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8 THE RURAL VOICE
Adrian Vos
Secrecy revisited etc.
The restructuring proposals of
the hog board (OPPMB) sound
good. It would reduce the number
of councilmen (councillors'?) and
even drop one
director from
the provincial
board. It is de-
signed to bring
the board closer
to the farmer.
However, my
objection on
behalf of the
farmers who are
not privileged to
be part of the
discussions re-
mains. Board
chairman,
Goodhand,
writes that the decision for secrecy
of the Regional Meetings was taken
by all 251 councilmen at the 1992
OPPMB Annual Meeting. That
doesn't change a thing. The pork
producer in the concession road still
doesn't know the rationale for the
decisions taken and I see the
councilmen as just an extension of
the OPPMB.
That the board is also not quite
as easy about it as Goodhand pre-
tends is shown in the last paragraph
in his letter where he writes: "The
committee of producers and
OPPMB directors who will be
developing the program for future
regional meetings will be revisiting
the question of who should attend."
But while the restructuring may
be a necessary thing to do, it won't
add one penny to the price of a hog.
A major concern of every pork
producer should be what the future
holds for Canadian hog markets.
With only three major buyers
surviving and the number of family
hog farms steadily eroding, we face
the prospect that within the next
few years, when pseudorabies is
eliminated in the major hog pro-
ducing areas in the States, the bor-
der must be opened for American
hogs. That will mean that we are
truly on a North American market.
Can the OPPMB survive such a
change? Can the OPPMB continue
to protect the family farm from
integrators? Gradually the concept
that Targe and small farmers will get
an equal price is also eroding. We
now have special treatment for con-
tract hogs, mainly benefitting large
producers. We have one processor
already talking about "franchising",
meaning initial integration, and
support for the board from large
producers in westem and eastern
Ontario appears to be waning as
they more and more criticize the
board.
It is time that producers begin to
demand answers to some of these
questions, answers derived in open
discussions.
More secrecy is coming to agri-
cultural organizations. According
to press reports the OFA too has
decided to conduct part of its board
meetings in secret. In both cases,
OPPMB and OFA, the rationale
given was "in order to promote free
discussions."
After years of trying, the general
press has finally succeeded in
prying open most of the meetings of
municipal councils. But farm
politicians are now rowing against
the trend.
* * *
As far as the criticism on my
February column about the study
on milk by the Physicians Commit-
tee on Responsible Medicine goes, I
appreciate the technical corrections
by Beth Wilck, MSc., R.P.Dt. and I
bow to her superior knowledge.
But, except for the mixing of HDL
and LDL and the statement that
these are part of the fat in the diet,
technical errors, I stand by my
column. Matter of fact, reading the
response closely, Wilck doesn't
dispute much of the statements I
quoted. I thought it was clear that
the comparison of cow's milk and
breast milk was false when I put the
word "problem" in quotation
marks.
I fully agree with Wilck when
she deplores the many distortions in
health reporting. This is why I