The Rural Voice, 1986-08, Page 26DWR
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24 IIII Rt R \I v()I( E
NEWS
FRANCHISED
FARMS IN 2000?
By the year 2000, only about 20
per cent of Ontario's farmers will
still own their own land and equip-
ment, says a University of Western
Ontario business professor. The
rest of the province's farmers will
be working on franchised farms,
predicts Professor Charles Lem -
mon, himself a part-time beef
farmer near Granton.
Although he's been perfecting
the farm franchise idea for some
time, it's only recently that Lem -
mon has taken his case both to
federal Agriculture Minister John
Wise and to Ontario's agriculture
minister Jack Riddell. The
business professor's proposal is
also under consideration by Fran -
corp., a Chicago -based franchisor.
The traditional owner -operator
farm, faced by increasing
economic stresses, must give way
to more formal business ar-
rangements if agriculture is to sur-
vive, Lemmon says.
"We've moved from a labour-
intensive kind of farming to a
capital -intensive kind of farming
and it's just not working," he
notes. The solution he proposes is
"to re -invest the basic unit — the
family farm — within a franchise
system."
Under Prof. Lemmon's plan,
land would be acquired by a fran-
chising company, a private cor-
poration interested in agriculture,
which would then sell its shares to
private investors, pension funds or
investment funds. The farmer/op-
erator could still own his own land
and join the franchise group or
could trade their land for shares in
the franchising company.
The franchisor would own the
farm equipment and lease it to the
franchises, and would provide a
central purchasing system to list
appropriate suppliers for necessary
items. Also, it would be the fran-
chisor's responsibility to set up a
product marketing system, based
on supply management, for the
commodities in which he wishes to
specialize. The franchisor would
also establish a consulting service
to provide training for the fran-
chises in business administration,
computers and in new technology.
The franchisee's major obliga-
tions would be to manage a certain
crop/livestock combination and to
pay a small initial fee and yearly