The Rural Voice, 1982-02, Page 121
Farm activism
As times get tough, Grey Bruce farmers get together
by Gisele Ireland
The financial pressures of the past
couple of years have squeezed to life
activism in farmers and newly organized
groups on the farm front.
l'he Grey -Bruce area, with intensive
livestock production, suffers under finan-
dal pressures to a greater degree than
most other areas. The Cattlemen's
The Grey -Bruce Survival Association, formed by Carl Spencer visibly
demonstrated their concern at a recent bank confrontation in Port Elgin. The
group says it does not advocate violence, but negotiation.
[Photo by Gisele Ireland]
►'
NM( FARMERS
SURVIVAL ASSOC.
PO 80X 218 TAIRA ONT.
Atom 934.3300
Association and the Federation of Agri-
culture have spent months getting the
facts, holding meetings in the area and
taking their findings to the government.
The process was slow, and in a lot of
cases, not a great deal of enthusiasm was
generated because there just weren't
enough farmers affected to produce a
united front. It was generally the opinion
a year ago that the economic conditions
would soon reverse and there weren't
enough farmers that close to failure to
warrant a great effort on their behalf.
Once the farm population in this same
area realized that time was slipping by
and the old interest meter was still ticking
away dollars they weren't making in the
red meat sector, there was a general stir
of discontent and calls from members of
various organizations to do something.
The first thing of course was to try to
lower the interest rate and somewhere in
between the supply management argu-
ment got fueled up. Now the discussions
were really heated on the pros and cons of
such a system.
In September of 1981. the wives of
these men who are involved in the
Cattlemen's Association and the Federat-
ion of Agriculture, decided if any help
was to be forthcoming they would have to
put their efforts up front instead of
burning up the phone lines to each
other.
Doris Sweiger and Beth Slumskie of
Dobbinton felt very positively that there
was room for women to enter the
negotiations at this point and called a
meeting. Fifty-one ladies showed up at
the home of Mrs. Sweiger and from there
they mushroomed to around 400 at the
Paisley School. Obviously both Mrs.
Sweiger and Mrs. Slumskie read the
situation correctly. The women wanted
more action in organized farm fronts and
were willing to put their feet on the road
to make this possible.
After a general meeting it was decided
to call the group "Concerned Farm
Women". The fact that women formed a
farm group received a lot of media
coverage plus the fact that with rapid
succession they were able to meet with
ag ministers Eugene Whelan and Lorne
Henderson. Now the Concerned Farm t.
Women were also actively involved in
PG. 10 THE RURAL VOICE/FEBRUARY 1982