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The Times Advocate, 2004-04-14, Page 1414 Exeter Times–Advocate Wednesday, April 14, 2004 Canadian Foodgrains Bank tackles issue of food justice By Mary Simmons TIMES -ADVOCATE STAFF LUCAN — Approximately 30 people gathered at St. Patrick's Catholic church hall March 31 to attend a workshop about the Canadian Foodgrains Bank. The purpose of the session, which was one of three held in the province, was to inform sup- porters of the organization's food justice work and to gather feedback and ideas. Established in 1983, the Canadian Foodgrains Bank is a Canadian -based Christian orga- nization that helps provide food and development assistance to people in need on behalf of 13 Canadian church members. Participants in the workshop were given tasks to help them explore the issue of food justice and find possible solutions to be put in place by the Canadian Foodgrains Bank. The first task was to brain- storm reasons why 840 million people in the world are hungry. Groups came up with causes such as natural disasters, pover- ty, war, government policies, lack of education, AIDS, water and the myth of scarcity. Executive director Jim Cornelius said poor people are much more likely to be hungry and hungry people are much more likely to be poor. "It feeds on itself," he said. "It goes in a circle." Cornelius said part of the man- date of the foodgrains bank is to break that cycle. He also said hunger statistics correlate directly with the edu- cation of girls. Once girls are educated there is more of a bal- ance of power, which results in the ability to find solutions and lessen the hunger problem. "It can be beaten," Cornelius said of world hunger. "We have the resources and we have the know-how." He said there are three aspects to solving world hunger: food aid, food security and food jus- tice. Cornelius said the organization has been most known for food aid. It has provided 850,000 tonnes of food to hungry people around the world. Food security means providing support in times of crisis so food producers can get back on their feet and continue producing the food they need to survive. "They need to be able to feed themselves today and to feed themselves tomorrow," Cornelius said. He defined the term "food jus- tice" as the human right to food. He said for this right to be ful- filled the amount and quality of Canadian food aid must be increased and agricultural trade rules have to be fair, so they work for the small farmers in developing countries. "All of these things are part of the picture," he said. The foodgrains bank is work- ing to highlight the role of agri- culture in alleviating hunger. Policy advisor Kenton Lobe said agriculture is the key dri- ver. Half the total employment in developing countries comes from the agricultural sector. In some countries this figure is increased to around 75 to 85 per cent. "Critical and small scale agri- culture can lead the way in developing countries," Lobe said. He said the organization is lob- bying the government — partic- ularly the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and attending summits and trade talks. "It's not just about more money," he said. "It's also about better agriculture." The foodgrains bank works with communities to meet local needs. Another task given to partici- pants was to brainstorm how the agricultural trade intersects with people's everyday lives and to come up with principles which should be used to guide agricultural trade rules. Many of the people in the room said they are personally affected by agricultural trade because it is their livelihood, but it also affects the prices of everyone buying food to eat and local economies. Some of the proposed princi- ples included respect, fairness, fair compensation, limiting trade and tariffs, equal distribution, no dumping, trading only after local needs have been met, no subsi- dies on transportation, equal quality restrictions, fair wages for workers and encouraging ownership of land. Lobe said the foodgrains bank's stance is developing countries must have: • the right to apply tariffs on imports sold at a reduced cost of production; • the number of non -exported staple commodities exempt and tariffs decreased; • flexibility to use domestic support experience to increase production for local consump- tion; • the option to retain farmer controlled marketing structures and the opportunity and right to co-ordinate them. The stakeholders in the Canadian Foodgrains Bank are the donors, national churches, CIDA and the poor in the world who are hungry and marginal- ized and often don't have a voice. Regional co-ordinator David Mayberry said the last group is the most important since the organization exists to serve their needs. "To be the servant, the poor in the world have to be the mas- ter," he said. Huron County digs into reserves to pass budget By Pauline Kerr SPECIAL TO THE TIMES -ADVOCATE GODERICH — Huron County Council has passed its 2004 budget. The budget calls for a 9.3 per cent tax rate increase over last year and utilizes $2,922,226 of already deplet- ed general reserves to meet expenditures. The decision to pass the budget was made after what appeared to be a last-minute effort on the part of some councillors to send it back for further re -working. The original deadline set by the province had been the end of April, but that was moved to the end of May. A motion to table the budget was made, but minutes after hearing the report of county treasurer David Carey, council voted 10-5 in favour of the budget. "Now we can move on," Warden Bill Dowson said. Few councillors appeared pleased with the budget they passed. Coun. Bert Dykstra of Central Huron asked Carey for clarification on what was left in the budget after numerous meetings during which some items were removed and others were put back. "There's a lot of confusion," he said. However, no one appeared to feel the need — or per- haps the stamina — to examine the list item by item. Coun. Rob Morley of South Huron drew attention to the fact that general reserves (as opposed to reserves dedicated to a specific purpose, such as winter road maintenance) will be down to the point where there is only enough money to operate the county 1.4 days. Carey described the move to use "already scarce" reserves as a "very risky venture" and drew attention to the need for council to move forward with caution. The reserves will have to be built up, he said. In later discussion, he said the previous council had determined a `prudent" amount for general reserves to be 15 per cent of the total operating budget — repre- senting 1.8 months of total operating expenses, or about $10.4 million. No Frills opening in Grand Bend GRAND BEND — A new No Frills store is coming to Grand Bend April 22. No Frills, located at 98 Ontario St. S., is owned and operated by Mike and Terri Rahn. The ceremonial ribbon will be cut April 22 at 7:45 a.m. and the doors open at 8 am. Customers have come to rely on No Frills for everyday low food prices, a wide selection of fresh fruits and veg- etables, great quality meat and deli items, and many No Name and President's Choice products. No Frills guarantees they "won't be beat" on the most important daily buys of 2 per cent milk, bread, sugar, large eggs, butter, bananas, lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes and super mega size diapers. Store hours are 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. from Monday to Friday, and 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Carey stressed the need to repay the "loan" from reserves over the next two budgets. Coun. Jim Fergusson of Bluewater described the use of general reserves as "short term and short sighted". He went on to say, "We need to look at our spending." Funds are being put into dedicated reserves, noted Coun. Deb Shewfelt of Goderich. He said they can be moved into general reserves if necessary by simply pass- ing a bylaw. While certainly not the preferred scenario, a number of councillors appeared to regard the budget as making the best of a bad situation. Coun. Ken Oke of South Huron described it as a "rainy day budget — except it's not raining, it's pouring." He said while it was not good to let reserves get so low, council couldn't hit taxpayers again after they had already taken a hit with reassessment. Oke said, "The budget is a wake-up call on what we have to do." He reminded council staff had initially called for a 54 per cent increase. Council whittled it down to 34 per cent and decided to use reserves set aside for a rainy day. At least one member of council does not regard the budget as a "done deal". Coun. Joseph Seili said he will continue looking at items to trim. He gave Sunday open- eartlan Community Credit Union Limited Where membership makes the difference TO ZURICH AND AREA RESIDENTS SPECIAL NOTICE OF APPRECIATION The Board and management of Heartland Community Credit Union wish to extend their sincere appreciation to those residents who recently completed and returned the Heartland Financial Services Survey. The results of the questionnaire will now be carefully assessed in order for Heartland to consider providing financial services within your community. Marj Dobson, Board Chair Jim Lynn, Chief Executive Officer Head Office, Clinton Exeter Branch Listowel Branch (519) 482 3466 (519) 235 0640 (519) 291 6189 www. heartlandcommunitycu. on. ca ings for libraries as one example. And Coun. Paul Klopp of Bluewater said when some- one comes to council asking for money, even a small amount, council is going to have to say no. A member of the public took the opportunity at the end of the meeting to ask a barbed question about how the reserves had come to be depleted. Wayne Marshall of Goderich said it appeared to him that for the past 10 years, there had been no increase in county taxes, with council "dipping into" reserves. "Now you're asking for a whole bunch. Instead of a little bit every year, boom!" The warden didn't disagree but restated the need to move forward. "We can't back up," he said. Come to our free uard educational evening. We'll show you how to open your pool, and give you tips on how to keep your water sparkling all summer long. Thursday, April 22 @ 7:30 pm M I DDEGAAL POOLS & SPORTS 234 Main St., Seaforth 527-0104 BioGuard. Refreshments and door prizes