The Rural Voice, 2002-10, Page 10FALL CATTLE SALES
AT KEADY LIVESTOCK
Tuesdays, Oct. 1 to Dec. 17 @ 9:00 a m.
1000. 1200 local calves and stocker ittle
Friday, Oct. 4 4, 10:00 a.m. 1000 -1500
veining steers & heifers each day, selling
',:JS
Friday, Oct. 11 @ 10:00 a.m. 1200-1500
vaccinated presorted Charolais & Simmental
calves ONS
Friday, Oct. 18 @ 10:00 a.m.
1200 - 1500 vaccinated presorted calves
featuring Limousin, Blonde, Hereford and
Angus including Bluewater Angus
Friday, Oct. 25 8t 10:00 a.m. 1200 - 1500
Special Presort calf sale featuring mostly
Charolais calves of the Bruce Peninsula Calf
Association
Friday, Nov. 1 Q 10:00 a.m.
1000 Vaccinated local calves, preweaned or
right off cow, selling owner lots - NOT presort
Wednesday, Nov. 6 rd 7 p.m. 200-300 Black
and Black & White Bred Heifer sale.
Friday, Nov. 8 Q 10:00 a.m. 1000-1500
Yearling Steers and Heifers selling ONS
Friday, Nov. 15 0 7:00 p.m.
Bred heifer and cow sale
KK 4, Tara, ON NOH 2N0
519-934-2339
FARM 3 MUNICIPAL
DRAINAGE
Specializing in:
• Farm & Municipal Drainage
• Clay & Plastic Tile Installations
• Backhoe & Dozer Service
• Septic System Installations
For Quality, Experience,
& Service calk
Wayne Cook
(519) 236-7390
R.R.2 Zurich. Ont.
NOM 2T0
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6 THE RURAL VOICE
Keith Roulston
We profess love for nature but we fear it
Keith
Roulston is
editor and
publisher of
The Rural
Voice. He
lives near
Myth. ON.
Our society has a schizophrenic
relationship with nature: we depend
on it, but we don't trust it: we praise
things natural but we constantly try to
manipulate nature to serve our ends.
Farming. of course has always
balanced these opposites. Growing
plants involves the alchemy of
planting seeds and using nature's soil,
water and sunlight, to create the food
that sustains us. I always like that line
about all mankind's accomplishments
in the end depending on the sun, the
rain and six inches of topsoil.
The problem is that the right com-
bination of soil, sun and rain doesn't
always come together. There are also
those seeds we never planted that
grow among the seeds we want to
cultivate, stealing nutrition, sun and
water our favoured plants require.
The history of agriculture has been
one of nudging nature to provide
more of the products we want.
And yet this control was never
enough for some people. From the
earliest days, some people sought
ways of being independent of the
vagaries of nature. They developed
skills that the food growers would
pay them for so they could buy their
food and their livelihood was not
dependent on the crops. The numbers
of these people have steadily grown
until we have only a tiny minority of
people producing food today and the
vast majority isolating themselves
from nature by living in towns and
cities.
City dwellers seek to insulate
themselves ever more from the
realities of nature. Summer heat?
Banish it with air conditioning.
Blustery cold winter winds? Go
underground or create shopping •
centres that mimic summer 12
months a year. Many live such
unnatural lives that they'll object if a
drought -ending rain spoils their day.
And yet when it comes to
defending nature, it's usually people
living in this unnatural world who are
the loudest voices protesting the
actions of those who have to live with
nature. People who live in high-rise
apartments that could be described as
cages, protest the unnatural housing
of chickens in cages. People who
never saw a sheep or calf torn apart
by a wolf protest the innocence of
wolves when someone wants to hunt
them. People admire the hardy lives
of Newfoundlanders but think them
barbaric when they live off nature by
killing seals.
It's only when people come into
contact with nature that the rosy view
of things natural begins to pale. West
Nile Virus has people panicking
about the danger of the humble
mosquito. NDP leader Howard
Hampton, who heads a party of
people who are generally strong
supporters of things natural, lambast-
ed the provincial government because
it didn't proceed with a policy to use
pesticides to control mosquitoes.
On the other hand, farmers,
pressed by economics, are more and
more seeking, not a partnership with
nature, but a vanquishing of nature.
Farming is increasingly becoming an
industrial process where every aspect
of production is to be scientifically
controlled. Variability is a no -no.
What is genetic engineering, for
instance, if not the ultimate in
industrialization. If the industrial
process broke down the production of
everything into its simplest
component and controlled each
component, is there anything more
industrial than taking apart the
genome that controls all things
natural and repackaging it in a way
designed to attain the goals of man?
And since farming has always been
about manipulating nature, why not
take this manipulation to its ultimate
conclusion?
We fear nature and we're right to
because nature has a way of
humbling us when we push it too far.
In the last few decades we've pushed
nature farther than ever before. Have
we won or will we pay a price?0