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4 THE RURAL VOICE
Keith Roulston
Is the age of luxury returning?
It was one of those mistakes that
has more truth than the right answer
would have.
My daughter brought me a history
test from school in which she'd
scored well
except in one
section. The
question asked
why the feudal
system develop-
ed. Her answer
was "to keep the
rich people rich,
and the poor,
poor."
I thought of
that answer the
other night when
I was watching a
fascinating TVO
Home Study
program on Victorian gardening. The
gardening staff of one large English
estate about the turn of the century
numbered about 15 men. That was
just the gardcn staff. There was an
even larger household staff.
The same program showed the
huge greenhouses, complete with
central heating boiler (at a time when
most Brits shivered in front of
fireplaces), that kept delicacies in
front of the estate owner 12 months a
year. A huge underground ice house
made sure he could enjoy ice water
all summer long.
As I watched that program I
wondered how many men and
women working long hours in sweaty
factories, how many children
working in mines, how many
peasants working on plantations in
India or Africa, it took to support this
estate owner in the manner to which
he'd become accustomed. How many
hundreds or thousands of people
lived lives in poverty so he could
have such great wealth?
Yet this era, a time of great
freedom for the moneyed class, is
much to be admired by today's
standards. It was a time when those
with money were free to do what they
wanted, unfettered by the regulations
that have grown up in the past nine
decades.
Isn't this exactly the direction
we're heading in in the name of
globalization and competitiveness?
Isn't a big part of the free trade
movement a clear attempt to outflank
the do-gooders of government with
their regulations to even out the
disparities between rich and poor?
So many of the community -action
programs farm people have set up
over the past few decades are being
undermined (in the name of freedom)
by a minority who think they're
enough smarter than their fellow
farmers that they can get rich if
they're just set free. And our
government seems ready to listen.
Out west the ordinary barley grower
seems to be totally against the
decision to take barley marketing
away from the Canadian Wheat
Board but Agriculture Minister
Charlie Mayer seems to listen instead
to the minority of producers, most
living near the U.S. border, who think
they can get an edge by doing their
own marketing. They want freedom.
There are always milk and egg
and chicken producers who work to
undermine supply management
because they think they're in a unique
position to do well without controls,
while their neighbours sink in a sea
of red ink brought on by over
production.
Indications are that many
companies can hardly wait for
changes in farm border controls and
marketing so they'll be free to set up
"franchise" farms like those operated
by Tyson Farms and others in the
U.S., gigantic vertically integrated
operations that virtually tum the
farmer into the tenant farmer of the
Victorian era.
And when Canadian or American
factories shift to Mexico (or whatever
the next low-wage industrial zone
will be) how many executives go
with them? Most will stay back in
Toronto or New York, enjoying the
good life, away from the poverty and
dirt.
Maybe that TVO study course
should be recommended. Perhaps we
may be looking for jobs in the
gardens of the rich in the future.0
Keith Roulston is editor and
publisher of The Rural Voice as well
as being a playwright. He lives near
Blyth, ON.