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Lucknow Sentinel, 2009-08-05, Page 5age 4. - Vuee naw Sentinel, Wednesday, August 5, 2009. P.O. Box 400, 619 Campbell Street, Lucknow, Ontario, NOG 2H0 phone: (519) 528-2822 fax: (519) 528-3529 www.lucknowsentinel.com Publisher, Advertising Manager: Pat Livingston lucksentads@bowesnet.com Editor: Garit Reid -lucksented@bowesnet.com Office Administrator: Ruth Dobrensky lucksent@bowesnet.com On leave: Sara Bender Subsctiption Rates advance: Regular $30.00 plus GST Senior $'28.00 plus PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT NO. 40064683 PAP REGISTRATION NO. 7656 REIURN LE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO CIRCULATION DEPT: P.O. Box 400 , Lucknow, ON, NOG 2110 For any non -deliveries or delivery eosins, please call 519-528-2822. e-mail : lucksenta@bowesnet.com "We acbtowledge the ficial support .of the Government of Canada, through the Publications Assistance Program (PAP), towarri our mailing costs." Amu ow 003) (mages of address, orders for subscriptions, and undeliverable copies (return postage guaranteed) are to be sent to The Lwow Sentinel at the address indicated here. Advertising is accepted on the condition that in the event of a tical error, the por- tion of the advertising space occupied by the erroneous item together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged for, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid at the applicable rates. The Sentinel is available on microfilm at Goderich Library, 52 Montreal Street Goderich, N7A 1M3 (from 1875) Goderichlibrary@huroncounty.ca and S 727Street, Queen Kincardine N2Z 1Z9 (from 1815 to 1900 & 1935 to 1959) UN MEDIA Comoent Kudos to local Grocers Co-op Dear Editor, Kudos to grocer Dale Kropf, who "was featured in the news lately for cutting ties to the Sobeys franchises, to go it on his own. Kropf made the break so he could feature local meat and produce in his five southwestern Ontario stores. Four other southwest- ern stores have joined with Kropf's stores in Arthur, Durham, Lucknow. and Palmerston. Collectively the nine stores are being called the Hometown Grocers Co-op. Now many folks don't know that corporate policies for the big three grocery chains in Canada - Metro, Loblaws and Sobeys - do not allow grocers undertheir umbrella to pur- chase outside of their purchasing plan. Every company whose products are in their stores have -bought; shelf space, so it is not allowed under fran- chise rules to stock local produce from a mile away that. has not made that arrangement with *the franchise. And corporations such as Limbs and Sobeys make year-long contracts for say, California strawberries, so local producers haven't got a chance to get into the stores. Sometimes grocers may make an exception, by putting some local produce in a cart in an aisle, but they may risk losing their franchise if they haven't obtained permission to do so. Recalls of products from foreign countries, and issues with listeria even here in Canada are getting peo- ple to question purchasing food from farther afield. Loebs had made some headway in trying to provide more Ontario and Canadian produce, but food is still travelling thousands of miles to get to the stores. Sometimes food is travelling all the way to the food terminal in Toronto, just to drive back on the same roads to the local franchises! People who are conscious of their carbon footprint and people who want to support their local farmers who are neighbours of theirs - have begun to look at other markets once again, • but farmer's markets only take place in -season and on the weekends. In a large grocery chain, Kropf says, corporate policies stipulate that he only buy federally inspected, as opposed to provincially inspected meat. This prevents franchisees from stocking local products. Most federal- ly inspected meat in Canada comes from large corporations such as Maple Leaf, Cargill and Tyson. We all know how that can affect the food supply! Never mind the way that these mega -corporations run down the price of meat to the farmers using captive supply. Most of the meat sold on franchise shelves is Alberta beef, as well as a lot of American chicken and pork. Hometown Grocers Co-op member Peter Knipfel, who owns The Chesley Grocery Store, was also featUred in the news article. Re is part-owner of a provincially inspected local beef pro- cessing facility 10 kilometres from his supermarket. Sobeys' corporate policy meant he couldn't stock his shelves with his own beef. Now . the meat on his shelves comes from less than 60 miles away. :Let's not forget that taking this step isa huge one for these owners who no longer have the supports . in place that ,obeing c - the with in = a franchise, the pricing and inventorysoftware, the flyer production, the' purchasing power, thin' and other resource per- 'sonnel that they previously relied on, on a day-to-day basis. The new co-op members also have to hire a purchas- ing person to take charge of the pur- chasing chasing and inventory of fresh meat . and produce. So we rally need to commend them for the huge step they have taken on behalf of the con- sumers and producers of fresh local meats, fruits and vegetables. What Karopf, Knipfel and others= have done is hopefully a trend that echoes the new realities of the mar- ket -place. Unnecessary transportation of food over many thousands of miles when it is available closer at hand needs to be a thing of the past. Consumers at the Hometown Grocer's Stores are spending more now on produce at these stores and purchasing better food for their fami- lies. And it is ultimately the consumer who is going to make changes in what the big box stores bring in, As consumers we need to support folks like Kropf and Knipfel but we also need to drive the marketplace by making choices that make the big cor- porate food giants sit up and take notice. Kropf and Knipfel and their associ- ates have made choices that are going to be tough to follow up on. Can you take a stand and make some tough choices too? Sentinel • IVienolrs/ 10 years ago - Aug. 4. 1999 Snobelen Dehy Inc. isthe name of the new company, which received court approval for its purchase of the former Canadian- Agra- Foods Alfalfa Dehydration plant, on Wednesday, July 27, 1999. - After . no contact for 55 years, two .french ladies who had been close .friends in the early `40s were reunited last month. Rika ) Kalienhoot. of France was in Lucknow in July, 1999 visiting her family and thitugh various friends was t ed 'with her long lost friend Helene Uibe of Berkley, Michigan. • 1999 will see the first Lucknow- 4I Beef Club invitational will i showncrease :in conjunction tition with as theit fallwill fairbe oriopen Sept.to4 1 be18. Thefe mem show ` bets from all counties. ,Z+O ygars ago - Aug. 2. 1989 I• f you were in town on Friday, July 28, 1989 there was a haze over the village and people alt smoke. They were see- ing and smelling the- effects of the Manitoba and Algonquin AccOrding to the London weather office, it was a result of a. switch in the wind direction from the north west ▪ The -Lucknow District FireDepartment gwas called -out at about 5 p.m. on i esday, July 26; 1989. o allay. ane 1oss/i . ip a tirn line, known as the :$ Road. A wagon load of large round bales . owned by E. Piel and Sons. caught on fire. - The Bruce County Dairy Princess competition is planned for Saturday, Sept. 16, 1989 in :Formosa. The winner will rep- resent the ` county in the 1990 Ontario Dairy Princess Competition held at the CNE,' bronto. 50 years ago - Aug. 5. 1959 - Lucknow and District Horticultural Society will hold their .first flower show on Aug. 22, 1959 weekend at the Lucknow Arena. During . the Sentinel holidays, Jack Ackert of Holyrood found a very large puff ball in the apple orchand on his :faun. The puff ball measured five feet, one ..inch around and weighed 17.5 lbs. • Willi Laurie, Clinton eulerber w Dungannon had ; is i SOth Reunion in July of 2005 and it went off without a hitch. ;ti rdney Durnin, 4, of Goderich tries some corn on the cob cooked by steam engine. (File photo)