The Rural Voice, 1993-08, Page 3Editor: Keith Roulston
editorial advisory committee:
Bev Hill, farmer, Huron County
John Heard, soils and crop extension
and research, northwestern Ontario
Neil McCutcheon, farmer, Grey Cty.
Diane O'Shea, farmer, Middlesex Cty.
George Penfold, associate professor,
University of Guelph
Gerald Poechman, farmer, Bruce Cty.
contributing writers:
Adrian Vos, Gisele Ireland, Cathy
Laird, Wayne Kelly, Sarah Borowski,
Mary Lou Weiser -Hamilton, June
Flath, Ian Wylie-Toal, Susan Glover,
Bob Reid, Mervyn Erb, Darene
Yavorsky, Peter Baltensperger, Sandra
Orr, Yvonne Reynolds, Carl L. Bedal
marketing & advertising sales manager:
Gerry Fortune
production co-ordinator:
Tracey Rising
advertising & editorial production:
Anne Harrison
Dianne Josling
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Behind the Scenes
Old solution to new problems?
This year marks the 50th
anniversary of the old National Farm
Radio Forum. The Farm Forum was a
regular Monday night radio broadcast
that was beamed over CBC to groups
of neighbours gathered in rural
homes all across Canada. The Forum
played a huge part in uniting rural
communities and getting people
thinking about how they could
improve rural life. It was so
successful, in fact, that the United
Nations took parts of it and used it to
assist third world countries to carry
out rural education programs.
The anniversary was marked
recently at the annual meeting of the
Ontario Rural Learning Association
(ORLA) with calls for a rebirth of
some form of Farm Forum as a way
of getting rural people together to
tackle their common problems. Could
it be that an old idea could be the
answer to modern problems? ORLA
is apparently investigating the
possibility of fmding some new way
to make this old idea work. We've
got a story on the Farm Forum
Reunion held back in June.
So, with the imminent death of the
Ontario Stock Yards, where will all
the livestock go to be sold? There's
already capacity out there at private
stock yards across the province, says
Len Gamble who operates one of the
largest of such facilities. Gamble,
who owns Gamble and Rogers, was
part of the OSY scene for nearly 40
years before pulling out to market
through his own Brussels Livestock
last year. This month he explains why
he made the move.
The people who cleared Ontario's
farmland were usually happy to
escape their log homes late in the last
century, and move on to brick, stone
or frame houses. Working with logs
and timber framing became a lost art.
Today, however, from log homes to
timber framing, people are redis-
covering the beauty of old ways.
Cathy Laird tells about Scott Murray,
Grey County timber -frame home
builder who is making a reputation
far and wide.
Bonnie Gropp's recipes focus this
month on that summer delicacy: fresh
corn. She has come up with many
ways to use corn besides the
scrumptious corn-on-the-cob.0
Update
Starting over in rural development
Back in our January issue we reported on the Agricultural and Rural
Restructuring Group (ARRG) conference "Stimulating Rural Economies for the
2000s" held in Goderich. At that conference Elmer Buchanan, Ontario Minister
of Agriculture and Food promised further programs from his government to
stimulate rural economic development.
Recently Buchanan has been outlining some of those programs. In June in
Douro, in eastern Ontario, he spoke of the encouragement his ministry is giving
to the formation of marketing co-operatives including the appointment of two
staff members to help rural people set up co-operatives to market farm products
with the hope there will be spin-offs for the rural economy. A marketing co-op
advisory service has been set up to raise the level of awareness of marketing co-
ops as a business option. Marketing co-ops, Buchanan said, are designed to help
food producers add extra value to their farm products.
Buchanan said his ministry is also encouraging the use of local credit unions
and offering training in agricultural lending to credit union staffs. Buchanan said
he has been working with the minister of financial institutions to design
legislation to broaden the powers of credit unions.
The minister said a pilot project for a rural loan pool would soon be put in
place. The pool would channel savings of rural residents into a loan pool which
would offer credit to agricultural small business at reasonable rates and on
flexible terms, he said. It is hoped the pool will encourage on-farm, value-added
ventures to stimulate the rural economy, Buchanan said.0