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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1977-03-03, Page 3ry • • a GQDE1fICl Vi r Ontario Federation of ulture provincial. stye took their show ori dthis week. president Peter. m, vice, °presidents Barrie and Bill -Wolfe, with executive rs Grace Stalker, Bill , Jim .McGuigan and hite began a series; of gs and farm visits in Ingham area with a conference on Monday Ing, The` Western o visit concluded with monthly executive gon Wednesday. ing Monday; and ay the group was ng with Federation ives from Huron, Bruce and Grey, and eneral meetings, for all rs from those counties. OFA president stressed eed for grass roots ipation in the ation's activities and fined that `holding tive meetings in various of the province was an. pt by the farm body to e its individual ership in the decision g process. Ontario Federation of Agriculture estimates that In one way or the other it represents 90 per cent of the farmers in Ontario. "We are hoping for feed- back from those members.. on the. major issues facing agriculture," , Mr. Hannam explained. ` "By .gathering information this way we can use the information to take a, stand and if itsdone ef- ficiently the OFA can get the clout it needs.", He added that the executive wanted -to personally hear what the concerns were. During the press con- ference Mr. Hannam made a call for more justice in the area of import quotas especially where those quotas concerriedbeef. He said the beef quota question was one of the OFA's highest priorities and pointed to the quota on cut beef especially as being -"full of inequities". First vice President Ralph Barrie also assured reporters that the dairy industry would be' able to fill the 40 million pound gap in cheese supplies created when the government institutes a policy of stopping imports of cheese from abroad: He said present imports involve only a range of- specialty cheeses-npw being brought in --from `" Europe. • With .regard to import quotas on various farm commodities, President Hannam said the OFA. was really looking at two problems; to alert farmers to the inequities which exist, and to alert the general public to the dangers of Importing; large quantities of foodstufftl,' Such imports,. he pointed -out,<: threaten jobs in meas, otbez than . agriculture, He, suggested . the packaging industry as just one example. WIDE RANGE OF. SUBJECTS • Monday's press conference covered a wide. range :-of subjects . relating to agriculture and farm NFU •sokesr urges farmers to get involved Lorne Luther, National Farmers Union Directorfor district five, this week urged farmers in Perth and Oxford Counties to learn from the official planning -process now underway in Huron County. Ontario Federation of Agriculture provincial executive held a three day series of etings and farm visits in the Wingham area of Western Ontario earlier this week led by ently elected President Peter. Hannam. Mr. Hannam at the, extreme left and OFA utive director Bill Benson visit the farm of Sid Moffat just outside Wingham. Mr. flat is seen at center with fellow area farmer Jackson Duncan and local OFA resentative Mac Millits. (staff photo) SAVE ON THESE QUALITY MEAT SPECIALS LEAN BACK BACON 'SLICED LB. $1.8 1 79 I 9 !B. FRESH' HURON COUNTY LAMB ' NOW AVAILABLE • SAVE 40' a LB. FRESH SPARE RIBS L889' TOP ROUND STEAK ,..$1.38 FREEZER -SPECIALS - CUT FREE FRONT QUARTERS .A41 STEER BEEF 1 LB: RKET LiMITED SHOPPERS' SQUARE 524-8551 . _ . WE SPECT LIZE rM CIJ T rr KILLING e4 "It is reasonable to assume that members in those counties could be involved in this type of planning before long," he observed. "Maybe something is being ---done already. ..if so, get involved for you will be affected." Mr. Luther's comments were made in connection with a report prepared by James F. McLaren Ltd., Environ- mental Consultants, ' con- sisting of methodology and policies for the County of Huron and the province of Ontario in the field of plan- ning. That report was first made public in July of 1975. The 190 -page report is a study in land use policies in the agriculture perspective. It is broken down under topics of agriculture, recreation urban, forestry and mineral. - Huron County was chosen at that time because it had no plan ,-while most other counties had incomplete plans and some had numerous separate plans in a single county. Secondly, Huron was a rural county not affected by urban develop- ment such as is found in the York or Muskokaregions. "Only two percent of"'" Canada's total land mass is considered prime agricultural land," Mr. Luther observes. "Society is being made aware of the importance of retaining this natural resource for food production, but unfortunately the problem is just being given lip service. Society is not willing to pay the piper and there are • costs in- volved." Mr. Luther said farmers suspect that until a crisis arises, such as the oil and gas crisis, the majority of society will not come to its senses. As the old adage says 'buy land, they just aren't making any more'. Investing in land for farming purposes does not give the return that investing in it for urban development does, however." "As a result," Mr. Luther says, "food producing land always loses out to urban development." - Mr. Luther goes on to, charge that Darcy McKeough is only prepared to establish guidelines without teeth. "William Newman's statement, that there is all the land available to supply our food needs in the foreseeable future, can only lead you to conclude, `if highrises pay best ... grow them'.." Mr. Luther says, "These irresponsible statements by our elected leaders are enough to make any agriculture producer throw up his arms in disgust and say, what's the use . . let's sell to the highest bidder and let the chips fall where they may." With zoning agricultural land, the problem of severences arises, Mr. Luther observes. "Here opinion is divided, some want no severences at all, some ° want complete freedom`, to ' ever as they °wish, and some want conditional severances. The majority seem to feel hat any farm that had an dditional house -on it should e "granted the privilege of evering it and quite a few re in favor of a 'once in a life lme' severance." Mr. Luther says that once a everance is granted these everances would then ecome residential, probably elonging to urban people. 'Early ,Canadian settlers ,burned hardwoods to produce wood ash from whichpotash waS 'prepared to make soap or tolell as a bleaching agent,' . operations, Including income tax reform. OFA director Grace Stalker told the .gathering that the Federation was still not satisfied with income tax rulings as it applied to the farm wife. It is most unfair that a husband can not pay his wife • deductable wages for the work she does on the family "We ' she noted. "we have been trying to get this changed for a long time now, we are stilt trying to get it changed, but with little Success." • The question of electrical generating facilities and the related hydro power corridors came up and the OFA president explained that the group had set up a committee to study that question and had presented briefs to the Porter Com- mission representing the position of the farm com- munity. "Of course this is not just a question of power corridors or the take over of farm land for electrical production," he stressed. "There are also the considerations of pollution,. particularly ozone levels, as they relate to population increases around just large scale projects." He told reporters that from studies completed to date it would appear that ozone pollution had a "very serious. potential". ° "It has virtually driven the white bean ,industry out of Essex County and now it is coming into Huron. White Beans are perhaps the most #sensitive crops," he ob- served, "but other crops could be affected as the ozone levels rise because of in- creased pollution arising from population growth related to development like the nuclear power plants." Director Grace Stalker, discussion relations with consumer organizations, observed that these groups ross have been saying there was rlo Canadian food policy, 9r at least that the policy was not good enough. "The OFA believes we do have a food policy," she said. "We see areas where im- provements _coriid be made, but from overall we think Canada has the best food system in the world". FOOD POLICY Picking up from Mrs. Stalker, Ralph Barrie ob- served that the OFA had been on the defensive saying "we have a food policY". .. "I think we have to go on the offensive," he told the press gathering. "We should sit down with its critics and debate the question in the open. I don't think we can lock ourselves into a position of just saying we have a policy but don't want to change it however". Peter Hannam went so far as to suggest thak barring continued world disasters such as the West African drought, "we could have too much food in the world very soon. Then our prices will collapse." Asked about the use of farm land for recreational pur- poses, Mr Hannam said the OFA did not believe, that "farmers should be forced to grant rights for recreation use without ' some ,renumeration. and some',. rights themselves.". "There is the question of litter, property and livestock damage. All this can be costly to a farmer". • There- will have to be a system of compensation developed," he said, "such as ower taxes to encourage the farmer to let people on their land. Recreation and farming just don't mix." Following N :the press +pop Terence the OFA . executive members joined represen-' tatives of the local .township Federations • to visit 'local farmers and hear first hand theconcerns of the grass roots membership. Mr. Hartnam's first stop was the farm of Sid lVloffat located just a few miles east of Wingham where he heard concern expressed over losses of farm 'land to non- agricultut'aI use and low milk prices. Come out and DANCE. to the music of "SHANNON" We will be playing at the WHiTE CARNATION SATURDAY, MARCH 5. 1977 9:30 - 1:00 a.m. Reservations held until 9:30 Phone482-3120 or 482-9228 Everyone Welcome THE SEPARATE SHOPPE MAIN CORNER, CLINTON iHONE 482-7778 (NEXT TO CAMPBELL'S MEN'S V9EAR) J `.:.PANT SUITS 2 PiECE DRESSES OPEN 1-6 OPEN 1 -6 Come in and see our many new and unique lines of Lighting and Giftware now arriving from the Toronto Lighting and Gift Show • You'll find our decorating lines leave little else to be desired. 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