LETTERS

More credit

I read "Farmer-friendly financing" and "Credit due to rural banking ingenuity" (Oct. 5) with much interest.
Both articles reflect the needs of those living in rural communities, especially as they relate to sources for alternative financial services in these uncertain times.
In the early '90s, 10 farm organizations sought a way to provide their membership with a means to obtain operating capital for crop inputs at reduced costs outside the major financial institution structure.
In 1992 the non-profit, producer-managed company Agricultural Commodity Corporation (ACC) was incorporated to provide this source of funding.
Since incorporation, we have established a viable outlet for farmers throughout Ontario, providing capital funding at a consistent range of interest below prime. Many producers, of course, still deal with their bank of origin but find our lower cost and program structure provides them with increased leverage with both banker and suppliers.
Since we are truly "farmers lending to farmers" we are able to take a proactive approach in lending to grassroots agriculture. We are constantly seeking ways to identify, and offer at lower cost, other financial services most suited to farmers that are not readily accessible via current suppliers.
We commend the credit unions for filling the void in rural communities as banks are fleeing, as well as the Farm Credit Corporation for designing financial tools for the beginning farmer. In our opinion, both will contribute to the long-term survival of our agricultural society.
In many ways, we view our services as complements to those of credit unions and FCC and would like to believe that in some small way we too can participate in the process of helping the rural communities of Ontario continue to prosper.
Brian M. Hughes,
General manager, ACC
Guelph

Rights eroding

Without consulting municipalities, the agricultural community or rural property owners, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources is using Schedule I, Bill 25 ("an Act to reduce red tape") to give Conservation Authorities and themselves even more power over private land use. The bill has gone to second reading, and public comment is now being received by the Standing Committee on Administration of Justice.
Powers include "may make regulations restricting, regulating or requiring the permission of the Authority for...interfering in any way with a wetland" or for development. Development means the "construction, reconstruction, erection or placing of a building or structure of any kind...or the temporary or permanent placing, dumping or removal of any material originating on the site or elsewhere." Wetland is defined as "any land with water or water table close to the surface that grows water tolerant plant species."
So much for farming, forestry or beaver control. Also, "an officer may enter at any reasonable time, any place, structure or thing, other than a private dwelling, for the purpose of enforcing a regulation." Similar powers of entry go into the Forestry Act and the Lakes and Rivers Improvement Act.
So much for trespass. Full details, and how to have input before the Standing Committee, may be sought from property owners' associations, agricultural federations or your MPP. Only a few days are left for public comment should you choose to make waves to conserve your land and its value for the future.
Bob Woolham,
Augusta

Farm & Country welcomes letters but reserves the right to edit them for length and clarity. To be considered for publication, correspondents must include their name, mailing address and daytime telephone number. Letters will be accepted by phone, post, fax or e-mail.

It's really down to earth

With few relatives on the farm, the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair is one of the last opportunities for city kids to catch a glimpse of farming

BY JOHN MUGGERIDGE

Snowstorms and school strikes conspired against Royal Agricultural Winter Fair CEO David Garrick at last year's show, which nevertheless drew 350,000 visitors and beat revenue targets by $60,000.

Heading into his third Royal, Garrick, former SkyDome general manager, doesn't anticipate any curveballs. But he does have one mission: beat the 1,200-pound giant pumpkin record set recently in Ontario. Last year's Royal champion gourd tipped the scales at 962 pounds.

Running Nov. 5-14, 1998, the grande dame of Canadian agricultural expositions got a new lease on life last year when it moved into the one-million-square-foot National Trade Centre, where show cattle get five-star treatment complete with climate control.

This year's theme, "It's really down to earth," "sort of says it all," says Garrick. "It's what the fair really is - back to your grassroots. Fifty years ago, half of the population came from the farm.

Today, two per cent do, and they're producing more, but no one has any relatives on the farm. The Royal is one of the last places urban kids have to see [farm] animals.

"We're showing our young people that milk doesn't come from a carton and bread from a plastic bag."

Education will be a main course on this year's Royal menu. The interactive "From Farm to Table" displays have been expanded to include each of the four food groups: fruits and vegetables, protein, dairy and grains. The Dairy Farmers of Ontario is co-sponsoring a display on cheese production; Longo's supermarket will demonstrate apple cider production; Toronto's Future Bakery is sponsoring a hands-on demonstration of bread making from grain to loaf; and A & P and the Beef Information Centre are collaborating on a red meat display.

For farmers visiting the show, Garrick says entries in all categories are coming in at a record pace, with 4,000 animals expected across all livestock judging events. A brand new beef breed this year is the Murray Grey, with show on Nov. 14.

Getting there

- The 1998 Royal Agricultural Winter Fair runs Nov. 5-14 at the National Trade Centre, Exhibition Place, Toronto.
- Parking is on the Exhibition grounds, and there are 1,300 spaces underneath the trade centre - ideal for depositing coats and merchandise in the car.
- General admission is $12 for adults, $9 for youth (5-15) and seniors (65+). Children under four are free.
- New this year: a $34 family pass (two adults, two youth).

© copyright 1998 Agricultural Publishing Company Limited.


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Harry Morton's close call

When the Allies won in Japan in August, 1945, the VJ Day celebration in Mount Forest was one people still talk about today. But it almost spelled the demise of the mild-mannered caretaker of the local Bank of Montreal, Harry Morton.

To celebrate the end of war, the town planned a mock funeral for Japanese emperor Hirohito and his top general, Tojo. Morton was persuaded to play the leading role of Hirohito. The event was hastily organized, but hundreds of folks crowded into town for the "burial." It was a spontaneous declaration of relief from five years of long and bloody war. It was a celebration!

Three other local men were enlisted to play the roles of the Big Three allied leaders: Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin. The Big Three sat in the back of a Chevrolet pick-up as the procession made its way down Main Street behind an antique hearse supplied by town undertaker Wilfred Coutts.

It was the design of the hearse that almost killed Harry "Hirohito" Morton. The horse-drawn, glass-enclosed hearse resembled nothing so much as a rolling greenhouse as war veterans in uniform marched at its side. Young boys followed close behind on bicycles.

Down Main Street they came under a blistering hot sun. Several town women made a large punch, which they passed out to parched onlookers. But everyone forgot Harry Morton. The designer of the hearse had not been too concerned about ventilation, given the respiratory state of its usual passengers. But when the back door was closed, it sealed poor living Harry into a breathless solar collector.

By the time the parade made it to the fairground, Harry was in pretty rough shape.

"He wasn't able to move," one observer recalled. "But," he added, "his condition wasn't all from the heat. His refreshments hadn't been diluted enough by water, let's put it that way."

But Harry was a trouper. He didn't let on about his discomfort as he was laid to rest in an open wicker coffin at a hastily dug hole at the fairgrounds.

Town lawyer Claude Fallis, who bore a striking resemblance to FDR, delivered an impassioned, patriotic speech during the "interment."

The crowd cheered. The war was over and people needed to laugh. And Harry lived to clean the bank another day.
Campbell Cork writes from Mount Forest

© copyright 1998 Agricultural Publishing Company Limited.


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Eerie glow, chicken blows

Mildmay dairyman Ralph Dietrich can't recall whether it was around Halloween 20 years ago that he and a neighbour had an eerie experience with stray voltage in the dairy barn.
Dietrich was helping the neighbour install a Farmatic feed mill in the barn. They got the mill in place, and were ready to hook it up when they noticed that the small indicator lights on the panel box were lit up. The neighbour subsequently had Ontario Hydro trace the source to stray voltage. "It looked kind of weird - but it was no trick or treat. There was no wiring whatsoever going to it," Dietrich recalls.

The Ontario Farm Animal Council turns 10 this year, and a recent consumer survey points to a job well done over the past decade. OFAC was formed by the livestock industry to educate the public on farm animal welfare issues. According to a 1998 public opinion survey of Canadian consumers conducted by the Beef Information Centre, almost three-quarters of respondents believed farm animals are treated humanely, versus 13 per cent who believed they are not treated humanely. Results have been relatively unchanged over the past five years, according to the OFAC newsletter. Of the 764 people in five major Canadian cities sampled, Vancouver had the highest percentage (19) of people believing farm animals are not treated humanely. In Calgary, 79 per cent believed farm animals are treated humanely. There's still work to be done, however: Only one-third of respondents considered themselves to be well informed about how different animals are treated, with Montreal leading the way.

If you can't beat the bugs, bring in the chickens. For years, North American poultry producers have been trying to improve the utility of their flightless birds, but the Chinese have taken a giant step. They've turned the birds into trained locust killers. The Chinese recently used an army of 10,000 trained chickens, backed by tens of thousands of starlings, to fend off invading locusts in northwestern Xinjiang. The chickens were called in after aircraft failed to eradicate swarms of hungry insects that invaded housing complexes and grasslands, Reuters reported. The Xinhua news agency reported that the chickens underwent a special 60-day training course shortly after their birth to prepare for the invasion, but no details were made available. Presumably, they were trained to lead with the left wing and follow with the right.

Attempts by the Oglala Sioux tribe to harvest the wild hemp growing on its South Dakota reservation have put the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency on the warpath. The tribe has used the hemp in past to make and sell rope, paper and construction blocks. The DEA's response, based on hemp's illegal status in the U.S., has been to try wiping out the weed, first with fire, then with herbicides - to no avail, reports Landowner magazine. As the hemp grows wild, the tribe can't be charged with cultivating it, so members plan to skirt the law by touching only the stalks, which don't contain THC - the compound that in hemp's cannabis cousin, marijuana, creates that buzzy feeling. The DEA, which won't license the tribe's endeavour, seems not to care that hemp contains only five to 10 per cent as much THC as marijuana. Why else would the DEA spend almost US$500 million destroying "marijuana" that's actually naturally growing hemp, according to a Vermont study?

© copyright 1998 Agricultural Publishing Company Limited.


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