The Rural Voice, 1987-12, Page 12A
Merry
Christmas
and a
Happy New
Year!
from
Doug, Jeanne, Ron & Bill
&At
K.M.M. DRAINAGE
Walton 887-6428
Quality Swine Co-op
SEASON'S GREETINGS
from the directors and
staff at O.S.
Sales of Breeding Stock —
Performance home -tested Boars
& Gilts from health monitored
herds
Services —
Identification, pregnancy check-
ing, feed testing, and mycotoxin,
zearalenone testing
Consultants —
Health, nutrition, ventilation, and
facility management
Supplies —
Swine related health & manage-
ment products
For full information on the Quality Swine
Program and the proven Tele -Auction
Marketing System of a large volume of
uniform, top quality, healthy feeder pigs
with a 24-hour guarantee, contact
Ivan Wolfe - Mitchell
519-348-8543
or
QUALITY SWINE CO-OP
HEADQUARTERS
Box 53
SHEDDEN, ONTARIO
519-764-2300
In area code 519 call
1-800.265-4369
0 THE RURAL VOICE
FREE TRADE:
A HIDDEN AGENDA?
That great noise you hear around
the free trade debate isn't just the
sound of the two sides arguing, it's the
sound of the crash of two views of life
colliding head on.
Nowhere in the free trade debate
are the two sides more clearly defined
than in agriculture. Generally speak-
ing, the same people who support sup-
ply management (the dairy and feather
industries) oppose the agreement and
the same people who would do any-
thing to keep from being under supply
management, those in the red meat
industry, are the strongest supporters.
That support or opposition comes
from a philosophical difference be-
tween the sides. The red meat indus-
try has always seen the answer to the
problem of low prices caused by
surplus production in finding new
export markets. The feather and dairy
industries decided years ago that it
was better to tailor production to the
market than go on trying to find new
markets forever. Part of that bitter
lesson for dairy farmers came when
the export market for Canadian
cheeses in Britain, on which they had
come to depend, died quickly because
of a political decision abroad: the
decision of Britain to join the
European Common Market.
I got into a discussion with a
supporter of free trade the other day.
He naturally thought I was ill-informed
and should know more about the
subject before I wrote about free trade.
I couldn't help thinking it ironic
that this good cattleman, who would
shun supply management because he
doesn't want somebody telling him
what to do, is in favour of entering
into an agreement in which the rules
Canada operates under will be made
as much south of the border as here at
home. What would happen, I won-
dered aloud, if we in Canada thought
we needed some kind of new social
program, for instance, but the
Americans considered it an unfair
subsidy (after all, 25 years after we
accepted universal medical care in
Canada the Americans still think it's a
communist plot).
Well, the gentleman said, of
course we don't want any more social
programs anyway. He hurried on to
say that Canada would still be able to
make its own policies, but that remark
stuck in my mind for a few days and
kept coming back to be mulled over.
Could it be that the most vocal
supporters of free trade, from big
business to John Bulloch of the
Canadian Federation of Independent
Business to conservative -thinking
farmers who produce red meat, see
free trade as their way to right what is
wrong with Canada? Could it be their
chance to let Americans do for them
what they've been unable to convince
Canadian voters to go along with:
things such as scrapping some social
programs, putting unions in their
place, and getting rid of marketing
boards?
By early November, for instance,
the Grocery Products Manufacturers
of Canada were saying that if
manufacturers are to compete with
American companies on an even field,
the marketing boards must be brought
to heel because they cause higher
prices for Canadian buyers of raw
materials than the U.S. manufacturers
pay.
While many free traders argue
purely for economic benefits, probably
few would cry if Canadians were
forced to be more like Americans, less
ready to support community -minded
programs and more ready to support
the "every man for himself' kind of
free enterprise that reigns south of the
border.0
KEITH ROULSTON, WHO LIVES NEAR
BLYTH, IS THE ORIGINATOR AND PAST
PUBLISHER OF THE RURAL VOICE.