The Rural Voice, 2002-11, Page 6(111111N1111N111
Woodlot worker not
dressed for safety
Thank you for putting out a great
monthly magazine. It always contains
many interesting stories and follows
up on a great many issues. I liked your
woodcutting feature in the October
issue and have to agree with Richard
Keeso that the woodlots need to be
better managed and the bylaw should
be changed to allow for larger trees to
stay and keep the woodlot in good
shape. Thanks again.
One note: On the front cover you
show a man cutting a tree with a
chainsaw. He has all the protective
equipment. but isn't using it. The
earmuffs are far from his ears and the
face shield is well over his head. Not
very professional.°
- Hank Soers
Woodlot Owner
Electricity from
manure already
working in
Pennsylvania
I enjoyed the October 2002 edition
of The Rural Voice — keep up the
good work.
One of the articles concerning
electricity from manure has a
subheading "Turning liquid manure
into electrical power could come
sooner than you think".
Actually it's been here for a long
time already. Your readers might want
to know that the Weybright family
who operate Mason-Dixon Farms in
Pennsylvania received a presidential
citation from Jimmy Carter in 1978 for
their electricity -from -manure system
on their dairy farm. The generators
still operate today and they are
completely self-sufficient in electricity
2 THE RURAL VOICE
Feedback
supply. I've visited the farm a number
of times and it's a fitting testimonial to
the hard work. dedication and
perseverance that are necessary for
success in agriculture and energy.
They have a visitor's centre and a
video can be purchased which outlines
the farm operation and the
developments and innovations these
good folks have made.
The real question for Ontarians
isn't whether we can generate our own
electricity (the technology is well-
known and the numbers aren't going
to change a great deal). Nor is it what
is the physical cost of generating
electricity - (that only matters to the
generators in a deregulated market).
The real question we now face is
what are we going to do now that
those who govern us have reclassified
electricity from being an essential
service to being a mere commodity -
one whose volatile. erratically
fluctuating price is determined by the
two forces which drive every
commodity: greed and fear.°
- Terry Rothwell, P.Eng.
Mt. Forest, Ontario
Of global warming
and belching cows
I seen in your magazine where
some folks and musicians is putting on
benefits to help the farmers out west,
who is having a tough go of it right
now. That's a mighty fine idea, but not
at all surprising seeing folks around
here watch out for their neighbours
pretty close. And with pretty near
everyone having a telephone these
days, and a lot even having a
television, the folks out on the prairies
seems like neighbours.
But it is terrible dry out there so
they say. The Experts is pretty well
baffled as far as I can figure, so first
they blame the dry weather on the
belching pigs and cows passing gas.
Now they say it's on account of the
warm gases coming from the
greenhouses.
1 ain't no Expert but 1 can put one
and two together and this is what I
come up with. I mind back in the days
when everyone got around with a
horse and buggy or sleigh, the winters
was cold, the summers was hot and in
between was the way it was suppose to
be. There was always enough rain to
grow the crops, water the livestock and
the well never went dry.
Now a few years back my
neighbour Luke and me got this notion
to drive down to the city. Don't know
what come over us. but I suppose with
all those folks moving out of the city
we wanted to see just how bad it really
was down there. Well it didn't take us
long to figure it out. We were still darn
near half a day's drive from the city
that we got on one of them big roads
where the cars are thicker than the hair
on a dog's back, and everyone was in a
terrible hurry going nowhere fast.
Could tell right off they weren't very
neighbourly because everyone was
driving by themselves. Well, Luke and
me got off that road as quick as we
could and hightailed it for home.
So what I'm saying is, I reckon all
this strange weather we're having has
a lot to do with all these automobiles.
So folks should be thinking about us
farmers every time they start their car,
because without farmers there ain't no
food. and without food we don't have
much. Kinda puts me in mind of a
bunch of turkey vultures standing
along the side of the road cleaning up
the road kill. Except I don't think folks
would be near as polite as the turkey
vultures if it came to that. And with all
the goings on in the world today 1
don't figure we should be counting on
some foreigners to be growing our
food. That's handy as long as we're
their friends, but we're only their
friends for as long as they want us to
be.0
- Yours on the rural route,
Farmer Ed (a pseudonym - naturally)
READY TO LAY
PULLETS
WHITE & BROWN EGG LAYERS
FISHER POULTRY FARM INC.
AYTON, ONT NOG 1C0
519-665-7711