The Rural Voice, 1990-09, Page 6I31-aiewater
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2 THE RURAL VOICE
FEEDBACK
Illonard
Reviewing the "facts"
It was fascinating to read the letter
from organic -advocate Ziggy Kleinau in
the August issue of The Rural Voice in
which he chastised Adrian Vos for his lack
of research and objectivity. Mr. Kleinau
then went on to present his own "facts"
using The Globe and Mail as his reference.
I, too, have read these Globe and Mail
statistics. And I've systematically checked
most of them out by contacting Dr. David
Pimentel of Cornell University and others
who have been cited as the information
sources. The results are most revealing.
As an example, Dr. Pimentel disclaims
any responsibility for the absurd statement
that "37 per cent of the (U.S.) crop is lost
to pests." Nor has anyone else supplied
similar documentation.
As for usage, Ontario statistics show
that agricultural pesticide usage decreased
17 per cent between 1983 and 1988 (the
survey is done every 5 years). I would
expect that a similar pattern exists in the
U.S. — not the "increasing dramatically"
as Mr. Kleinau states. And most "conven-
tional" food is pesticide -residue free.
But I do agree with his suggestion
that others read Pesticides in Canada: an
Examination of Federal Law and Policy,
written by Toby Vigod, the activist lawyer,
and her husband, and often cited as
"proof' of the health and environmental
damage caused by pesticides. For only by
reading this report will readers appreciate
that (1) most of the material is at least a
decade out of date, and (2) almost all of
the "proof" consists of newspaper quota-
tions. My favourite is the description of a
Quebec incident based on a story in the
Regina Leader Post.
But Kleinau and Vigod aside, it is
true that improper pesticide usage can
cause environmental and health damage,
not to mention unnecessary expense. We
as farmers must constantly strive to do
better. There is little evidence, however,
that "organic agriculture," at least as prac-
tised and recommended here in Ontario,
is the answer.0
Terry Daynard
Executive Vice -President
Ontario Corn Producers' Association
An open letter to the Ontario Milk Marketing Board
Your notice of support for the stable
funding for the Ontario Federation of
Agriculture doesn't come as a surprise,
after we learned in 1987 that the OMMB
was granting 525,000 annually to the OFA,
in spite of a two-thirds county disapproval
of a membership request by the OFA.
. Our information indicates that
meetings of the OFA and the OMMB have
been infrequent and lacking substance,
while at the same time the NFU has met
regularly and with constructive proposals.
In 1987 we sought support from the
OMMB to build strength against the Free
Trade Agreement and for Article 11. The
board refused to move until drawn into the
debate — the OFA was still trying to make
up its mind. Lack of decision by the board
has failed to bring about any change in the
uncertainty of the dairy industry.
In 1988, we again petitioned the board
to protect the industry — where was the
OFA? In 1989 and again in 1990, we
petitioned the board to take active steps to
build urban support for supply manage-
ment and consumer education to under-
stand the system. Nothing has been done
— where was the OFA?
It seems the OFA did not have enough
funding — do you think it would have
done anything differently if it had more
money? The OFA, by its own admission,
has done nothing for seven years but seeks
sources of more money to support its
"bloated bureaucracy."
The government of Ontario gave
farmers a new Farm Tax Rebate Program
— now OFA claims victory, as it did when
the Ontario Farmers Union withheld pay-
ments in the 1960s. On February 2, 1990,
the NFU made its proposal to former
Deputy Minister Everett Biggs (Ramsay's
personal investigator). At the February 21,
1990 stable funding meeting called by the
OFA, Mr. Biggs informed us that our sub-
mission would form the basis of the report.
The NFU gave the government an answer
to a knotty problem. No credits to the
NFU and without "stable funding."
The OMMB was set up under the
Milk Act by a former government. It is
not unreasonable to expect that the in -
1