The Citizen, 1991-08-07, Page 10PAGE 10. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7,1991.
Huron study finds little optimism about farming
Don Pullen said he'd like io find
more optimism about farming as he
opened a public meeting on the
Huron Study's look at agriculture
but he didn't get much optimism
from the 30-40 farm representatives
who turned up at the Clinton Town
Hall Thursday night.
Mr. Pullen, former Agricultural
Representative for Huron County
for the Ontario Ministry of Agricul
ture and Food is conducting the
agricultural portion of the County
Study which is taking a compre
hensive, long term review of the
provision of government service in
the county. Mr. Pullen has been
traveling the concession lines con
ducting interviews with farm peo
ple based on an eight-point
questionnaire. "I'd like to find more
optimism as I go around," he said
in his introduction. "I'm finding a
lot of pessimism." There are a lol
of sectors of agriculture that are not
in very good shape economically,
he said.
He didn't find much more opti
mism in this meeting as it was
mostly a forum for venting frustra
tion and a cry for help from a pub
lic and government structure most
farm people felt didn't care. The
tone was set with the reply to Mr.
Pullen's first question about what
sort of farm business structure (sin
gle proprietorship, partnership of
corporation) people thought was
most likely to enable farms to pros
per,
"I can't see what difference it
would make under today's situa
tion," Mason Bailey of Blyth said.
"With today's conditions it's only a
matter of time before any operation
fails." Some farm operations would
just last a little longer than others,
he said.
Shirley Hazlitt of Benmiller said
nobody is looking at the future
ownership of land. Forty-six per
cent of the farm population is over
55 years of age, she said and there
are very few farmers in the younger
age group. The middle group,
between 30 and 55 years of age, are
the biggest producers but they're
also the most highly leveraged
(most in debt). Farmers can't afford
to lum their farms over free to their
sons and the sons can't afford to
buy the farm even if they have off-
farm income. "We should be look
ing at who will own the land."
Bill Gregg, county landowner
who used to farm in Halton county
said that from his experience in that
county, as land goes away from
farm ownership it goes away from
animal husbandry and into
cashcrops. Cash-croppers can tell
you "there's no economy of scale
after a certain point. At $75 a tonne
there's no value in farming 1500
acres."
In their frustration, the partici
pants in the discussion struck out at
government and consumers for the
problems in agriculture.
Peter Westerhout argued that "if
you want to change farming, you
have to change the attitude of gov
ernment." He pointed to the loss of
the two-price wheat system which
had given farmers a higher price for
wheat for domestic use and a lower
price for grain being exported.
"You can't grow wheat in Ontario,"
he argued. "In five years there
won't be a miller in this country."
Tuckersmith township dairy
farmer Bill Wallace agreed. Dairy
farmers were the one farm sector
that had been successful in getting
its cost of production from the mar
ketplace, he said, "and the govern
ment has tried to diddle around
with the (pricing) formula." Now,
he said, if you received your farm
from your father, the pricing for
mula said you paid nothing for
your land and that is worked into
the pricing formula. There is an
unstated policy to provide cheap
food for consumers, he said.
Bob Down of Hensall said soci
ety as a whole must bear the blame
for problems in agriculture because
people feel they must have their
food at the cheapest possible price.
They already have the second
cheapest price but because they live
beside the country with the cheap
est food prices they felt abused, he
said.
All sectors of society have to
share the economic pie, he said or
somewhere down the road Canadi
ans would end up depending on
imported food. "Somewhere down
the road somebody's going to have
to pay."
Some members of the audience
felt work must be done to educate
the consumer, starting young with
agriculture in the classroom pro- ‘
grams but others felt the effort to
educate consumers would be wast
ed: that consumers only care about
getting food at the cheapest possi
ble price.
A common complaint about
bureaucracy was touched off in
many, from environmental restric
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tions on municipal drains and low-
level river crossings which farmers
felt were ridiculously restrictive.
"The people coming out to tell
farmers what they must do have
probably never seen a farm until
they gel there," said Marie Hick-
nell, Reeve of Hullett. Mason Bai
ley told a story of a bureaucratic
nightmare trying to get permission
to cross a creek on his farm near
Blyth. Another farmer complained
that while they're strict with other
people, the Ministry of the Envi
ronment and Ontario Hydro seem
to have different rules when it
comes to dealing with their own
spills.
Farmers even struck out at the
Huron Study itself. "I'm quite upset
with the gist of this study", said Mr.
Wallace pointing out that jobs in
agriculture in the statistics provided
included only those jobs on farms
but didn't include all the jobs that
are created because of agriculture.
"Is the county writing agriculture
off?" he wondered. Noting the
study may be used for restructuring
municipal boundaries, he said "the
study seems to be saying things
have to go to urban centres."
Dr. Gary Davidson, head of the
Huron County Planning and Devel
opment office and a member of the
Study team said that the study was
simply noting it appeared likely
there would be fewer jobs in agri
culture and manufacturing in the
continued on page 11
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