The Rural Voice, 2000-07, Page 3R.V.
Editor: Kcith Roulston
editorial advisory committee:
Bev Hill, farmer, Huron County
Diane O'Shea, farmer, Middlesex Cty.
George Penfold, associate professor,
University of Guelph
Gerald Poechman, farmer. Bruce Cty.
contributing writers:
Gisele Ireland, Lisa Boonstoppel-
Pot, Bonnie Gropp, Ralph Pearce
Bob Reid, Mervyn Erb, Sandra
Orr, Carl L. Bedal, Janice Becker,
Andrew Grindlay, Sarah Caldwell
marketing & advertising sales manager:
Gerry Fortune
advertising representative:
Merle Gunby
production co-ordinator:
Joan Caldwell
advertising & editorial production:
Dianne Josling
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Behind the Scenes
Are we taking water for granted?
Let me confess right up front — I
was one of those people taking water
for granted and playing down the
seriousness of impurities in water.
A few years ago, before drought
meant we had to drill a new well to
replace our old shallow well, we had
our water tested and found it had both
E. coli and other coliform bacteria.
We were surprised. We weren't
surrounded by close -by livestock
farms. We later learned that, since
our well wasn't particularly secure,
the source of our contamination could
be the family dog or the few free -
ranging chickens we had at the time.
Still, we shrugged it off. We'd
been drinking the water for years and
nobody was sick. So we shocked the
well with bleach and tested again and
found the water didn't have E. coli
but still had bacteria. We brought
water home from our office in town
and eventually (a matter of a few
months before the well ran dry)
installed an ultra -violet purification
system.
But I think my attitude was
somewhat typical of people who
grew up on farms and so the
seriousness of the Walkerton E. coli
outbreak was shocking. And so we
put Janice Becker to work to see if
we in rural areas have been taking
water for granted. She produced a
major article for this issue.
If Canada has long been known as
a hewer of wood and drawer of water
for its habit of exporting raw
products, rural Ontario is the expottci
of raw products to urban Canada.
Despite the fact rural areas produce
most of the food for the province,
little is actually further processed in
the small towns that dot the country
landscape anymore.
Now and again brave individuals
carve out interesting niche markets,
however. This month we've got the
stories of two small successes. Martin
De Groot and Ineke Booy have
created Ontario's first organic ice
cream and yogurt plant on their farm
near Teviotdale and their products are
now making their way, not only into
small health food shops but into large
supermarkets.
Meanwhile, up in Markdale, Ken
Bustin, "The Pickle Guy" has taken
the unusual road of community
investment in turning a kitchen
business into a full-time job.0 — KR
Update
A wasted by-product
In our article last August on Bainton Limited tannery in Blyth, Franklin Snell
noted that reduced demand in traditional markets in Asia had lowered the price
of hides. Now the Ontario sheep industry is worried about the reduced value of
hides and the problem it is creating in the industry.
According to an article in Ontario Sheep News, properly salted and preserved
hides once brought prices as high as $8 each for abattoirs that processed sheep.
But a world-wide glut has reduced prices to the point some abattoirs have to pay
to have the skins taken away and even then, some renderers are refusing them so
the skins have to be sent to landfills.
Abattoirs were complaining so much about the situation, according to the
article, that the Ontario Sheep Marketing Agencies tried to work with the
Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) to donate the skins to
economically depressed middle -European countries as a form of foreign aid, but
those countries didn't want them.
Further investigation showed, the article said, that there would be a market for
the skins in Canada but often producer practices or abattoir processes ruin the
value of the skins. Producers, truckers and sales barn personnel often use spray
bombs to identify sheep but the marks can't be removed in the tanning process,
ruining the skin. Some buyers who sell to tanners won't even buy sheep that
have been marked. As well, the article says, modern processing machinery can
leave tears and cuts in the skins, destroying their usefulness.0