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14 The Canadian Statesman, Bowmanville, February 20,1985 Letter to The Editor Dear Editor: I would like to say on behalf behalf of the Durham Federation Federation of Agriculture, that we appreciate the opportunity to express our concerns regarding regarding the agricultural community. We all know that agriculture thrives in a stable environment. During the last few years there has been a search for stability, and this search is a continuous continuous one, and we must examine all the avenues. Our message is quite simple: simple: If society is to remain healthy, then agriculture must be healthy and vibrant. vibrant. Two hundred years ago, agriculture was the building block of our economy; economy; and I want to impress upon you that agriculture today, still must play a major role in shaping our economy and our society. If we are going to reduce unemployment, unemployment, then we must support the agri-food sector, sector, because farmers are the foundation of an industry that provides one out of five jobs in Canada; and I don't mean just jobs in country general stores, I mean steel workers in Hamilton, assembly assembly line workers in Oshawa, construction workers workers at Darlington, packers in Kitchener, and the list goes on. If our Governments are committed in creating jobs, we know .where to start, and that is policies to support the farmers of this Teachers Win Area Hockey Tournament By Bob Sheridan In the annual Lakeshore Teachers' Hockey Tournament Tournament held on Saturday, February 16th in Colborne, teams from Courtice, Clarke and Bowmanville High Schools all reached the semifinals. semifinals. Courtice defeated Cobourg West in a tight defensive defensive battle by the score of 1 - 0. Bowmanville defeated Clarke by a score of 5 - 2 to set the stage for the final between Courtice and Bowmanville. This was an all day tournament tournament that included teams from Courtice to Trenton. Bowmanville played at 12:30 and defeated Cobourg by a score of 3 -1. Gerard Sullivan had two goals in this game and John Winder one. After a two hour rest we returned to the ice to play Campbellford who took an early 2 - 0 lead. Bowmanville then fought back with two goals by John Winder and singles by Jack Pearson, Gerard Sullivan and Bob Sheridan. This win put us into the semi-finals against Clarke. Grant Wright who had played played superbly in the Bowmanville Bowmanville nets in the first two games gained a shut-out in the semi-final, ably abetted by the fine fore-checking of Carol Trewin and Wayne Swerd- feger. Bill Lees and Norm Johnson played solid and inspired inspired games on defense. Bill Brunt, our third defenseman, was tireless in all four games. Bill deftly removed the puck from incoming forewards and fired perfect passes to his own players as they broke up ice. Bob Sheridan scored three goals in this game with singles going to John Winder and Jack Pearson. Congratulations should go to John Witheridge, John Parker, Brian Harris, Gene Murdoch and the other Clarke players who put forth a gallant effort only to be frustrated frustrated by the fine goaltending of Grant Wright. After twenty minutes rest and playing with only two lines and three defensemen, we again returned to the ice to face Courtice with their rosier of fifteen players. Tim Ball took a pass from Dale St. John and opened the scoring at 6:40 of the first period. Steve Webb scored Courtice's second goal halfway through the second period. John Winder scored for Bowmanville with a bullet drive to bring the score to 2 -1. Dale St. John and Bob Horvath then notched goals for Courtice. John Winder scored his second and the score was -1 - 2. Bowmanville was exerting tremendous pressure in the Courtice end and had just missed a fine scoring opportunity when Brad Finuenn sent Tim Ball away with a breakaway pass up centre. Tim made no mistake mistake as he walked in on Grant Wright alone and scored the clincher. We extend our congratulations congratulations to Courtice who out-gunned us in this contest and wrested the Lakeshore Teachers' Hockey Championship Championship from us, The Bowmanville Bowmanville team takes pride in our seven win, one loss record in tournaments over the past two years and we intend to be there again next year. e<! '>« coll I 41C 9 country. By supporting agriculture, agriculture, the foundation of this economy, they would be supportingCanadians, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Inflation is one of our biggest problems, and we often hear farmers are responsible; responsible; we know that's not true. We sell our products products on the free market, and they rise and fall with supply supply and demand; and many times, when they fall they do not recover; but consumers consumers do not know that. Perhaps we are somewhat responsible, because we have stayed too close to our farms trying to produce more to recover our losses, rather than telling society where "food", the most fundamental fundamental ingredient to life itself, comes from. We have become the best farmers in the world, but nobody knows it, except for us. The cost of food in relation to consumer income, is less in Canada, than nearly every country in. the world; for example, Ireland, food costs are 32% of disposable income. In the United Kingdom, Kingdom, 29.8%. In Sweden 27%, and in Canada less than 15% of disposable income. Consumers Consumers in Canada pay 5 to 10 cents less per take home dollar for food, than most European countries, and 35 cents less than in the Soviet Union. I would like to take a few minutes to examine agriculture agriculture in Canada, and in our community. A recent survey shows that the one third of Canadian farmers who produce produce nearly Vz of our food supply, are the ones who are carrying the most debt, and who have the least equity in their farms. Senator Senator Herbert Sparrow, author author of the Senate Report, titled, "Soils at Risk," stresses stresses that action cannot be taken by farmers alone; they must have participation participation from other groups, including including all levels of Government. Government. He indicates in his report, report, if the present trend continues, and nothing is done, that Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick will not be in agriculture in 50 years; and in Quebec, because because of the soils being of an organic nature, will blow away in the wind in 20years, if nothing is done. Our western western provinces, which were called the bread basket of the world, are suffering from wind erosion and salinization of the soil. Soil erosion has been called the most serious agricultural problem in Canada. It has been, estimated that every year enough topsoil is eroded in Ontario to cover 14,800 acres, to a depth of 14 cm; that is enough to bury Toronto under 4 inches of topsoil. According to the Senate Report, the major cause of erosion is economics. Farmers who get low returns returns for their crops are forced to cut corners; that means cutting back on soil conservation techniques. If one were to start at the CN Tower, and drive for 2 hours, either direction, one would have seen 50% of all of the class 1 and 2 soils in Canada. The report shows that urban expansion is a major problem in Ontario. Good farmland is constantly constantly being covered by pavement for highways, parking lots and airports. City people building homes in the country are taking as much as 10 acres per house out of food production. Because Because of the lack of communication communication and understanding, understanding, they are implementing implementing inconveniences and hardships which will leave permanent repercussions. repercussions. Noises and odors which we have lived with all our lives, urbanites find unfamiliar unfamiliar and therefore unacceptable, unacceptable, and request buffer zones which they feel we should provide, which will lake more land out of rotation. A recent denial for the expansion expansion of an abbatoir, is a classical example of the lack of communication between between rural and urban dwellers. We get very concerned concerned when agriculture and politics come to a crossroad. crossroad. On one hand we hear the cry of hungry and dying children, too young to know the meaning of starvation, in countries like Ethiopia, Somalia, Mosambique, areas so large they stagger the imagination. And on the other hand, urbanites say you can no longer farm in this fashion, because we do not like the odors and noises. Ontario is becoming a net importer of food; it seems unjust and irresponsible irresponsible that our progress is stifled to satisfy the whims and fancies of the very few. In closing, I hope we have impressed upon you the urgent urgent concerns we have regarding regarding the agriculture community, and that it is most essential that we implement implement measures to insure a constant and abundant supply of food. If we neglect to take preventative action, it maybe our children looking looking for a cure. 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