The Rural Voice, 2002-08, Page 64PERTH 1!T
County Pork Producers NEWSLETTER
Jim Van Nes, President
519-393-6712
• The Rural Voice is provided to Perth
County Pork Producers by the PCPP4
Can the pork industry develop a common vision?
Any opinions expressed herein may
not necessarily reflect the views of
the Perth County Pork Producers'
Association.
Will Ontario Pork ever find a CEO
to service all the various groups
within our industry?
At one of our last pork meetings,
we were discussing comparable
positions in the chicken and dairy
industries. The dairy and chicken
groups share a common vision which
is deeply lacking in the pork industry.
So how do we bring the different
groups together? If we could find a
common thread, being hog
production in its many different
forms by sharing environmental and
political issues and sharing the costs
in all fields that are the cost of doing
hog business in Ontario, then maybe
we will be able to keep a CEO.
The Ontario Pork Congress was
back at Stratford again this year, after
a year's absence because of the foot
and mouth disease fears, with more
exhibitors. There seemed to be more
agri business personnel than farmers
themselves at the show this year.
Agriculture is such a successful
industry that we are attracting more
people to service our hog industry.
The question I raise is "Do we really
need a show every year?"
Recently, the Ontario government
took a huge step towards establishing
a viable biodiesel industry in Ontario
with the announcement of the
removal of the 14.3 cents per litre
provincial fuel tax on biodiesel fuels.
Biodiesel is a non-toxic, cleaner
burning, renewable diesel fuel
derived from agricultural
commodities such as vegetable oils or
animal fats. The Ontario Soybean
Growers sees biodiesel as an
opportunity to create new markets for
Ontario soybean oil, while providing
a cleaner burning alternative to fossil
fuels.
There is a major new funding of
$8.2 billion coming to agriculture
across Canada if all governments
agree to support this program. This
may be a Lighting chance to compete
in the world markets.
In Manitoba, they have an
agreement with the sow/weaner
producers. that they pay 20 cents a
weaner for each weaner exported to
help pay for environmental and
political issues that need to be
addressed by their board.
Is manure a good product or
should it be banned from farmland?
In talking to farmers from a
generation past, comments keep
coming up. When farmers started
growing corn on a larger scale at that
time, plowing cornstalks was a
farmer's worst nightmare. The
equipment maybe wasn't up to
today's standards. but the cornstalks
didn't break down for tv,o to
three years after plowing. It v asn't
until farmers started adding
manure to their cornfields. that the
cornstalks broke down into the soil
chain of food production within a
year.
By and large. compared to the
garbage piling up in Toronto for the
past two weeks. farmers in general do
an excellent job of their manure
disposal. If the companies selling
their products would be held
accountable for their packaging to be
recycled. we would not have near the
garbage we have today.0
— Submitted by Jack De Groot
PERTH COUNTY PORK
PRODUCERS'
PORK PRODUCTS
• Smoked Pork Chops • Fresh Pork Chops
• Stuffed Loin Chops • Smoked Sausage
• Smoked Cheddar Sausage
• Bacon Burgers • Teriyaki Pork Steaks
• Vittorio's BBQ Sauce
AVAILABLE FROM:
Steve Hulshof (Kinkora) 348-8167
Martin van Bakel (Dublin) 345-2666
Walter Bosch (Monkton) 356-9000
Ted Keller (Mitchell) 348-9836
AUGUST 2002 61