OPINION
Watch for some pre-election overtures
In politics, particularly during a pre-election year, there is much planning and little true coincidence.So it is with the federal Liberals as they begin to prepare for an expected 1997 election in which Ontario seats, as usual, will spell the difference between victory and defeat, majority or minority.
So with an eye on those 40 or so rural Ontario seats that are
solid Liberal red right now for the first time in history, it
surely cannot have been coincidence that:
- Prime Minister Jean Chrétien found himself slogging through
the mud of a rain-drenched September plowing match in Ontario,
wearing gum boots and trying to look like a
man-of-the-rural-people;
- Agriculture Minister Ralph Goodale was very visible during
a whirlwind August tour of more than half a dozen rural
ridings, and on regular forays into Ontario during the past
two months;
- The Liberal government is planning a number of actions
during the jam-packed pre-election parliamentary session that
will (or should) be welcomed in Ontario.
The major agricultural debate of the winter will be Goodale's proposed reform of the Canadian Wheat Board which will retain its marketing export monopoly for wheat and barley.
While it doesn't directly affect Ontario, the Ontario farm lobby has made it a provincial issue by making it clear to Goodale that any weakening of the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly would be seen as a weakening of government resolve to defend orderly marketing.
The Ontario Federation of Agriculture should be pleased with Goodale's defence of the wheat board.
A late-November final announcement that Canada has won its defence of supply management tariffs against an American free trade challenge will be another timely and powerful reminder of government support for orderly marketing.
And if Transport Minister David Anderson ever gets around to announcing the bidding terms for government-owned grain hopper cars, Ontario likely will hear that one of the new conditions of the sale is that Ontario have access to 500 cars if need be.
Then, there will be smaller examples of federal co-operation with Ontario farmers.
In late September, Agriculture Canada officials announced they will make a change in proposed new marketing loan legislation to accommodate a complaint from Ontario farmers who found a gap between the new federal cash advance system and the rules of the provincial Agricultural Commodity Corporation.
"We appreciate the department's action on this," said Don LeDrew of the often-critical Ontario Corn Producers' Association.
Meanwhile, Goodale agreed to try to find US$10 million worth of federal export credit to help the Ontario Wheat Producers' Marketing Board ship some of its fusarium-damaged crop to Cuba.
His job was complicated by the fact that the Export Development Corporation (EDC) has said it will not offer more sales credit to Cuba until that cash-poor country pays down some of its already-strained line of credit.
The remarkable thing is that the wheat board went to the agriculture minister for help, rather than dealing directly with the EDC.
It was even more surprising that Goodale agreed to work for them, rather than simply reminding them of the proper channels and concentrating on those issues for which he does have responsibility.
It all smells like pre-election planning, made more urgent for
the Liberals by the fact that the Reform Party announced that
its first nominated Ontario candidate is in the rural riding
of Owen Sound.
Barry Wilson is an Ottawa-based farm writer.
Canadian exports boom. Canada's food trade surplus hit a
record $3 billion during the first half of the year as
Canadian agricultural exports continue to soar. Agriculture
Canada reported the value of exports was $9.3 billion, up 9.9
per cent over 1995. The greatest gains in exports this year
have been in Manitoba, which had a 17 per cent increase.
Provincially, Ontario was the largest exporter with sales of
$2.5 billion. Runner up was Saskatchewan, which followed with
$2.2 billion. Canada's largest export market still remains the
United States, which consumes 52 per cent of all food exports.
United States agribusiness convicted. Agribusiness firm Sun-Diamond Growers of California was found guilty of illegal gift giving to former U.S. agriculture secretary Mike Espy. The company faces fines of as much as US$500,000. Senior vice-president Richard Douglas spent $14,287 of the company's money in less than a year on himself and Espy. It was also noted that Douglas had made illegal campaign contributions to Espy's brother. The Sun-Diamond company is an umbrella company for 4,500 growers in California and Oregon, which had combined sales of more than $670 million last year.
Ault Food Ltd. on the rise. Ault Foods Ltd. expects to surpass last year's $12.4-million profit in fiscal 1997, despite a sluggish first quarter. Net earnings for the first quarter were $6.3 million compared to $8.2 million last year. Increased revenue and earnings in the cheese and butter products group couldn't offset the poor results in the frozen products division. Net sales for the quarter, $364 million, represented a decrease of one per cent from the year before.
Here's one for the history books, worth mentioning if only to
preserve it for posterity under "Unusual Sights in Rural
Ontario."
Former Western Ontario Breeders Inc. (WOBI) AI technician Bev
Robb has been retired for three years now, but he and some 14
dairy farmers on his regular rounds won't forget his last day.
Coming out of the house, Robb was somewhat taken aback to see
a gleaming white stretch limousine parked outside. It seems
his neighbours had pitched in, so he could make his last
rounds in style.
Unfazed, Robb hopped aboard. When he found his tools wouldn't
fit in the woefully small trunk space, he enlisted his son to
follow in the pickup with all the essentials. Robb says he has
seen a lot in his 45 years on the job with WOBI, which was
called Oxford Holstein Breeders in the early days, and has
since undergone four amalgamations. But making his final calls
in a white stretch limo is something neither he nor his
customers will ever forget.
As for conception rate that day, no one is saying much.
Being a dirty farmer apparently pays, or at least it does in
Germany. In a Cologne court, a city slicker from Frankfurt
paid $3,282 to a beet farmer for insulting his appearance.
The farmer, who was returning from harvesting beets, noticed
a car blocking his path. When he asked the Frankfurter to move
it, the man said, "You dirty farmer, brush your teeth before
you talk to me."
In closing arguments, the prosecutor said this reaction shows
the excessive arrogance of a young man toward someone engaged
in honest work.
Does eating beef make you smarter? According to an article in
Current Anthropology magazine, the development of human brain
power can be linked to the increased level of meat in the
human diet as our human ancestors switched from vegetarian
diets to eating meat.
The article claims that increased levels of nutrient-packed
meat in the diet required a smaller gastrointestinal tract,
and helped release more energy for brain development.
Humans got even smarter after they discovered fire and began
cooking meat, calling for the gut to do less work.
The article notes that no species can have both a big gut and
a big brain.
Internet chat groups are full of offbeat lore about the fight
to redefine the role of the Canadian Wheat Board.
This story described a farmer who was arrested after selling
wheat outside the board.
A Manitoba farmer was jailed and a fellow inmate asked what he
was there for.
The farmer answered, "Selling a few tons of wheat".
The inmate said, "Wow, I got busted for selling a couple of
grams." The inmate thought the farmer had said "weed".
back
BUSINESS BRIEFS
Ticked off
Ticks, fleas and corn herbicides stand in the way of the
mammoth merger proposed between Sandoz AG and Ciba-Geigy. To
help speed U.S. Federal Trade Commission approval, the joint
company Novartis AG, has sold part of its corn herbicide
business to BASF AG for US$780 million. Farmers recognize the
brand names Clarity, Frontier, Marksman and Banvel; they will
now be BASF products, giving the company a higher profile in
Ontario. The flea and tick control business has also been
divested.
TRACTOR TRAGEDIES
There's been an alarming series of tractor-motorist collisions
in eastern Ontario. Hawkesbury OPP constable Dan Lalonde told
The Valley Farmers' Forum that he stops a farmer a week for
faulty lighting on the road. Two farmers have been charged
recently following accidents. In one incident a farmer was
charged with driving without lights after a car collided with
a hay baler near Alfred. The driver of the car died the
following day. In another motorist fatality, a farmer was
charged with making an improper turn after a tractor trailer
went off the road. A motorcyclist was killed earlier trying to
pass a seed drill that was being towed over the centre line.
Constable Lalonde told the paper that he generally delivers a
warning for the first offence: "These are basically
hard-working people....I'd rather work with compliance than
punishment."
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now be reached at
Here's a mouthwatering Christmas present idea: the Ontario
Harvest Cookbook, a "culinary tour of Ontario" by food writers
Julia Aitken and Anita Stewart. As well as recipes for Ontario
produce, there are articles on the people behind the produce.
Published by Macmillan Canada and promoted by the Agri-Food
Network, the cookbook costs $24.95 plus $3 shipping and
handling. (519) 767-5008.
Calling all P.Ags with a love for Latin America. The
Agricultural Institute of Canada has inked a deal with the
Inter-American Institute for Co-operation on Agriculture to
help improve agricultural development in Latin America and the
Caribbean. Canadian agrologists will get the chance to travel
and pick up some valuable international experience along the
way. (613) 232-9459.
Unlike the Outdoor Show and the Plowing Match, the Hastings
County Farm Show and Plowing Match was blessed with sunny
skies. Show co-ordinator Jim Haggerty says attendance at the
August show was the same as last year, 15,000, but the number
of exhibitors exceeded 200 for the first time ever. Plowmen
actually complained of the ground being too dry. Next year's
show will be Aug. 20-21 near Trenton.
Ontario Veterinary College professor Dr. Ken Leslie was 35,000
feet in the air en route to a veterinary conference in
Edinburgh, Scotland, while they were singing his praises in
Charlottetown, PEI, in August. Leslie is the first-ever
two-time winner of the Schering-Plough Animal Health
Veterinary Award. Sponsored by drug manufacturer
Schering-Plough, the award recognizes Leslie's "significant
contribution to large animal medicine and surgery." Readers
may recognize his picture on Farm & Country's May 14, '96
cover.
It sometimes pays to fill out those surveys, as Dresden cash
cropper Ken Richards found last month. Last winter, Richards
told farm chemical maker BASF what he was going to plant this
year, and has a 1996 Dodge Ram pickup to show for it. For the
record, the lucky winner planted 1,500 acres of tomatoes,
corn, soybeans and wheat.
First there was Ciba and Sandoz, and now Monsanto and Asgrow.
Monsanto, a St.-Louis-based chemical company, has reached
further into the world soybean and horticulture seed market
with the recent purchase of Asgrow Agronomics for US$240
million. Monsanto hopes Asgrow's international distribution
will help market its Roundup Ready soybeans worldwide.
Monsanto will also work more closely with Asgrow's
Mexico-based parent ELM, which holds almost one-quarter of the
world vegetable seed market.
With government cutbacks, the 14,000-member Ontario 4-H
Council will have to look more to the private sector.
Burlington-based animal drug maker Boehringer Ingelheim
Vetmedica has come through with a 10-cent donation for every
dose of Sentry cattle vaccines sold. Offer ends Dec. 1, 1996.