The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

PAGE 4,VWEONESIJAVSEPTEMBER 7, 1983, WHITOY FREE PRESS Whietby. Voice of the Coünty Town Puùblihed every Wednesday Michael Ian Burgess, Publisher.- Manaacinc Edîtnr The only Whitby newspaper Independentîy owned and operated by Whitby residents for Whitbv residents. by -1.B.M. Publishlng and Photography me. Phone 668-61i1 The Free Press Building, 1:11 Birock Street North. Second cîass Mail 1>0. Box 296, Whitby, Ont. TIMOTHY BAINES. Commun ity Edîtor ANDY THOMSON Advertising Managee- Regîsi ration No 5351 Wh at 's relly happenn ntefr 8V W. ROGER WORTH Even at the finest of cocktail parties, it's hard to miss the city siicker complaining about the rapldly rislng cost of food. "The problem la farmers," says the bank executlve's wife; "They're abie' to go south (or to Hawaii) In winter, buy snowmobîîes and speed- boats, and I hear they now have air-conditi.oned. tractors. Guess who pays the bihl." The senior bureaucrat concurs. The problem, of, course, la that t he basic com- plaint Is a myth: the price of food grown and ralsed by the nation's farmers has flot risen dramaticaîîy,. even though producers have been forced to pay high Interest rates to help out the banks, and hlgh! taxes to support such Items as bureaucratic salaries. So much for city slicker attitudes,. What's really been happe ning down on the farmn lately la not unIlke what's been happe »nin'g for years. ln spring, farmers tiîled the land and borrowed money to,,plant ýcrops. -'Over the summer they've sprayed, irrigated and tended the'delicate plants, at the same ,time spendlng sleepiess, nights worrying about too much sun, too much rain and the myriad list of diseases with com- plicated names, that can comfpletely destroy their efforts. This faîl they'li worry about a chilîing (and ki lîing) early frost, and, most Important, the unknown price they'l get for their product., lt's not a game for the fainthearted. Hazards.in the farmîng business are unilke those In vIrtually any other endeavour. Prof its can be huge, but they'rermore likely to, be reasonable, non-existent, or, ln bad years, farmers have to con- tend with massive losses to compensate themn for their time and trouble. It's true, aIl smaller'businesses face problema related to- high interest -rates, Inflation, gover- fiment red tape and high taxes. But while some firms depend to a greater or lesse r degree on the weather, food producers are totaî11y dependent on that great unknown. 1The wonder is that, given ail the constraints, Canada's food production system works at ail! But it does, to the advantage of ail, The evîdence? Here are two simple tacts: -Canadians pay about 22 percent of take-hom 'e pay on food, compared with 30 percent ln West Germany and more than 35 pe'rcent ln Japan. -Canada is a major food exporter. Unike food-, poor nations, we're not'about to run short. lt's natural, perhaps, for Canadian consumers to complaîn about marketing boards, Crowsnest Pass transportation subsîdles and other' farm- related support programs. After ail, the lnfighting on these and other issues, even among flercely independent, outspoken and strong-willed far- mers, is widely pubîlcized.' But no matter their differences, eIther with, goverfiments, consumfers or among themseîves, this irrepressible group continues to do the far- ming Job as well' or better than anyone ln the world. And that's.a distinction we sometimes'fail LETERSTO THE EDITOR0 Man has 'nu PlaC, olv A weIy owacoaMetary rn PETER ANOKORMAN FOR GLOBDAL MeWS~ One of the difficulties facing those who would app- ly pure capitalistic principles to almost anything you can name in the 1980's is that the world' is too far gone.. Governments have been f ine-tuning econom ies for so long nowv that there is intervention -and protection' everywhe-re you. turn., This'fact of internat ional'lifeë in the 1980's tends tomake nonsense out-of politicians like President Reagan,,whose main contributioh ,to the so-called North-South dialogue has been to suggest. that free trade and private enterprîse will cure al. It might, if We were still in the relativelyLuncontrolled. universe of the 191h century, but we're. not, and ýit can't. I give you Brazil, as a case inpoint. Brazil has foreign debts of about 90 billion dollars, and is now about one billion ' dollars, behind on -its payments. If Brazil defaults, she won't 'be the only casualty. Brazil and several oth.er large'borrowers have put the wvorld's f inancial structure in some jeopardy. If you apply Presi- dent Reagan's simplîstic philosopphy to Brazil's pro- blems, his advice ta* the peoiple'of Brazil has got to be: work very hard, and get out there anrd selI, selI, selI. But in order to be comipetitive'in foreign mnarkets, some Brazilian prnducts have to be subsi-dized., And that* brings us to frOZeri ordolge luice. There is not onîy a lot, .of coffee in Brazil but a lot of orange juice as well. A country like the Uniited ýStates, vhere coffee-and orange juice are part of alrnost every breakfast, is an obvious mnarket. Brazilîan' exports of frozen juice concentrate to the United States neariv doubled f rom -1981 to 1982. But the story doesn't end there, of course. The Florida fruit growers see the Brazt an subsidized import as an unfair threat to the American product. They appealed to. the U.S., International Trade Commission, which' upheld their complaint And so a '2raziliatn tax on juice exports ,to the United States wilI be mai1 ntained. Thereý isnt a single solitary segment in that chain of events that is totally unreasonable. Reactions on both sides were to be expected. What is thoroughîy unreasonable is to suqgest in 1983 tbat free trade and private enter- prisp are the -; ' rsto al! of Brazi's problems. Dear editor, On May 20 1 was, given notice to vacate my roomn at the residence of 740 Dundas. I was, to start demobilization by early July., I immediately opted for accomodation with Durham housing where I had prior file ap- plications since- 1979, always told I did flot qualify. Since June 30 1 have been -unable to unpack a Suitcase, praetically living out of a car., I spoke with Mrs. Swan who Is in charge of Durham housingý in early June. She told me it could take six months to a year andwhy don't I go to a hostel in Oshawa.' 1 spoke to Whitby mayor,. Bob Attersley, agreeing this was the answer as"he has 'no jurisdication on Durham housing.. SI spoke to friends in senior citizen's homes in. Whitby who say people are coming in, from Toronto, and other town's to Whitby ac- comodations. Mrs. Swan denies this -and .says i people havea, right to liveanywhere'in Ontario. Granted, Whitby people pay taxes in. Whitby. Why are, the citizens of ,Whitby looked afterand why can't othier towns or cities look 'after their senior citizens., < V. Myette Whitby unimbe MaI6 %ýj 1 mat ou