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The Rural Voice, 1991-05, Page 66BRUCE 446 10th St., Hanover, Ontario N4N 1P9 519-364-3050 • The Rural Voice is provided to Bruce County farmers by the BCFA. County Federation. of Agriculture NEWSLETTER THE ENVIRONMENTAL BILL OF RIGHTS WILL BE GOOD FOR US ALL As we all know now, the Environ- ment Minister, Ruth Grier, is proposing an Environmental Bill of Rights for Ontario. The idea of such legislation is that each citizen should have the right to enjoy a clean environment, the same way we enjoy the right to move about, associate with whom we please, and say what we think. People who find their clean environment being destroyed, could take legal action against the of- fending party. It sound reasonable enough, yet the reaction from farmers and farm groups has been overwhelmingly negative. Farmers feel threatened. They are frightened by the thought that city slick- ers driving through the countryside might object to certain farm practices and take action based on the EBR. Farm groups are justifiably lobbying to ensure that so called "normal farm practices" will not be subject to ques- tion. But the $64,000 question is: "what is normal?" If normal means environ- mentally acceptable, then I agree with the lobby effort. But if "normal" in- cludes all the traditionally accepted practices, it becomes hypocritical to exclude them all from action under EBR. Take, for instance, the handling of livestock manure. The last few winters have been light on snowfall, and a famil- iar sight is the spreading of manure on frozen fields. The individual involved probably doesn't think of this as pollu- tion. But scientifically, there is no ques- tion that it is. Manure spread through the winter runs off into creeks when the snow melts. It pollutes the water and it's in everybody's interests to stop it. This has been well documented for many years, and there is no excuse for anyone to continue the practice. If it takes a lawsuit, launched under EBR, to make sure farmers wake up to the responsibil i - ties, I say "bravo!" The ironic fact is that, pollution aside, wasting manure and purchasing back the nutrients in a bag is sheer stu- 62 THE RURAL VOICE pidity from an economic viewpoint. Why not stop the waste (along with the pollution) and save big bucks on the fertilizer bill? I've taken only one small example here, but I believe that if we examine the many common farm practices that ap- pall environmentalists, we will find fi- nancial gain to the farmer can be had in changing them. I'm talking about em- ploying systematic use of cover crops, conservation tillage, proper manure containment, reducing or eliminating pesticide and fertilizer use, to name only a few. My opponents will say that this re- quires time for an "education process." We've been talking like that for a decade now, while the most offensive practices continue. Let's face it, many of us are too overworked, or too uninterested, or just too dam lazy to change. We need to, at some point, be pressured into change, and EBR may just be the tool to exert the pressure. Ruth Grier is doing us a fa- vour!O NOTE: Each month this page will con- tain an opinion on a current farm issue. We would like to know what YOU think. If your opinion differs from the one you have read here, or if you support our view, call the office at 364-3050. BCFA DIRECTORS' MEETING Monday, May 27 Monday, June 24 OMAF Boardroom, Walkerton 8:00 p.m. Members are welcome to attend At the annual Bruce Federation meet the members night held recently in Elmwood, Agnes Diemert of Ayton was named this year's winner of the Tommy Cooper Award. A dairy farmer and a very active member of the community, Agnes was presented with the award by Ross Kenter of CFOS Radio of Owen Sound.