We're confident that the invest- ments we've made will be re -paid many times over in the positive ef- fect a strong ethanol industry will have on the people who work and live in rural Ontario." Canadian farmers expanding They are reacting in "a business like way" GUELPH - Canadian farmers are feeling good about the future. So says Tom Funk, a professor of agri- cultural economics and business who recently surveyed 1,000 farm- ers. "They're optimistic about the fu- ture' and realistic about what they have to do to compete, so they're expanding," says Funk. "They know they need to either be more specialized or more diversified to stay competitive in the changing market, and that means getting bigger." Funk says the upbeat attitude has a lot to do with the GATT and free trade agreements. After years of un- certainty, farmers now know that traditional pillars in some agricultu- ral sectors, such as marketing boards and production quotas in dairy and poultry, will fall away. As a result, they can plan accord- ingly. Funk says farmers are reacting in "a business -like way." For dairy and poultry producers, that means expanding, spreading costs over more units of production. Grain producers, who have been subject to price fluctuations in traditional commodities such as wheat, are di- versifying in search of income sta- bility and capturing some niche or expanding market opportunities. They're planning to delve into the likes of sunflowers, vegetables, len- tils and - in some cases - exotic livestock such as reindeer. They're also considering more independent initiatives such as roadside sales, direct contracts with supermarkets and some on-farm processing. Farmers are making the adjust- ment," says Funk. "Right now, they don't know exactly what crops they'll be growing or how many an- imals they'll be raising, but they're determined to stay with it and be part of agriculture." Funk's survey was distributed across the country to corn, soy, wheat, barley, canola, potato, dairy, hog, beef and poultry producers. "I believe this study turned out better than any similar survey ever carried out in terms of obtaining responses and in the quality of those respons- es," says Funk. "Farmers valued the opportunity to say what was on their minds." Some of those findings are: • Economic: In the face of the GATT the free trade agreements, Canadian farmers are less worried about the survival of their business,. financing and getting better value for their money than their U.S. counterparts, whom Funk surveyed last year. He found Americans more disgruntled and unhappy with farming as an occupation than Ca- nadians. • Regional: Canadian farmers' re- sponse to expansion varied greatly from region to region. In the grain - intensive west, farmers are the most likely to be looking for diversifica- tion opportunities. Ontario farmers are most likely to rent more land. Quebec farmers are on the lookout for specialization opportunities, and the main goal of Atlantic farmers is to minimize cost per unit of input. • Environmental: Meeting new regulations regarding environmen- tal practices was considered a sig- nificant challenge. As in the States, Canadian farmers plan to use more environmental consultants in the fu- ture. • Assets: With the farm economy depressed for so long, farmers were not replacing pricey items that were somewhat discretionary, such as machinery. Now, they have to be- cause the old machines are wearing out. And they're concerned about where they'll get the money to re- place them. Funk's survey was conducted in co-operation with the Canadian farm publications Country Guide, Farm & Country, Grainews and Lc Bulletin. Seed funding for the sur- vey was provided by Agriculture and Agri -Food Canada. One Foot in the Furrow By Bob Trotter Fewer farmers producing more food Statistics can be used t ) prove almost anything but they are useful so. 'etimes as warning signals. A worrisome figure tor a world with an increas- ing population is the reality that the land base in Ontario for green, growing things has dropped alarmingly in the last 40 years. The number of acres farmed in Ontario was 14.1 million in 1954. Forty years later, it has dropped to just under 13.5 million acres, a decrease of more than 600,000 acres. The unfortunate part of this decrease, I believe, although I have no figures to back up my claim, is that most of this acreage is gone forever, buried under new subdivisions, parking lots and shop- ping malls. Some of those acres have simply been aban- doned as not worth farming because the land takes too much time and money to become pro- ductive. "We are retreating to the best land in the prov- ince and that process is still going on," said El- bert van Donkersgoed, research direetor for the Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario. I can, I guess, live with the figures that indicate how fewer and fewer farmers are producing ,more and more food. The number of farms in Ontario fell dramatically from 140,602 in 1954 to only 68,633 between 1954 and 1994 which is one helluva drop. No wonder farmers represent only about 2.5 percent of the population, a drop from five percent in 1954. However, it is one of the most significant sectors of the economy, generat- ing more than $6 billion annually. Those who believe farmers are loathe to accept. change or maybe tied too closely to tradition should have a close look at these figures: The number of dairy cows in the province has fallen from 3.1 million in 1954 to about 650,000 today yet that amazingly lower number of cows are pro- ducing almost as much milk. This indicates to me that technology adopted by farmers in the last 40 years has increased milk production per cow tremendously. We all know that milk consumption has fallen but not to the ex- tent that the drop in the number of milk cows sug- gests. The most astounding figures for me, though, were those for chickens which dropped from 69:4 million to 28.6 million, more than half. I thought, with the huge demand for chicken and the fast food places featuring chicken in many ways, that the number of chickens would be much higher. It is not surprising that beef herds in the prov- ince have dropped. From 7.1 million head to just 1.5 million. The consumption of red meat has dropped with the emphasis today on healthier eat- ing. Consumption is projected to be only 24.5 kg per person next year, down almost half from the 45.5 kg of beef we ate each year in the 1970s. I hope, along with a few thousand beef produc- ers in this province, that the new beef labelling system, slated to begin early this year, will help beef sales. The Ontario Cattlernen's Association has been seeking this new system for years so that consu- mers get the truth and nothing but the truth when they buy beef. Retail meat counters will have to carry packaging labels or signs indicating the cor- rect grade. Beef advertising will have to show the grade being offered and the advertised prices. Un- graded beef will have to be marked as such or dis- played in places clearly marked. I think consumers will be more than happy to adapt tb the new system. They will have the nec- essary information right in front of them in the meat shelves to choose between high quality On- tario beef and foreign products that may be cheap- er but not as high in quality. Goodness knows, beef products need something to help them these days as do the hog producers whose prices have dropped to the level where they were 40 years a`go. Who do you know who is getting the same price for their product today as they were getting 40 years ago??