The Rural Voice, 1999-11, 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, Lisa Boonstoppel-
Pot, Bonnie Gropp, Ralph Pearce
Bob Reid, Mervyn Erb, Sandra
Orr, Carl L. Bedal, Janice Becker,
Andrew Grindlay
marketing & advertising sales manager:
Gerry Fortune
advertising representative:
Merle Gunby
production co-ordinator:
Joan Caldwell
advertising & editorial production:
Dianne Josling
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Behind the Scenes
Safety or bureaucracy?
Operators of 300 small
community-based abattoirs across
Ontario are currently being caught in
the middle between demands for
improvements in their facilities to
meet new, higher standards, and calls
for caution and patience.
For a small operator like Mike
Beretta of Beretta's Butcher Shop in
Brussels, it was a case of not being
able to afford to wait for the whole
issue to sort itself out. He had been
told he had to make improvements to
the small abattoir that served his
butcher shop — changes he felt had
nothing to do with food safety and
everything to do with silly
bureaucracy. He'd been told he
would have to pave the driveway and
use metal in cattle pens instead of
wood. The cost, he thought, would be
too expensive. Without the abattoir,
he said, the butcher shop didn't make
sense economically either. Faced
with uncertainty, he jumped when he
was offered another job.
Yet Dr. Tom Baker, of the Ontario
Meat Inspection Branch says the
rules will be softened, eventually and
says abattoir owners shouldn't panic
and spend beyond what makes
economic sense in updating their
abattoirs. Bonnie Gropp examines the
issue this month.
Speaking of changes, 4-H has
been in a state of flux for a decade
now, with OMAFRA withdrawing
more and more from active
participation and funding of the
program. Where does the program
stand now, as 4-H Week is celebrated
this month? We take a look at the
situation.
Tired but proud might sum up the
feelings of the people behind the
1999 International Plowing Match in
Huron. From host farmer Earl Becker
to IPM chairman Graeme Craig, the
assessment is that things couldn't
have gone much better than they did
for what is being called "The Sun-
shine Match" (as opposed to one past
Huron County match which is now
called "The Mud Match.") Janice
Becker talked to those involved.
Our Woodlot columnist Andrew
Grindlay looks at protecting your
trees from deer damage.0
Update
Bruce IPM payofffinally realized
Organizers of the highly successful 1993 International Plowing Match in Bruce
County had a vision for using the profits of the match to help their community
and six long years later that vision has finally become reality.
"This is a great day in the history of the County of Bruce" said Jack Cumming,
chair of the Bruce IPM as he took part in the official opening of a CT scanner
department at the South Bruce Grey Health Centre in Walkerton.
Following the 1993 match the local IPM committee had pledged $300,000 of
its profit to the purchase of the scanner for the Walkerton hospital but the whole
process had been delayed while Ministry of Health officials decided whether they
would permit such a sophisticated piece of equipment in a small rural hospital.
The equipment will be funded by its maker, GE, for a five year trial period. By
that time, said Cumming, the IPM money will have accumulated interest to
nearly $500,000. Other monies raised will bring that total to nearly $700,000.
Dr. Doug Mowbray, staff radiologist said the Walkerton hospital now has an
imaging department second to none in rural Ontario and one that has few rivals in
urban centres. The presence of such first-rate equipment will also help retain
doctors in the area and help with recruiting more, he said.
Mowbray praised the work of three determined individuals who continued to
fight for the vision of a CT scanner in Bruce County: Maurice Donnelly, Bob
Caesar, chair of the local district health council, and former Bruce MPP Barb
Fisher. "Even as pitbulls are not politically correct these days, there is no other
way to describe the way these three never stopped and never gave up and always
took the right steps when the rest of us were ready to quit."0