The Rural Voice, 2002-03, Page 64GREY
County Federation of Agriculture NEWSLETTER
446 10th St., Hanover, Ontario N4N 1P9
Email: grey@ofa.on.ca Website: www.ota.on.calgrey 519-364-3050 or 1-800-275-9551
• The Rural Voice is provided to all Grey
County Farmers by the GCFA.
Whose problem is it anyway?
Farmers have always been known
to be self-employed. You were your
own boss — whatever you decided to
do was totally up to you.
The last couple of years there have
been many regulations come in, with
more being looked at. You need a
Pesticide Permit to buy different
sprays. In many townships or
counties you need a Nutrient
Management Plan before you get a
building permit for any farm
buildings that could at some time
house animals. Coming next year you
will need a Livestock Medicines
Permit. This allows you to purchase
medicine from other retailers than the
veterinarians. These all require time
to take the courses, then have them
renewed in five years. The Nutrient
Management Plans require you to
hire a consultant to produce the plan
that has to pass a peer review
committee.
The reputation of farmers is
getting worse instead of better. At
one time everybody in the cities knew•
a farmer or was related to one. Now
farmers only make up about 1.2 per
cent of the population of Canada. If
somebody doesn't know you, they
will not trust you.
Just look on the internet for
instance. My daughter was looking
for information about milk, she found
several references. One caught my
eye, eatveg.cont this was defiantly a
vegetarian web site. They claimed
that we are not meant to drink milk.
It's not healthy. It's just like liquid
meat, rich in fat, and high in
cholesterol. Next they talk about a
cow's life how milking machines
often cause cuts, and injuries that
would not occur if a person were
milking them. Moving on, they talk
about the calf. The greatest pain
suffered by the cow is the repeated
loss bf their young, the males taken
from their mother within 24 hours of
birth, before they have drank any of
the mother's milk, then sold.
You and I know that they have
lied, or stretched the truth to suit their
60 THE RURAL VOICE
cause, but the people who look at this
as a reference. do not know any
different. They now are anti -dairy. or
one step closer. This is not just a
dairy farmers' problem. Every
commodity has some sort of protest
group after them: animal rights
activist for anyone dealing with
livestock; cash croppers have the
environmentalist on their cases, with
different sprays, the infringement of
habitats, or now with biotechnology
in a lot of different crops. Even the
organic farmers have to watch, when,
where and how much manure they
apply, because even they will be
under the microscope.
The OFA has started a new project
that is going to try to help with the
communication gap between farmers
and consumers. It's called Ontario
Farmers' "Contract with Consumers".
Some of the objectives of this new
proposal are to develop and
implement a "Contract with
Consumers" through a communi-
cation and outreach program. OFA
will be gathering and publicizing
factual information on agriculture,
emphasis on farmer initiatives in food
security and environment, then
providing additional research in our
information to government regarding
consumer issues. The fact is most
consumers are unaware of the
economic significance of agriculture
and its links to social, human health,
and environmental quality. The lack
of awareness of the efforts farmers
undertake to address consumer
concerns, leads to general skepticism
of science in agriculture being
seriously challenged.
The contract would commit the
farmer, to continue producing safe,
healthy high quality food, produce
food in an environmentally
responsible way, and share
information about the ongoing work
of farmers to meet challenges.
The consumer would in turn
continue their support for farmers by
recognizing the ongoing efforts on
their issues, continue purchasing
Ontario/Canadian grown foods and
support public investment to maintain
and grow safe, quality food in
Ontario.
We do have a lot of important
information for our urban neighbours
such as the fact that we have the
lowest costing food basket in the
world, with quality second to none. If
we can try to work together, and find
out what consumers want as
compared to what we can produce
efficiently, I hope that an
understanding and awareness will
develop, along with confidence and
trust that is needed to allow
agriculture to be a viable livelihood.0
– By Paul Sachs
OFA Regional Director Grey North
GREY COUNTY FEDERATION OF
AGRICULTURE
DIRECTORS' MEETING
Thursday, March 28, 2002 - 8:00 p.m.
Grey County Agricultural Services Centre
meeting room (Grey Gables)
206 Toronto Street South. Markdale
Members are welcome to attend
GREY COUNTY FEDERATION OF AGRICULTURE
Meet the Members and
Tommy Cooper Award Meeting
Friday, April 5, 2002
St. Peter's Family Centre
850 Garafraxa Street North (Highway 6), Durham
Social: 6:30 p.m. Dinner: 7:00 p.m.
For tickets call our office at
519-364-3050 or 1-800-275-9551 or your Township Director