The Rural Voice, 1981-09, Page 7Joe Moss is a farmer with a past - from Ireland to Embro
via Africa, he has a story to tell.
war that didn't make international
headlines because those were reserved
for an even greater horror in Bangladesh.
Moss says he was never frightened
because the insurgents demonstrated
they were not interested in foreigners,
only the government. He knows of just
one outsider, a Canadian, who was killed,
and that was accidentally.
The Mosses returned to Ireland in
mid -summer that year but they didn't
stay. Joe had been tendered a position
with an agricultural company in Canada, •
location Montreal. He scouted the city
and the company for two days and then
decided against it. Instead he made six
telephone calls "out of the blue",
including one to the Federation of
Agriculture, for leads to possible employ-
ment. Within two weeks he had three
positive offers and the federation people
wanted to talk to him.
Out of it all, Joe Moss became an area
co-ordinator for the federation and he was
given a territory that ran from Barrie to
Windsor. For the first six months, while
they shopped for a farm, he and his
family lived in a rented house in
Stratford.
"I travelled about 45,000 miles a year,
annoyed a few farmers and ruffled a few
feathers," says Moss. "We got involved
in everything from hydro corridors to
personal problems."
At no time did he stir the pot more than
when he went to the aid of farmers in
Grey, Bruce and Huron Counties who
were being affected by Ontario Hydro's
march to its nuclear development project
at Douglas Point.
"1 was appalled to find that Hydro
could run roughshod over farmers,"
Moss says. "They certainly couldn't do
that in Ireland. So 1 helped organize some
meetings in Bruce County in the early
going. I found it hard to accept the
federation's attitude and that included
Gordon Hill. They didn't want to rock the
boat. They didn't want to alienate Hydro.
They were afraid of the expropriation act.
It was the farmers of Grey, Bruce and
Huron who brought about any change in
the attitude of Hydro. It wasn't the
Toronto federation people. The help
wasn't there."
Moss became increasingly frustrated
with his federation bosses, and they were
equally annoyed with him. In 1975, then,
they were happy to accept his resignation
after three and a half years, the last one a
sea of storms. "I was a threat," says
Moss, "Besides, I always intended to go
back into farming."
All of this brings us closer to the
present day, where it should be noted
that Cyril and Aisling have brought the
Moss family to ten. They are the
Canadian delegates, joining Nirmala and
Clodagh, who represent Ceylon, and
Joseph Junior, Ann -Marie, Aideen and
Roy, who were born in Ireland. "Four
Europeans, two Asians, and two Canad-
ians," says papa Joe with a wide grin.
"We missed out on Africa." Despite the
stabilizing influence of their mother, says
Joe, there are two radicals among the
kids but "I'm not going to name names."
Now, too, there is Eire (what else but an
Irish Wolfhound), who arrived recently
direct from her native soil.
The Moss home farm is one hundred
acres, sixteen of which are in strawber-
ries (which took a kicking this year
because of unseasonable winter and
spring weather), three and one-half in
raspberries, half an acre of black
currents, and ten in rhubarb. The rest is
wheat. Over by St. Agatha is another
Moss farm, with sixty-five acres of corn.
For four years the Moss operation also
boasted an average of thirty acres of
broccoli, brussels sprouts and cauliflo-
wer, but Joe's involvement in a manu-
facturing enterprise in Ireland has
suspended that end of things. It also
necessitated selling the poultry farm,
which really was a family project. But Joe
was never big on it anyway, because "the
hens never talked back. I need to get
satisfaction out of what I'm doing and
with the strawberries it's tremendous. I
just love meeting and talking to all the
people who come out here. I love the
rapport. (There were four hundred cars of
pickers on the July 1 holiday alone.)
Joe says the Moss name will remain
attached to fruits and vegetables though
eventually it might be Joe Junior who is
the farm manager. Joe Senior has
become increasingly involved in estab-
lishing a company to manufacture
corrugated drainage pipe in Athlone,
Ireland. He's made fifteen trips there in
the past thirty months. It's a joint
venture, with Big 0 (Exeter) and Canada
Wire, and it has Joe's Irish eyes smilin'
all over again. His only regret at present
is that he must spend so much time away
from his wife and kids ("there's no
compensation for your family"). But he
can see an end to that situation and
(cont. on page 22)
Livestock
Hauling
Local & Long Distance
Box 22, Dublin, Ont.
PCV -F -FS
Business
(519)345-2913
Residence
(519)348-9009
THE RURAL VOICE/SEPTEMBER 1981 PG 5