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6 THE RURAL VOICE
Jeffrey Carter
How to irk farmers
at the farm level. 1 imagine there's a
great deal of political pressure
placed on supply -management boards
to get with the game plan. Many
voices in government and industry
would Tike to see farmer numbers
reduced. That isn't a big secret.
Farmer numbers are needed. There
are relatively few individuals.
families or companies involved in
primary production who have a voice
that carries a great deal of weight.
Exceptions to this may be some of
the industry giants, such as the big
chicken producers in the U.S. Even
so, if they're not vertically integrated,
their influence may be limited.
There's another idea circulating in
the farm community that fits into
this picture. I've heard it said, many
times, that big farmers who are
heavily in debt are unlikely to go
under because whoever holds that
debt cannot afford to pull the plug.
That's probably true. though I do
seem to recall some large Ontario hog
operations going under in recent
years. Besides, even if the plug isn't
pulled, how much fun can it be
running a big operation when you're
actually not in control.
That brings me back to the letter
written by Stephen Thompson. I
actually only looked at it after
reading the letters of response in the
following issues. In this context, my
own response was to laugh out loud.
(That laughter can be interpreted in
different ways, so please don't jump
to conclusions.)
Mr. Thompson's letter is certainly
thought provoking and that sort of
view should be expressed from time
to time. It gets the rest of us thinking.
In the end, however, farmers need
each other and I think most of the
men and women in the industry
understand that.
Certainly, there's room for
disagreement and heated discussion,
but there's little or nothing to be
gained when the debate disintegrates
into personal attacks.0
Jeffrey
Carter is a
freelance
journalist
based in
Dresden,
Ontario.
The brouhaha created by Stephen
Thompson's letter to the editor in
September's edition of The Rural
Voice reminded me of the reaction to
one of my columns.
It appeared, a few years back, in
The Voice of the Farmer, a regional
publication over which I exercised a
great deal of editorial control. at that
time. I wrote most of the stories,
edited my own stories, and, with
some help, laid out most of the
editorial content.
It took a lot of energy which was
often sustained by anger —
something that I will not go into.
Regardless, that anger fostered
creativity and my columns, I think,
often reflected both things.
I still feel I had a good point in that
particular column but, admittedly,
made poor word choice when I
described supply -management
farmers as "greedy". My mother, a
former dairy farmer and my biggest
fan, advised later that you cannot
expect to use that term and not create
trouble.
In this case, there were many calls
and letters. Many respondents were
angered. Just as many, I think, were
supportive.
The column questioned the dairy
industry's policy toward cream
production, which has since
disappeared, and also the general
concentration of supply -managed
production. 1 still think room should
be made for small producers and also
for a few new entrants into the
industry.
Why this isn't happening, however,
isn't a matter of greed, at least not