EDITORIAL
Crisis creativity
Necessity is the mother of invention. It may sound cliché, but the old saying should ring loudly in the ears of Ontario farmers.When 400 pork farmers and industry types met in Exeter last month to discuss the possibility of setting up a pork industry fund to invest in the long-term viability of small, independent pork packers, farmers talked of the need to gain greater control over their industry. See story, page 38.
Some people will question the merit of a mutual fund to help upgrade killing capacity at 250 packers across the province. And well they should. An early producer initiative to arise from the current crisis, it bears critical examination and due diligence.
But a quick thumb through the pages of Ontario farm history shows that innovative ideas, conceived in the depths of farm financial stress, have served farms well.
Retired farmers such Innisfil's Craig Hunter like to tell how 21 cents for a dozen eggs finally pushed egg farmers to vote in favour of supply management and an egg marketing board in the early 1970s; or how farmers in his area started their own credit union in 1944 after local banks refused to lend farmers money. Although the future of supply management is cloudy at the moment, it has served the dairy and feather industries well for the better part of 30 years.
That credit union that Hunter helped found based its loan criteria on "character" rather than "collateral," and now boasts $50 million in assets. Many commodities, including pork, can trace current marketing structures back to a time of crisis. The Ontario pork board owes its 58-year history to woeful prices and greedy drovers.
Marketing boards and credit unions are mostly the creation of a past generation. Now it's time to see what a younger crowd can do.
Ideas such as an industry-sponsored loan program, the 3-P slaughter plant at Ingersoll or a processing industry investment fund could prove successful, but they must have clear goals, avoid needless overhead and have clear commitment from all partners, including processors. These programs will also cost money. Producers expressing interest in investing in the investment fund indicated willingness to contribute more than $3 per hog. In tough times, that's big money: For the fund to succeed, farmers will have to stick with it.
In an ironic twist of fate, the pork board, which has become the target of disgruntled producers in recent years, is also enjoying a renaissance. It will be up to board directors to make good on an opportunity to forge an alliance between producers and Ontario packers, similar to the one enjoyed by farmers in Quebec.
With prices expected to languish for several years, producers and
board
directors will have plenty of time and incentive to come up with
workable
solutions.
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Paying for your Farm & Country
It's been one year since Farm & Country was repositioned as a farm business magazine from a farm newspaper. The magazine's editorial focus helps readers farm better and more economically - going beyond simply reporting news. We believe this focus is needed more than ever in the current, soft agricultural economy.You're telling us that, too - at farm shows, on farm visits, via letter, e-mail and by word of mouth. You like the magazine format and the new features we've added. Also, you place a value on it when it comes time to make farming decisions, or simply enjoy award-winning agricultural journalism.
That value has a price, which is why in the reader research groups conducted prior to discarding the newspaper format and increasing our frequency we asked the question, "Would this new farm magazine be worth paying for?"
At that time readers said yes. Our current research reveals no change in your willingness to pay for a magazine with a long shelf life. You value commentary from experts in their field. You value the comprehensive background for farming decisions that our annual Corn, Soy and Crop Protection supplements - or Finance and Animal Health specials - offer. You value our regular features.
That's gratifying, because the cost of complying with new federal government regulations demands that Farm & Country begin charging you directly for a subscription fee. Many years ago, Canada Post classified Farm & Country as an advocacy publication because it came "free" through membership in the Ontario Federation of Agriculture. Today, under new federal government rules, so-called advocacy publications are losing their postal subsidy. This magazine could see its annual mailing rates increase 400 per cent - more than $500,000.
We at the magazine and OFA management knew at some point subscriptions would be required. Heritage Canada, the federal government department that oversees Canadian magazines, has been aware of the steps being taken to revitalize Farm & Country as a business publication since it was first contemplated.
A memorandum circulated at January's OFA board meeting shed some
light on
this long-anticipated process. At some time this year - likely
early in the
summer - Heritage Canada will meet with us to establish details
of a paid
subscription circulation conversion plan. In the meantime, we'll
strive to
produce a magazine that meets the decision-making needs of
today's farmers.
Delivering something you value simply enhances our chances of
selling you a
subscription. - Richard Charteris
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LETTER FROM EUROPE
By Norman Dunn
Ladies, gentlemen, children - the euro!
One of my farming neighbours here in Germany reported a near heart attack on the first business day of the new year. With a barn full of canola that, before Christmas, no one was willing to give him more than the equivalent of C$330 per tonne, he idly clicked into the local futures market on videotext Jan. 4 and saw....that his oilseed was worth half the pre-Christmas level!Moments later his pulse started to slow as he remembered that this was the first day of the "euro," Europe's new multinational currency with a value fixed at 1.9 German marks. The commodity markets and stock exchanges have changed immediately to the new currency, and in fact most invoices in the 11 euro-adopting EU lands (Britain, Greece, Sweden and Denmark are staying out for the moment) are now made out in the local currency and euros. However, the experts say that it will be probably 2002 before we'll all be changing the francs, marks and pesetas in our pockets for euro notes and coins.
Farmers are already hoping for at least one advantage of an almost continental-wide common currency: more transparency for national pricing policies. Tractor or fertilizer prices will be able to be compared from Portugal to Ireland without complicated computations. Gone, too, will be the currency changing charges traditionally creamed off every money changing transaction by the big banks. They'll miss this income sorely: It quite often amounted to as much as 3 per cent of the sum being transferred.
It'll be interesting to see just how quickly, and how completely, the new currency is accepted. It seems straightforward enough, but just take a look at the progress of the metric measuring system in Europe. It's almost exactly 200 years since Napoleon forced this logical and sensible system onto central Europe - and 30 years since it has been at least officially accepted in Britain and Ireland. But even after two centuries on the European mainland, pre-decimal measuring not only still survives, it remains an important factor in everyday reckoning out on the farms.
OK, I admit that in international trade or economics, tonnes, cubic metres, hectolitres or hectares are used exclusively. But ask a German farmer over 50 years of age how much plowing he's done that morning, and he will quite often tell you in morgen - a measurement from the Middle Ages and equal to a little over half an acre. In my village, plowing depth or TV screen size is still measured in zoll - the equivalent of an inch. Perhaps understandably, because they're after all only a generation into the game, the acre has never lost its popularity in Britain, where only the most advanced of farmers measure their business size in hectares. And over in Ireland, the country's most powerful farming newspaper will not accept articles for publication unless milk yields are given in gallons (10 pounds) as well as litres!
Sweden has been officially measuring in metrics since the early 1800s, but farmers there still describe the distance to the nearest town in miles. This can lead to serious complications, because the Swedish mile is equal to 10 kilometres instead of the usual 1.6 we learned about in school. Mile (spelled meile) is also still in use for distances in parts of Germany, but just to complicate matters, the mile there is 7.5 kilometres.
Will new monetary terms be accepted any faster? Maybe the answer is that nobody forgets the tables that were hammered into them in school. Frenchmen will still, for instance, juggle with old franc (one-tenth of the value of the present denomination) and new franc. In fact the existence of the two "currencies" is used in dealing and one-upmanship quite often.
The price sticker on a second-hand car will always be in new franc (it appears smaller), but proud owners of new autos - or houses for that matter - relay the value of their property in much more impressive old franc.
It's a relief to learn here that the law is determined to stamp down on excessive profiteering in the changeover to the euro. In the 1960s, when Britain changed from old pounds, shillings and pence to decimal money, I witnessed an example of prices changing overnight in one corner café from one old pound to one new pound - an increase of 250 per cent! The European bank in Frankfurt has set exact exchange rates for each currency involved.
New euro prices must be worked out to the second decimal point
with no
"rounding-up" allowed. Warnings have already been sent out that
anyone who
gets this wrong will face hefty fines - payable only in new
money.
Norman Dunn is Farm & Country's European
correspondent, based in Germany
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Farmers: "A different kind of hero"
Jordan McKay, a Grade 12 student at Port Perry high school, farms
a
150-head cow/calf operation and 500 acres of fruit, vegetables
and grain
with his family. The 17-year-old wrote to say "this is how I feel
about
farming, and I would like to share it with you and your
magazine." We're
glad he did and suspect you will be, too.
A hero for a farmer is someone really special, even though he
doesn't save
lives or stop runaway trains. He has a brutal war against nature.
A hero for a farmer is the wind, soil and rain. It is a cool
breeze in the
morning and the hot sun in the afternoon. A hero is an extra set
of eyes to
watch over the cattle and make sure none of them go astray.
A hero is the good luck that helps get the crops off in time for
winter. A
hero enriches the soil when the farmer has overworked it. A hero
controls
the weather, bringing rain to help make the crops grow and
holding it off
so that the farmer can get the hay off. A hero for a farmer
covers the land
with a soft white blanket in the winter and makes it come alive
in the
spring.
A hero for a farmer is an extra set of hands during the calving
season,
and a comforting friend during those long winter nights. A hero
for a
farmer keeps the wolves and other animals away from the livestock
and makes
the fall harvest bountiful.
A hero for a farmer is not one thing but everything, a close
friend and a
helping hand. It's knowing that farming is what you do, and
knowing that
you will never give it up.
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