The Rural Voice, 1993-04, Page 70PERTH
John Drummond, President, R.R. 5, Mitchell NOK 1 NO 347-2725
PCFA Office 229-6430
• The Rural Voice is provided to farmers
in Perth County by the PCFA.
County Federation of Agriculture NEWSLETTER
There was a time when farmers
produced food. This is a seemingly
straightforward concept even
though Webster's dictionary makes
no specific reference to food when
describing farms or farmers.
When enough grains and forages
had been stored to feed the
livestock through the winter,
surplus corn might have been
turned to corn -meal at the local
grist mill. Wheat was sometimes
taken directly from a grainery and
soaked overnight to make porridge.
Milk was "nature's perfect food"
well before the advent of plastic
jugs and the one -litre, hermetically
sealed bag. Eggs were not only a
staple food, but were also like
currency in towns and cities. Just
about every farm had an orchard
which produced bushels of apples
for fresh eating or drying. Farmers
were the foundation of this young
growing land.
Then came the era of
specialization. The government
had urged farmers to produce more
and more during the war years, and
the trend continued afterwards.
Economy of scale, efficiency, and
specialization became buzz -words
for that "new -world order", (how
history repeats itself).
Farmers stopped growing food,
Rethinking `value-added'
and instead started producing
commodities. The grain looked the
same, but its inherent value had
been changed. A surplus of factory
capacity was a catalyst. Now
factories could buy large volumes
of commodities and process them
into foods. The new foods were
convenient, sometimes sweeter,
maybe more colourful, and
provided almost endless
possibilities for marketing brand
names. "Value-added" products
were the rage. The increasingly
urban population saw their food
coming from a factory, and farmers
were somehow displaced in society.
When the value of commodities
had dropped to below the cost of
production, the government began
telling farmers to add value to their
products. Niche farming, further
processing, and alternative
agriculture have all been touted as
the salvation of the family farm.
Considerable amounts of money
were even spent to persuade
farmers to get out of agriculture. In
an exercise much like closing the
barn door after the horses are gone,
we are now expected to compete in
the processing field with well
established transnational corpora-
tions.
It is now time for farmers and
WELCOME, ALL NEW MEMBERS OF THE
FEDERATION OF AGRICULTURE!
During our recent membership drive 87 more farmers
joined the Perth Federation. New members bring new
ideas, the lifeblood of any organization. AH are welcome
at our monthly directors meetings and we do encourage
your participation in helping to build sound agricultural
policy for Ontario Farmers.
66 THE RURAL VOICE
society in general to re -think the
whole concept of "value-added"
with respect to our food industry.
Thousands of farmers have gone
bankrupt trying to produce
commodities, while the grain -
traders grew rich. A whole new
health industry has sprung up to
help off -set the effects of eating
overly processed food.
Governments and the general
populace must be educated about
the intrinsic food value in a bushel
of wheat, a tonne of carrots, and a
side of bacon.
Farmers will definitely have to
concentrate more on marketing the
food they produce, rather than just
hauling truckloads of commodities
to an elevator, opening the hatch,
and hoping that a cheque soon
comes in the mail. Canadian
farmers can produce food of
unexcelled quality. The world
needs food and in the next decades,
will need much more as population
escalates. The world does not need
more cheap commodities. Again,
the grain in the bin may not look
much different, but the way we
look at it could have a profound
effect on the long-term health of
agriculture.°
John Drummond
PERTH COUNTY
FEDERATION OF AGRICULTURE
APRIL MEETING
Thursday April 22, 1993
Downie Mutual Fire Insurance
Office, Sebringville
8:30 p.m.
All members welcome to
attend