The Rural Voice, 2000-02, Page 48GREY
Cow tty Federation of Agriculture NEWSLETTER
446 10th St., Hanover, Ontario N4N 1P9
Email grey,4ofa.on.ca Website. www.ota.on.ca/grey
519-364-3050 or 1-800-275-9551
• The Rural Voice is provided to all Grey
County Farmers by the GCFA.
A marker on the path of time
The year 2000 has arrived without
the predicted Y2K bug bite. It was
exciting however, being able to
watch that year turn over around the
world and eventually here in Canada.
It was also entertaining to watch the
news anchorpersons on the 26 -hour
Y2K watch desk, continually come
up with different ways to say that
nothing was happening.
Now we are at the threshold of a
new millennium. A millennium, or
even a decade, is a long time. With
the speed of change that is
enveloping us, it is much too long a
span of time to use as a marker of
events that happen in our individual
lives.
My kids came to me on New
Year's day and asked what I would
be putting in the time capsule that
they were preparing to put away for
20 years. They caught me off guard,
so my first reaction was "1 don't have
anything to contribute".
As I went about my chores the rest
of that day, I kept thinking about the
time capsule. What would things be
like in 20 years? I tried to remember
things that had happened in the past
20 years. I found I had a hard time
putting dates to events. Just trying to
remember when we got our first
computer for example, was difficult.
It seemed so long ago that we got our
Tandy 1000 computer, but in reality
it had only been 13 years. In 13 years
we have gone from a 8088 processor,
one 5 1/4" floppy drive, a
monochrome monitor, no hard drive,
modem, sound card or mouse, to a
machine that processes many times
faster than that Tandy, has a colour
monitor, an operating system with
graphic interface, and all the
GREY COUNTY FEDERATION OF
AGRICULTURE
DIRECTORS' MEETING
Thursday, February 24, 2000
8:00 p.m.
OMAFRA Boardroom, Markdale
Members are welcome to attend.
44 THE RURAL VOICE
hardware to enable us to travel out of
our homes through the phone system
on the World Wide Web. Change is
occurring so fast that years become
blurred, one into the next.
So that was it. The time capsule
would be a marker in time where I
take "inventory" so that I can look
back and measure our progress.
This list is just a start of what
could turn out to be a very long list of
things that I am thinking about right
now, as we are about to enter the 21st
Century.
• I live in the newly formed
Township of Southgate
• We milk 30 cows
• Milk is marketed though a supply
managed system administered by
DFO
• Milk Quota in Ontario is selling for
$19,200.00 per Kg of butter fat
• Our electricity is purchased from
Ontario Hydro Services Company
• Electricity costs 8.020 per KWh +
$15.45 service charge
• Gasoline costs 640 per L
SULLIVAN TOWNSHIP FEDERATION
OF AGRICULTURE ANNUAL MEETING
Friday, February 18, 2000
Keady Community Centre
Dinner 7:00 p.m.
Guest Speaker: Ray Robertson
On his trip to Philippines and Thailand
Tickets: $12 per person
Derby OFA members also invited .
GREY COUNTY FEDERATION OF
AGRICULTURE
CURLING BONSPIEL
Markdale Curling Club
Saturday, February 5, 2000
Draws 9:00 and 11 00 a.m.
Each township Federation is
asked to enter at team!
Entry Fee $80 per team
2 Eight End Games
Delicious Dinner
Everyone takes home a prize!
Contact:
Albert McLean 519-376-0648 or
Hanover Office:
519-364-3050 / 1-800-275-9551
• McCains have announced that they
will not be accepting any Genetically
Modified potatoes
• There is increasing resistance to
having large "factory farms" in "my
back yard"
• School boards are closing schools
due to declining number of students
When I read the completed list in
20 years, there may be new
challenges that we will be facing that
make these seem very insignificant.
Or maybe I'll be saying "the more
things change the more they stay the
same" (I've heard that somewhere
before haven't I?) This has been fun!
Thanks kids for getting me started on
this. I look forward to the day when
we all get together to open our time
capsule.0
— Submitted by David Snider
President, Proton Township
Federation of Agriculture
Please see Page 10
for Grey County Environmental
Farm Plan Workshop dates
GCFA 55TH ANNUAL
PUBLIC SPEAKING
COMPETITION - 2000
Semi -Finals:
North-West
Tuesday, February 22, 2000 - 7.00 p m
Notre Dame School, 885 25th St East.
Owen Sound
North -Centre.
Tuesday, February 22, 2000 - 7:00 p.m.
Strathcona Senior School, 1185 4th Ave
East, Owen Sound
North-East:
Tuesday, February 22, 2000 - 7.00 p m.
Meaford Community School, Meaford
South-West:
Tuesday, February 22, 2000 - 7 00 p rn
James A. Magee, 13th Street, Hanover
South -East:
Wednesday, February 23, 2000 - 7.30 p m
Beavercrest Elementary School, Main
Street East, Markdale
Finals:
Thursday, March 9, 2000 - 7.30 p.m.
Osprey Central School, Maxwell