The Rural Voice, 1997-02, Page 3Editor: Keith Roulston
editorial advisory committee:
Bev Hill, farmer, Huron County
John Heard, soils and crop extension
and research, northwestern Ontario
Diane O'Shea, farmer, Middlesex Cty.
George Penfold, associate professor,
University of Guelph
Gerald Poechman, farmer, Bruce Cty.
contributing writers:
Gisele Ireland, Cathy Laird, Wayne
Kelly, Sarah Borowski,
Mary Lou Weiser -Hamilton, Ralph
Pearce, Susan Glover,
Bob Reid, Mervyn Erb, Darene
Yavorsky, Peter Baltensperger, Sandra
Off, Carl L. Bedal
marketing & advertising sales manager:
Gerry Fortune
advertising representative:
Merle Gunby
production co-ordinator:
Joan Caldwell
advertising & editorial production:
Dianne Josling
Anne Harrison
laserset: with the Macintosh Classic
printed & mailed by: Signal -Star
Publishing, Goderich, Ontario
subscriptions: $16.05 (12 issues)
(includes 7% GST)
Back copies $2.75 each
For U.S. rates, add $5 per year
Changes of address, orders for subscrip-
tions and undeliverable copies (return
postage guaranteed) are to be sent to The
Rural Voice at the address listed below.
Canadian
Magazine Publishers
Association
All manuscripts submitted for consideration
should be accompanied by a stamped, self-
addressed envelope. The publisher cannot
accept responsibility for unsolicited
manuscripts or photographs, although both
are welcome. The opinions expressed here-
in are not necessarily those of the publisher.
Editorial content may be reproduced only by
permission of the publisher. Published
monthly by The Rural Voice, Box 429,
Blyth, Ontario, NOM 1H0, 519-523-4311
(fax 523-9140). Publication mail
registration No. 3560 held by North Huron
Publishing Co. Inc. at Goderich, Ontario.
The Rural Voice makes every effort to see
that advertising copy is correct. However.
should an error occur, please notify The
Rural Voice office within 30 days of
invoicing in order to obtain a billing
adjustment.
Behind the Scenes
100 years of quietly improving rural life
Lost in the worries about which
crop to grow and whether to contract
it, and the figuring of how to increase
production from cows or chickens or
pigs, are the hundreds of individually
small battles won by farm organiz-
ations over the years that make rural
Ontario a better place to live.
February 19 marks the 100th
anniversary of the first meeting of
one of these organizations: the
Women's Institute.
I attended WI meetings with my
mother in the 1950s and was
dragooned into my first public
appearances singing as the
"entertainment" for the meeting
several times. The WI was a quiet,
but integral part of our rural
community, helping hold it together
and harnessing the untapped power of
farm women to make farm life better.
WI members have fought for public
health improvements like pasteurized
milk and bagged bread. Many times
these initiatives, as the WI's stand
against BST today, may have gone
against the beliefs of the men back on
the farm, but the women stood their
ground.
A couple of years back I was
asked back to my mother's WI as a
guest speaker. Nearly all the faces
were familiar. There hasn't been a lot
of new blood. But the perception that
the WI has become a club for old
women is refuted by some of the
impassioned women writer Bonnie
Gropp spoke to in preparing her
article on the WI at 100. She found
herself re-evaluating stereotypes
about the WI's place in modern
communities.
The space age technology known
as precision farming or site-specific
farming is getting headlines these
days, but what conclusions can be
drawn from what's been learned so
far from yield monitors and other
gadgets. We have results from the
early going in a five-year study by
OMAFRA and University of Guelph.
'Tis the season to think about
spring planting. Our Profit$ section
this month deals with crops. Crop
adviser Mery Erb takes a look ahead
at the 1997 crop year while Joan
McKinlay looks at forages.
Farmers aren't the only people
planning for spring. Gardeners arc
dreaming about getting back outside
to plant their flowers and vegetables.
Rhea Hamilton Seeger gives some
tips for those who want to rush the
season by starting their own plants
indoors.0 —KR
Update
Food promotion fair discontinued
After three years of success, the region's first food fair, A Taste of Country
Food Fair, in Blyth, has been discontinued. (It was featured in a Rural Voice
article in August 1993).
Only three people turned up at a meeting held January 7 to discuss the future
of the event. Though attendance was tip at last summer's fair, and the gourmet
barbecue, featuring locally grown and processed foods, was sold out, the number
of exhibitors had dropped by nearly one third from 1995.
"We couldn't plan on having a fair in 1997 unless we had an assurance that the
exhibitors were still interested," said Barbara Storcy, one of the organizers of
this showcase of regional food producers and manufacturers.
The fair featured booths from commodity groups as well as food
entrepreneurs, each giving out samples and recipes to create greater knowledge
and interest in local food products. Some of the commodity groups had indicated
their support for continuing the fair but overall interest was not strong enough to
continue, Storey said.
Attendance ranged from 500 to 700 people over the three years with more than
40 exhibitors taking part in 1995, showing everything from egg recipes to jams
and jellies to wild boar and emu. There were also food demonstrations by home
economists, celebrities and volunteer food co-ordinators.0