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The Rural Voice, 1992-10, Page 10FARM SAFETY FACTS FROM THE WEST WAWANOSH MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY Silo Gas Kills • Nitrogen dioxide (silo gas) can remain in a silo up to 4 weeks after filling. • Post warning signs near the silo and keep family members and visitors away during danger periods. • The only way to enter silos where gas may be present is with a self contained breathing apparatus. When you need insurance call: Frank Foran R.R. 2, Lucknow 528-3824 Lyons & Mulhern 46 West St-, Godench 524-2664 Kenneth B. MacLean R.R. 2, Paisley 368-7537 John Nixon R.R. 5, Brussels 887-9417 Donald R. Simpson R.R. 3, Ripley 395-5362 Delmar Sproul R.R. 3, Auburn 529-7273 Clinton 482-3434 Laurie Campbell Brussels 887-9051 Slade Insurance Brokers Inc. Kincardine 396-9513 Chapman -Graham Insurance Brokers Owen Sound 376-1774 Chapman -Graham -Lawrence Walkerton 881-0611 West Wawanosh Mutual Insurance Dungannon Ont. NOM 1R0 519-529-7922 1-800-265-5595 V•9 6 THE RURAL VOICE Keith Roulston Caught between two extremes I tempted schizophrenia last week. Within a 24-hour periodin which I sat down to catch up on some back issues of Brewster Kneen's The Ram's Horn, I also heard a speech by Prof. Larry Martin of the George Moms Centre. Where you stand on a line between these two polar ext- remes is a sort of litmus test defin- ing your political views on agriculture. Martin is the pro -market, free enterprise, research chair of the George Morris Centre, a think tank that throws around terms like "competitiveness" while attacking "protectionist" vehicles like supply management. Kneen isn't quite as well known but his views are just as strongly held. He is a one man think tank for a more self-sufficient, nature - oriented agriculture, railing against the dominance of multi -national food companies. The two voices are about as far apart as you can get, yet both are valuable in making us think, and rethink, about our beliefs in agricul- ture. Martin constantly questions the current state of agriculture, suggesting there must be more co-operation between producer, processor, retailer and consumer while at the same time blasting those barriers he sees in the way of Canadian competitiveness. Questioning the status quo is always valuable in that it forces us to think about why we believe what we believe. Kneen provides the same quest- ioning voice from the other side. He pointed out in a recent edition, for instance, that at the same time tomato growers in California were taking cuts in prices of nearly 50 per cent and Ontario growers dropped their prices 12 per cent to encourage processors to stay in Canada, Anthony O'Reilly, CEO of H. J. Heinz made $75 million in salary, bonuses and stock options. That salary, Kneen said, invested at the expected rate of return for Heinz investors of 25 per cent, would keep 19,000 Mexican tomato pickers earning $4 a day working forever. The two men represent the extremes of two opposing views of democracy and the market. Martin says "these are the rules of the market so you better adapt to die" (of course he is ready to change the rules for things like marketing boards). Kneen says "the system isn't working on behalf of people so the system should be changed". Martin's supporters can point to the failure of Communism in eastern Europe to support their claim that only a competitive system keeps an economy dynamic enough to survive. Kneen can point to all kinds of examples of international companies being large enough to manipulate the rules of the marketplace. Martin embraces free trade as the ultimate statement by the intemational marketplace. Kneen sees it as the next logical move by multi -national food companies who want to set the rules free from the restrictions that can be imposed by politicians answering the democratic will of the people: things like environmental standards, mini- mum wages and health and safety standards. Both can be unfair. Martin portrays those who want to protect supply management as people not willing to meet competition, yet look in your neighbourhood and you'll see dairy and poultry farmers who are the most progressive farmers around. They are efficient, they just don't want unfair competition. Kneen calls groups like AgCare and the Environmental Agenda program apologists for the major chemical companies, when you know many good farmers who support these goals who have helped change agricultural practices for the better. Yet both are worth listening to. It's how you sort out what you believe after hearing them that confuses things.0 Keith Roulston is editor and publisher of The Rural Voice as well as being a playwright. He lives on a small acreage near Blyth, Ontario.