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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance-Times, 1975-01-30, Page 151 4 i 0 0 Crossroads the weekly bonus in your Listowel Banner, Wingbaw Advance - Times, and Mount Forest Confe- derate is read by 33,E people in the "heartland of Midwestern Ontario". (Based on 305 readers in each of 9,600 homes.) Published every wool( in The Listowel Banner, The Wingham Advance -Times and The Mount Forest Confederate by Wenger Bros. Limited. Feature and photos by Marion I. Duke • Farmers throughout Ontario are concerned about the future of the family farm, about decreas- ing farm returns and about staying in business in general. But before the year is out, they might find themselves in an all- out battle with consumers in gen- eral. At least, that's the opinion of MPP Bill Jarvis (Perth -Wilmot - PC). Meeting in Mitchell with mem- bers of the Perth Federation of Agriculture, Mr. Jarvis said he could foresee a "strong confron- tation" coming between the consumer and the producer as early as this spring. "Before, I think the confronta- tion was more in the minds of the * producers, but I can't say the same thing in January 1975," Mr. Jarvis said. "Now there are very strong feelings and we can see it coming to a head in the House. -The Minister of Agriculture, whether federal or provincial, is now speaking solely for the pro- ducer while organizations like the Prices Review Board are speak- ing for the consumer." While some members of Parlia- ment think this is a good thing, according to Mr. Jarvis, the Perth MP is not convinced this is so. . He believes the -confrontation between the producer and the consumer will extend to the • —Crossroads --January 30, 1915. - Farmers i:r.fight for survival matter of marketing boards. As the representative of a largely rural riding, Bill Jarvis says he's confused himself when it comes to things like a beef marketing board. "Some of my constituents say beef should be in a marketing -board and others say not. I've had some beef producers defend the Canadian Cattlemen. and others say that the association doesn't speak for us, but for the big producers." Mr. Jarvis' dilemma was justi- fied when two members of the Perth Federation, William Os- borne of RR 3, Monkton and Michael Lennon of RR 1, Sebring- ville, couldn't agree on the mat- ter. A milk producer who sells a number of calves on the beef market, Mr. Osborne said he be- lieved beef should be controlled by a marketing board just as milk is. "There's a surplus of beef right now and cows last week were sell- ing between 22 and 18 cents — last year the price was 40 cents per pound," he said. "I sold a 500 - pound steer on Friday for 15 cents a pound and last year I was get- ting 35 cents. I don't know how a beef producer can live with these prices." Mr. Lennon, however, main- tains "Marketing boards will work for anything but beef." He is also a strong supporter of the Canadian Cattlemen and says beef producers . who aren't just haven't given the association a chance. "We can't help people who don't come to us." Mr. Jarvis is also uncomfort- able about the egg marketing board. "Many people think the minute you set up a marketing board, then right away you've got higher prices." Besides, he says, he is told that the board is producer -controlled, but at the same time he knows of importers and graders who are on the board. "There can be an area of con- flict and even I can see the con- flict. I'm having an awful .time trying to convince the govern- ment these are producer con- trolled — I just can't sell it. And I've at least got to sell The integ- rity of a board. The minimum a board has to be is honest." Waldron Eckstein of RR 1, Shakespeare, zone director for the Ontario Egg Marketing Board for Perth County and part of Waterloo County, agreed that the board has internal problems. "There is a committee to 're- form the egg marketing board and these people are holding back their levies waiting for court ac- tion and at the same time we're losing about two per cent of our levies . . . We also have some' people within the board who are picking up eggs with no bill of lading." On the national scene, dealing - with the Canadian Egg Market- ing Agency (CEMA), Mr. Eck- stein said much of the recent sur- plus was caused by too many eggs being imported for the Christmas season. He also noted that some producers, notably those in the Province of Quebec, were over -producing. "We are greatly bothered by this $2 million subsidy which was given by the province to Quebec , farmers for their losses," Mr. Eckstein said. "At the same time Quebec egg producers have never given CEMA a count of their eggs and hens. We know they're over -producing drasti- cally. They are opting for 100 per cent of their market and tradi- . tionally 40 per cent of that market has been supplied by Ontario." While Ontario has fully paid. its levies to CEMA, other provinces have not and according to Mr. Eckstein egg producers in this province are getting, tired of "being the milking cow,for all of Canada.'' Henry Davey of RR 2, Monk - ton, saw the problem differently. "Going back to square one, I wonder if the question isn't whether we are going to continue to support the family farm or whether we're going to let I"1RMERS PRESENT BRIEF — Members of the Perth Federation of Agriculture presented their annual brief to their government representatives at an afternoon session in Mitchell recently. Above, from left, Federation members, Henry Davey of RR 2, Monkton, treasurer; Waldron Eck- stein of RR" 1, Shakespeare, zone director for Egg Marketing Board; William Keller of RR vice-president; and Tony Van Klooster of RR second vice-president; discuss the brief with Edighoffer (Perth - Lib.). the Ontario 1, Mitchell, 2, St. Pauls, MPP Hugh farming be controlled by the re- tailers and processers? And is this the problem with the poultry business right now? Is it already controlled by the processers?" MPP Hugh Edighoffer (Perth - Lib.) said that while "politically" everybody was in favor of keeping the family farm, the broader question of "Is anybody served by letting the farmer sell out?", also had to be faced. MP Jarvis put it more bluntly. "Long range problems such as - the -family farm issue are now unfortunately secondary. They are submerged in the short term problems of inflation and reces- sion. Two years ago we were very concerned about thefuture of the family farm and spent hours de- bating it in the House at the time we were discussing the capital gains tax. But you couldn't de- bate that issue ,today." Mr. Davey then wondered just how serious the government is about helping supply the hungry of the world with Canadian food. :We are told we must produce and we wonder if we should be holding back at the expense of: other countries who need it, but we can't go on supplying when all ' we are doing is creating a sur- plus. Is the government willing to buy up this surplus? How serious are they - or is it just talk?" ' Mr Jarvis, who attended the World Food Conference in Rome, replied that the demand in terms of the world is not for surplus food but for a steady supply and Canada has already pledged one million tons. • "In all fairness," he said, "the Minister of agriculture has said the Canadian farmer can in- crease production by 50 per cent in five years - that's not the problem. At the same time Mr. Whelan has admitted that we have neither the transport nor the storage facilities to handle this kind of surplus. Look at the trouble we had getting feed grain down here. Unless we're ready to make a staggering commitment in funds, then no, we're not going to enter that kind of food pro gram." In a 15 -page brief to the two government representatives, the Perth Federation of Agriculture dealt with problems ranging from food costs, pollution, land - use policy to the individual problems of pork, wheat, beef • and egg producers. The overall problem according to Perth Federation president John Vander Eyk of RR 2, Lis- towel is that while urban .and non-farm workers are earning more than ever before, farmers are going broke. "When you come right down to it, you can take away anything but food. You can take away our industrial goods and commodi- ties but if you take away, food then people will starve. And right now farmers are fighting for sur- vival." As a group Perth Federation farmers (numbering over 1,600 individual members) are firmly in favor of "planned production". "If we fail in our attempts to DISCUSS AGRICULTURAL PROBLEMS— Everything from food costs to pollution were discussed by members of the Perth Federation of Agriculture when they met -with govern- ` merit representatives to present their annual brief. From left above are Alex Innes of RR 2, St. Pauls, director; John VanderEyk of RR 2, Listowel, president; MP BiII Jarvis (Perth -Wilmot - PC), and Henry Klooster of RR 2, Tavistock, director. reach planned production, then everyone will suffer," the brief states. As. an alternative to planned production the !''ederation sug- gests that all world governments be prepared to purchase all surplus production of all feed grains, etc., at a price equal to cost of production plus return on investment and labor for farm- ers. In this way, farmers say, food banks can be built for people. POLLUTION There are few things which anger farmers in this area more than pollution - especially the kind of pollution caused by sew- age lagoons. "We can't understand the Ministry of the Environment who still try to convince people that lagoons do work, spch as propos- ing a lagoon at Palmerston with a lagoon at Listowel with a history of '14 years of harassment to the environtrnent . . " the brief states. "Even if they (lagoons) did work, the amount of good agricultural land that is required is unacceptable." The Perth farmers note that according to the proposed lagoon at Palmerston, it would require 256,000 acres to service Ontario's eight million people with lagoons for their sewage disposal. While the spray filtration pro- gram at the Listowel lagoon in the summer months is greatly improved, the Perth Federation still gets complaints because of the odor. And conditions this winter have them worried. "Recently the ice on the Mait- Dead stock removers in trouble By Marion I. Duke Farmers aren't the only people suffering during this financial crisis period marked by both in- flation and recession. In fact, some farm -related industries ap- pear even worse off than cattle- men and egg producers. One such example is the dead stock re- moval business. When members of the Perth Federation of Agriculture met with MP William Jarvis (Perth - Wilmot - PC) and MPP Hugh Edighoffer (Perth - Lib.) in Mit- chell on January 18 to present their brief on agriculture, two representatives of the dead stock removal business were on handto outline their problems. Garnet Smith of the Atwood Pet Food Supplies Ltd., who services all of Perth County, and Wayne Smith of the Huron Dead Stock Removal, told farmers and their political representatives that they didn't know if they could stay in business. Speaking for the two men, Gar- net Smith said besides coping with the rising cost of gas, their own profits have declined drasti- cally over the past year. "The price of hides is down to one-fifth what it was a year ago; meat is down to one-third and a year ago the rendering price was twice what it is today." Mr. Smith explained that dead stock is graded just as other meat. That too old to be used for pet food is rendered' down with most of the remains going for meat meal and bone meal. "Everybody thinks of fertiliz- er, but actually very little of our animals go for fertilizer." From paying farmers one cent per pound for their dead animals, the Atwood Pet Food Supplies, Ltd. in the past year has gone to picking up the carcasses free of charge to charging the farmer for the service. "Last Monday (Jan. 13) we started charging farmers $3 per pick-up for animals under 600 pounds," Mr. Smith said. "We're not charging right now for the larger animals because we can still make something on them, but we don't know how long that will continue either." The charge has made a differ- ence on his business. Normally handling approximately 50 calls per day, Garnet Smith, on the Monday he began charging $3, received 34 calls for small ani- mals; of these only eight agreed 4 to pay the charge. "Where are those other 20 or so going?" Mr. Smith wonders. This is the question that is also bothering farmers. "We accept delivery at the door and we get the odd farmer to bring them in, but the other fellow says to heck with that - I'll drive to the bush," Mr. Smith reasoned. "You might not notiee it now because it's winter, but what's going to happen in the spring and summer when you have these dead carcasses laying all over the place — in the bush and ditches?" His concern was echoed by farmer Bruce Nunn of RR 2, Palmerston, Wallace Township representative on the Perth Federation. "Garnet is right, and I'm won- dering what this is going to do to ' our present rabies problem. Right now we've had five cases of rabies within two miles on the eighth in Wallace and it's going to get worse if farmers dump these animals in the bush. The car- casses will draw the carnivorous animals to the area." Mr. Nunn said he'd seen the same thing happen in King Township where he used to live. "They had one heck of a prob- lem there. They had no efficient dead stock removal and they never did get the problem stamped out." While the law states that the farmer must bury his dead stock within 48 hours or call "(he dead stock removal people or face a $500 fine, as one farmer com- mented, "Who's to know what he does?" Garnet Smith noted there is no relief in sight for the business for at least seven to eight months. It will be that long before pet food companies will need to start buying meat again. "We were fighting the prices - land River, downstream from the overflow entrance to the river, was a blue-green color. Accord:,.. ing to the Canada; .Dept., of Agriculture, publication 1433- 1971, this is from phosphorous and nitrogen from urban sewage and is poisonous to livestock and "also contains dangerous disease organisms that could affect the health of farm animals and humans," the brief states. Farmers at the meeting said school bus drivers crossing the river had noticed . the blue-green color of the ice at four different places. . "And now the Ministry of the Environment is also talking about a lagoon for Blyth and another one at Grand Bend," a farmer said. Bruce Nunn of RR 2, Palmer- stbil!Wallace Township's repre- sentative on the Federation, whose farm was one of the pro- perties ear -marked as a site for the proposed Palmerston lagoon, said a number of farmers (56) who were successful in getting the ministry to take another look at the,Palmerston situation, had gone to Blyth to protest the proposed lagoon for that area only to find out that a scheduled meeting had been cancelled. "Would you know anything about why it was called off?" he asked Mr. Edighoffer. "No, I really can't say, other than I think you've done your homework very well," Mr. Edighoffer grinned. Generally, farmers say it is time people stopped calling sewage a waste.. "And the ministry has got to stop thinking of our -rivers and streams as re- ceiving streams for „sewage," John VanderEyk added. The Federation urges' the min= istry to take a serious look at the Sollinger Industry Plant at Otter- ville where sewage is returned to the soil as a valuable plant nutri- ent. "Our streams," say the far- mers, "must be kept clean for our natural resources, wild life, fish- ing and swimming." Still dealing with pollution, far- mers say that while the Code of Practice is generally accepted, "livestock farmers are still not without the threat of non-farm in- tervention." Furthermore, "some farmers have difficulty in obtaining a certificate -of compliance even when they are using accepted practices of- pollution control and without the certificate of compli- ance, .financing through the Farm Improvement Loans or Farm Credit Corp. is not avail- able." The Federation recommends that since the Farm Pollution Advisory Commission of the Ministry of the Environment has been partially successful in solv- ing problems,, that the Ministry set up "a permanent appeal board to hear complaints and ap- peals from farmers regarding the issuance and violations of the Certificate of Compliance." The code, itself is presently under review by both the Ministry of • Housing and the Ontario Federation of Agricul- ture. Some proposals regard Please turn to Page 4 Photos by Steve Yormak now we're fighting to get rid of our meat; our freezers are filled." He blames the"problem on the large pet food companies which instead of buying meat from dead stock suppliers like himself for their pet food, buy meat by-products and lungs from abattoirs and from American producers. "At first we thought the Americans were dumping their meat by-products here, but we had the Department of Agricul- ture check and they found this isn't sot: they are selling their i• product here at the same price as they're selling it in the States. Mr. Smith said besides by- products, many pet food com- panies stuff their pet foods with cereals. "We have requested the gov- ernment to require them to state the percentage of meat used in the product on the can or bag label ; we thought this would help our situation, but so far this hasn't happened." "Some companies are even 'us- ing good cheddar cheese," said John Vander Eyk of RR 2, Listo- Please turn to Page 2