The Rural Voice, 1983-12, Page 44See XJ
your
area
dealer
Avondee Farm Supply
R.R. 1, Stratford 273-4072
Cook's Div. of Gerbro Inc.
Hensall 262-2410
Kirkton 229-8986
Centralia 228-6661
Milton Dietz Ltd.
Seaforth 527-0608
Durst Farm Centre
Clinton 482-7706
Fischer Feeder Service
R. R. 3, Mitchell 348-8725
Listowel Farm Supply
Listowel 291-2501
Molesworth Farm Supply
Molesworth 291-3740
Morgan Brothers
R. R. 1, Hensal) 235-1487
Oehm's Hardware
Clifford 327-8397
Perth County Farm Supplies
Milverton 595-8905
Millbank 595-8911
Brunner 595-8251
Ryan Drying Ltd., Walton
Brussels 887-9261
Seaforth 527-0527
Topnotch Feeds
Seaforth 527-1910
Wroxeter 335-3555
Twin County Feeds
Owen Sound 376-4213
Tara 934-3122
ONE MAN'S OPINION
Need less
government involvement
by Adrian Vos
Many of U.S. president Reagan's
measures leave a bad taste in one's
mouth. But one of his more suc-
cessful ones has been the decision to
revoke as many government regula-
tions as possible. Wherever govern-
ment interference has been removed
efficiency has improved dramatically.
Not that this deregulation hasn't been
painful. It has.
An example is the folding of
Braniff Airlines. It had become inef-
ficient because fare regulations had
allowed it to become complacent.
This applied to all U.S. airlines. Con-
tinental Airlines was forced into
receivership. When it came back re-
juvenated, it had shed its labour
unions and decreased its workforce
by more than sixty per cent. In other
words, it had become efficient.
I don't usually advocate copying
others, because circumstances too
often differ, but the success of
deregulation compels us to look at
our regulated industries to see if we
shouldn't follow the U.S. example.
The recent renewed efforts to ob-
tain pork quotas by some pork pro-
ducers is a demand for more regula-
tion. Pork producers should look
carefully at the U.S. airline example.
It may be better to let the less efficient
go under, however hard that may be
to accept, so the survivors may rise
from the ashes stronger than before.
Europe has failed to let free enter-
prise work in agriculture. This failure
is finally catching up with them and
the Common Agricultural Policy
(CAP) is bankrupt.
The principle of C.A.P. was that
every farmer, however inefficient he
was (maybe his farm was located on a
mountainside which didn't allow the
use of normal equipment), had the
right to a certain minimum income.
CAP bought his produce at a
guaranteed minimum price. The same
price was realized by a farmer in flat,
rich bottomland. The latter became
rich and self-satisfied. The first still
struggled in his backbreaking labour.
It appears that the European
THE RURAL VOICE,
Economic Community (E.E.C.) will
have to let the mountainman seek ex-
tra income elsewhere, while the bot-
tomland farmer must be shaken out
of his smugness.
To a certain extent we, in Canada
are doing the C.A.P. thing already in
our poultry industry. I agree that this
industry needs some protection
against subsidized imports from
south of the border. The practice,
however, to protect everyone with a
cost of production formula based on
the average of all producers, in-
cluding the blatantly inefficient ones,
is no different from the CAP protec-
tion based on the mountainman.
I hear the poultry producers
already: "But look at our price
record. We are the ones whose prices
increased least."
That is irrelevant. Maybe the prices
were too high to begin with and
should have dropped.
It's significant to note that fowl
producers are boasting to unregulated
farmers that, with their system, pro-
ducers are not going bankrupt, unlike
beef and pork producers. This only
shows that pricing in this area should
be under suspicion. No other in-
dustry, in or outside farming, can
boast of being so uniformly efficient
that hardly anyone goes broke.0
Adrian Vos, a regular columnist with
The Rural Voice is a freelance writer
from Huron county.
Save up to 50%
on professional
farm income tax
and
bank form preparation fees
Over 10 years experience
Call for information
Stephen Thompson
B. Sc. (Agr.), M.B.A.
R.R. 2, Clinton NOM ILO
519-482-9225
519-482-7571 (evenings)
DECEMBER 1983 PG. 43