The Rural Voice, 1985-11, Page 74hisex 110
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56 THE RI RAL VOICE
ONE MAN'S OPINION
Oil and food
now a surplus
In 1971 the world got two scares.
The one that the business community
still talks about is the "energy crisis."
The Arab countries, which had sup-
plied most of the world's oil at fire -
sale prices, got together and formed
the Organization of Oil Producing
Countries (OPEC). They raised the
price to more realistic levels (and
higher) and created a shortage of oil.
The world panicked and oil -drilling
rigs were built at a record pace. At the
higher price, a lot more oil could be
produced. At the same time, alternate
energy sources and energy savings
began to create a surplus of oil. Now
the whole world is in a position of
severe over -supply and falling prices.
The beneficiaries of this price drop,
however, are not the consumers, but
the governments, which counter
lower prices with higher taxes.
The second scare was a sudden
food shortage. Widespread famines
in Bangladesh, India, and Africa,
coupled with disastrous crop yields in
wheat -producing countries, caused
the Soviet Union to buy very large
volumes of grain, both for its own
consumption and for its allies.
It turned out that there were suffi-
cient stores of grain to meet the
demands, even if grain was at a
higher price. The Canadian govern-
ment even slapped a maximum price
on wheat for domestic consumption.
Eugene Whelan went around the
country and the world, preaching that
every inch of agricultural land must
be preserved. The world population
will double by such and such a year,
he said, and double again shortly
thereafter.
He was joined by all kinds of
groups. Nearly all of us fell for the
rhetoric and we considered everyone
who wanted to use land that could
produce food for something else a
self-serving, unthinking individual,
unworthy of the human race.
Ontario developed "Foodland
Guidelines," which deprive many a
farmer of potential lucrative sales of
less valuable land. We demanded this
ourselves.
Then came the so-called "Green
Revolution." Cereal crops doubled
their yield. Rice -importing countries
became exporters. Everywhere, in-
cluding Africa, food production
grew, but Africa was the only conti-
nent where population growth out-
distanced food production growth.
It was feared that the Green
Revolution had reached its maximum
effect and that the need for artificial
fertilizer would stifle further growth.
This has not happened either. A
number of new cultivars with higher
yields are being produced.
Former importers of food cereals
are now competing with traditional
exporters such as Canada, the U.S.,
Argentina, and Australia.
Last year China competed in feed
grains and there is reason to believe
that further development will con-
tinue. Bangladesh hasn't been in a
hunger situation for many years now
and India is a significant exporter.
Brazil too has become a stronger
competitor and will become stronger.
Like the oil shortage scare, the
food scare has been turned around in-
to a surplus, enough of a surplus to
depress world prices to the point of •
unprofitability.
Yet our Foodland Guidelines are
still in place and, as Ontario's
agriculture minister Jack Riddell
recently announced, will even be
strengthened. It appears to me that in
view of the already great loss in equi-
ty of our farms, it would be better to
relax the guidelines to allow farmers
to sell pieces of land and rebuild equi-
ty in their farms. That would save
taxpayers money because every
farmer who is able to sell some land
to a developer makes financial aid
that much more unnecessary.
Protection should, in view of the
world food :situation, be focused on
protecting farmers from
harassment. 0
Adrian Vos, a regular columnist with
The Rural Voice, is a freelance writer
from Huron County.