The Rural Voice, 1999-07, Page 10�Ox
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6 THE RURAL VOICE
Keith Roulston
When two rights make a wrong
I cringe when I go by a public
building and see smokers huddled
outside, getting their fix of nicotine
so they can get through the day.
Those people are out in the elements
because non-smokers like me have
convinced society that we have a
greater right to
breathe clean air
than they have to
indulge their
addiction in
comfort.
In a society
that has been
obsessed with
"rights" since the
civil rights
marches of the
1960s, comp-
lications arise
when the rights
of one group
come head to
head with the
rights of another. It's easy to agree
that no one should be denied the right
to vote because of the colour of their
skin or their gender, but it's harder to
agree when there is no clear moral
right and wrong.
The Ontario Farm Products
Marketing Commission, for instance,
recently chastised the majority of
Ontario Pork Producers who, at the
annual convention this spring, voted
to end direct producer/pacjcer
contracts. In a letter to Ontario Pork
the FPMC congratulated the board,
basically for ignoring the producer
vote by going ahead with its new
mprketing plan which still offers
direct contracts, and "cautions" the
board against making changes
"outside of the original intent of the
Commission's marketing order" of
January 26, 1996.
It can be argued the commission
is looking out for the rights of
individual pork producers who want
to deal directly with packers, but in
doing so, it is really taking away
from the rights of the majority of
pork producers who believe in
collective marketing. The comm-
ission is also turning the industry
over to a handful of packers who can
now tie up enough of their needs in
private contracts that they don't need
to use the open market. They can
manipulate the remaining pork
producers just as pork producers were
manipulated in the days before
collective marketing was born. So the
rights of the individual take away
from the rights of the majority.
On the other hand, there's the case
of genetically -modified crops and the
minority of people who want to farm
organically. Proponents of genetic
engineering such at the Ontario Corn
Producers, have said til ere should be
no labeling of genetically -modified
crops — if consumers are really
concerned about not eating such food
they can buy organic products.
But a Wisconsin company that
makes products from organically -
grown crops recently had to withdraw
and destroy 80,000 bags of corn chips
because tests in Europe showed
genetically -altered corn was found in
the bags. The problem arose because
pollen was blown from a nearby field
of genetically -altered corn onto the
property of the organic farmer.
In addition, the incorporation of
BT into genetically -engineered corn
undermines one of the few natural
pesticides organic farmers could use.
As insects adapt to BT, which they
will despite the best efforts to prevent
it, organic farmers lose one of the
only organic methods of battling
major insect invasions.
In a biotech world, the rights of
the majority to use whatever product
they want, basically trumps the rights
of the minority to avoid unnatural
products.
Balancing the competing rights of
groups and individuals in the 1990s
seems to be not so much which right
is right, but which side has the most
power. In both cases mentioned, the
decisions made are in the interests of
large companies, to short-circuit the
open market in the case of hogs in
one instance, and to protect the future
of biotechnology in the other. The
battle for civil rights originated to
protect the little guy from the
powerful but that premise has been
turned on its head.0
Keith Roulston is editor and
publisher of The Rural Voice. He
lives near Blyth, ON.