The Rural Voice, 1998-03, Page 32It was a tough summer to
be a livestock farmer in
Huron County in 1997. By
last fall, Huron County
Federation of Agriculture
decided it was time to act.
On September 29,
representatives of 12
commodity groups and three
general farm organizations
were invited to a meeting in
Clinton and the Huron Farm
Environmental Coalition was
formed.
It's the kind of action that
farm groups across the
province have taken as they
try to deal with growing
worries about the possible
harm done by farming
practices to the environment
and on the lifestyles of
neighbours. In Perth County,
for instance, an Agricultural
Review Committee has been
set up to deal with complaints
concerning manure manage-
ment issues and practices
associated with livestock and
poultry operations in the
county. And at the provincial
level, the Ontario Farm
Environmental Coalition went
before 600 rural political
leaders at the Rural Ontario
Municipalities Association to
unveil proposals for dealing
with the growing concerns
over the handling and storage
of liquid manure and other
farm nutrients.
While livestock production
is the target of much of the
criticism, the Huron Farm
Environmental Coalition
(HFEC) worked to get strong
representation from cash crop
farmers as well as livestock
commodities, says Evert
Ridder, the OFA director for
Huron Northwest and the
person who helped organize
the group. Ridder, a Clinton
area farmer, serves as vice-
president of the group. Harry
VanderBurgt of R.R.1,
Dashwood, president of the
Huron County Pork Producers
Association, chairs the
committee.
The HFEC wants farmers to
be able to be proactive, says
28 THE RURAL VC CE
Bridging the gap
Farm groups go to work to try to
collect information on farm
environmental issues
By Keith Roulston
Groups like the Huron Farm Environmental Coalition want
to help ensure that clean water stays clean, and that
accurate information is available about livestock farming
and the wastes it produces.
VanderBurgt. The organ-
izations involved in the
coalition want to show that
farmers are just as concerned
about their environment as
anyone else.
There's no doubt the events
of last summer triggered the
movement in Huron, how-
ever. VanderBurgt has been
critical of the media for its
handling of the controversies
that broke out in the county
over intensive livestock
operations. In the north of the
county, an Ashfield
Township group called
PROTECT (Presenting
Recommendations On Town-
ship Environmental Concerns
Together) battled to have the
township halt construction of
all intensive livestock
operations until a thorough
environmental study could be
done into the dangers
involved. To the south, near
Grand Bend, homeowner Joe
Gleason led a campaign
suggesting the main reason
for closure of some Lake
Huron beaches was pollution
from farming.
It was some of the
information being used in the
campaigns that bothered
Ridder. "People were using
information from all over the
world, applying it to Huron
County and using it as the
gospel truth," he says. That
worry led to one of the main
goals of HFEC, to try to get
accurate information. One of
the group's committees is
applying for funding under
the National Soil and Water
Conservation Program to
conduct a study of local data.
The Huron County Health
Unit, Ridder points out, has
25 years worth of results of
water testing. Water intake
plants also have years worth
of information. The Coalition
wants to hire experts to bring
this information together and
analyse it to see what it
shows about trends in water
quality.
"You have to identify the
problems to know where to