Page 13? What’s going on here?
You may have noticed some subtle changes in your newspaper this week. This page and the other Opinion pages have pulled up stakes and moved. That’s why you and I are now meeting here on page 13. In its former location, which you’ve already passed if you read this paper from front to back, is the Markets section.
Readers tell us they put high value on the Markets section, for obvious reasons: they monitor the potential profit picture. We listened to those comments and decided to give the Markets section more prominence.
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Opinions, particularly in the form of letters to the editor, are also well read, so you’ll continue to find them early in the paper as well.
You might notice a few more signposts in news stories that will identify subjects and give quick synopses of content. We recognize how busy Producer readers can be, so we devised this method to help you save time in finding stories of particular interest.
Now on to a few other matters of potential interest. Stop me if this newspaper squib sounds familiar: “Our green and pleasant land is in danger of being lost forever because of a dramatic decline in farming, a survey has warned….
“The face of our countryside has been shaped by farmers who over the centuries have created and maintained hedgerows, dry stone walls, meadows, ponds and copses.
“Without farmers to work the land, fields would lie fallow and ungrazed pastures would turn into vast wastelands or be prey to greedy developers.”
That story appeared in a February issue of the International Express, published in London, England. It echoes some of the same concerns voiced in Canada about the future of farming.
Such shared worry is proof of greater public awareness about the value of farmers and of land stewardship. However, I don’t think farming on the Prairies, lush as they are in most places this year, is in any imminent danger of being lost.
In one more piece of business, there’s been a development in the saga last reported here May 24. Prairie Belle, the combine that Farmington, B.C., farmer Nick Parsons once drove across Canada, will soon have a new home.
Parsons reports that the Big Quill Community Growing project at Quill Lakes, Sask., will soon welcome Belle and use her to promote their charity. The group grows and donates the crop to the Canadian Foodgrains Bank.
The 1981 Massey Ferguson might help harvest the crop, but mostly Prairie Belle will serve to promote a worthy cause.
