The Rural Voice, 1988-03, Page 50NEWS
(cont'd from previous page)
income to eat and to pay the interest on
his loan.
The experience, Zomer said, taught
him different values. His goals have
changed, and he and his wife have come
to accept new limitations.
He concluded that there comes a
time when one has to come to grips with
oneself. In working for the Farm Debt
Review Board, he said, he has found that
there are farmers who really don't be-
long on the land.
ORGANIC FARMING AN ANSWER
Harold Boker saw the returns from
his farm diminish slowly. Costs kept
spiralling and yields dropping. His
dairy cattle weren't doing well. He is
convinced that he was, and is, a good
farmer, but to keep the weeds in his corn
down he had to keep applying more
herbicides.
The family wasn't happy. They saw
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48 THE RURAL VOICE
how others had things they couldn't
afford. And to top it off, interest rates
went through the ceiling. Finally, Boker
said, he sat down on a fencepost and
prayed for guidance.
Soon after, he was introduced to bio-
logical farming. He studied it, thought it
might be the answer, and the next season
didn't use herbicides on his corn. The
high weeds scared him and his neigh-
bours shook their heads, but in the sec-
ond year, after clover plow -down, the
soil was so much better that Boker said
he knew he was on the right track.
His studies continued and he rotated
crops to suppress weeds. He even found
a way to eliminate nutsedge, a notorious
weed, from his fields.
For fertilizer he began a swine herd
and all the soil's nutrients are now sup-
plied through cattle and hog manure.
One result, Boker said, is that the cows
are healthier and give more milk. If the
cattle are healthier with organic food, he
asks, why not people? Chemical farm-
ing, he adds, is probably no more than a
little bump in history.
COMMUNITY IS ESSENTIAL
Father Jim Sheppard, S. J., who did
missionary work in Latin America,
spoke of the courage it takes for people
in El Salvador and Brazil to stand up for
their rights and their beliefs.
In Brazil, he said, corporations often
force peasants off the land so they can
establish large plantations. They enlist
the military for support.
In one case, a pulp and paper com-
pany wanted large tracts of land to plant
trees for pulp. But the rural neighbours
didn't want to go to the slums of a city.
They agreed unanimously not to sell,
whatever the consequences. Their cour-
age paid off in more ways than one,
Father Sheppard said. Adversity drew
them together, their farming methods
improved, and they won a higher stan-
dard of living.
Canada, said the missionary, must
resist the trend to corporate farms,
which diminish the quality of rural life.0
Adrian Vos
Did you know? The average dairy
cow produces more than five tons
of milk annually — mom than
double the 1941 production of
4,800 pounds per cow.0