The Rural Voice, 1988-03, Page 18The Jongejan family (left to right): Jeremy, 15, Bill, Ricky, 6, Caroline, 12, Julie, 9, Rebecca, 2, Alison, 14, and Fran.
COMMITTED TO
FARM AND FAMILY
APS profile of Bill Jongejan by Susan Glover
R
umours of the death of the
family farm have been great-
ly exaggerated, according to
the Christian Farmers Federation of
Ontario. And the CFFO's president,
Bill Jongejan, remains undaunted in
his conviction that in the preservation
of the family farm is the only hope for
the future of agriculture.
Bill Jongejan farms south of
Goderich on the west side of Highway
21. Two brown steel -clad buildings
and a new two-storey house are sur-
rounded by broad open fields, the icy
blue of Lake Huron in the distance.
Inside the farmhouse, the lace
curtains, the spotless floors, the heavy
woven cloth on the kitchen table are
subtle reminders of ties that reach
back to the Netherlands. Large win-
dows look out onto the farm yard and
across the fields to the west. The kit-
chen table is large. It has to be — Bill
and Fran have six children at home.
When asked their ages, Jongejan
casts a sheepish glance at his wife and
starts hesitantly down the list, begin-
ning with Jeremy, 15, and ending
with Becky, two. "Two and a half,"
corrects his wife. `There's a big
difference."
He might be forgiven for forget-
ting his children's ages. In addition
to running a 70 -sow farrow to finish
operation in a barn he renovated him-
self and cropping close to 370 acres
of land with his partner, he is entering
his second year as the president of
the Christian Farmers Federation of
16 THE RURAL VOICE