Loading...
The Rural Voice, 1998-03, Page 8A NEW CONCEPT r FOR HANDLING BALES • two 5 1/2" augers provide positive gentle lift • eliminates troublesome chains • space saving vertical positioning • reverse for loading out of mow • low maintenance — durable Delron bearings • all drive and controls conveniently at ground level AUG -A -BALE also: Mar systems- insta5allon a+ailade WEBER LANE MFG. (1990) CO. R.R. 4, Listowel, Ontario N4W 3G9 519-291.5035 CANADIAN CO-OPERATIVE WOOL GROWERS LIMITED v.1• . Now Available ADVANCE PAYMENTS 500 - 600 per pound * Skirted Fleeces Well -Packed Sacks For more information contact: WINGHAM WOOL DEPOT John Farrell Limm.R.R. 2, Wingham, Ontario Phone/Fax 519-357-1058 4 THE RURAL VOICE Keith Roulston Different directions Growing up a farm boy, I inherited a trait that seems a part of many rural personalities. I often think that, if I was to describe my political leanings, I'd call myself a contrarian. If society seems to be leaning too far to the left, I go in the contrary direction. If it's too far to the right, I lean the opposite way. Farmers' contrarian tendencies seem to be evident these days. Society seems to be moving to bigger and bigger units, even as it talks about individual rights. The proposed merger of the Royal Bank and Bank of Montreal, for instance, is justified as a necessary strengthening in order to deal in a global marketplace. Politically, the Ontario govern- ment, while talking about the need for smaller government, has forced amalgamation on Toronto and Kent County. This has sent municipalities elsewhere scurrying into hurried marriages to head off the shotgun weddings to unwanted partners. Yet at the same time, the drive in agriculture is to dismantle the organ- izations that a short time ago were deemed essential to give farmers some clout in the marketplace. The Canadian Wheat Board is under attack. The pork board monopolies in Manitoba and Alberta were taken away at the demand of packers and some producers, and similar pressures have been put on Ontario Pork to give up its monopoly powers. Processors, consumer advocates, the urban media, foreign competitors and some producers, are always pressing to dismantle supply management in the dairy and feather industries. Monopolies are wrong, critics say, at the same time as the banks argue that near -monopoly powers are needed to allow them to be competitive in a fierce global environment. Actually, the critics of supply management have a point. Under Canada's ridiculously weak "compet- ition" laws perhaps the only entities that would break the rules are market- ing boards. The federal agency hasn't been able to ensure much competition between Canada's big businesses. It has prosecuted only a handful of cases in the past decade. When small companies have turned to it for help, like a small grocery chain operator in the Maritimes who was being squeezed by predatory practices by two competing national giants, the regulators have shrugged and said there is nothing they can do. This is the world many individual farmers are now wanting to step into. The urge is understandable in some ways. Monopolies can be too slow to adapt to new ideas and new realities. Dairy Farmers of Ontario, for instance, has been refreshingly receptive to developing niche markets lately but it took years to convince the board to look at doing things differently. Still, when farmers think they can play with the big boys who, like the banks, are getting bigger, they may be fooling themselves. Perhaps the Ontario Pork Industry Marketing Task Force has come up with the best compromise. Faced with rebellion by some producers who don't want to pay a marketing fee for hogs they sell directly to packers, the task force proposed opening up the market to all sellers but creating a co- operative to sell hogs of those farmers who want clout in the market. If 80 or 90 per cent of producers join together to market their pigs they can be a powerful force, even if the other 10 or 20 per cent want to go it alone. In future, perhaps one or two marketing co-ops to represent smaller dairy or chicken producers could help if those commodities are stripped of their monopoly powers. But in a day of growing concen- tration in business, farmers, no matter how big they think they are, can't afford to fight the big guys alone. They must work together.0 Keith Roulston is editor and publisher of The Rural Voice. He lives near Blyth, ON.