Hi, again. It’s me, the University of Regina intern.
I first came to you in the Sept. 18 Notebook column, and now, after a three-month stint here at the Producer, I’m wishing you all a fond farewell on Dec. 11.
During my 14 weeks at the Western Producer, I learned that reporting on an issue of substance in a highly respected weekly newspaper is difficult.
Agricultural reporting is as difficult as the jobs we’re reporting on. Well, maybe not. I can’t really say, but I can tell you it’s quite a bit more difficult than regular journalism.
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Agriculture is a complex world so far removed from the one most Canadians, including me, live in.
It has its own communities with their own vernaculars, and getting inside of them in a meaningful way is terribly difficult in such a short period of time.
But on the sunny side, no one ever, not once, made me feel like the outsider I was when approaching them for opinions or comments.
As an inexperienced agricultural journalist, you’re there, and you can’t get around that. The people you’re talking to have to deal with that, and deal with the fact that you don’t (yet) speak their language.
However, once you prove that you’re not a total nitwit, you’re accepted quickly.
Even though you’re there as a journalist who should know his stuff, people recognize that you’re just a person too, though most importantly perhaps, they recognize you as a reporter.
They know you’re the guy who’s going to get their position out, so you just do the best you can.
At times, it was straightforward.
From the great beef-on-a-bun rallies during the last days of summer to the provincial election in early November, the news I covered was straight ahead and popular.
To be front and centre at New Democratic Party headquarters when the announcement was made that, surprisingly, the party had held on against the competition, was a truly unique and valuable opportunity among school of journalism interns.
And then there was all the livestock I got to meet. Majestic, gentle alpacas, pigs, horses and all sorts of different cattle: they didn’t seem stupid at all.
As my time here comes to an end, I can look back fondly and say that I did indeed see some things and learn a lot about journalism, about agriculture and about all the fantastic people here in Western Canada.
Thanks for putting up with me.
Adios amigos.
Promote Sask.
So, the NDP had a negative campaign. What a joke. The Saskatchewan Party has had a negative campaign against Saskatchewan for far too long.
The thought came to me a couple of days ago: could one of the reasons that young people are leaving for Alberta, if they are, be the negative picture that is painted continually about Saskatchewan?
For too long, we have been hearing how terrible Saskatchewan is, no jobs, poor roads, no opportunities for new businesses. Yes, it is politics, but it is time we looked around us, and promoted the wonderful opportunities and what we do have to offer.
We have one of the best universities in Canada and are we encouraging our young people to stay at home and attend that university or are we buying into that myth that Alberta is so wonderful?
Talk to some Alberta people some time and hear about the high living costs there – homes, heating, insurance, car insurance and health care premiums, care in nursing homes, etc. Also they have long waiting lists for surgery too. Out of province patients are accepted because it is new cash….
Saskatchewan has 20 percent of the roads in Canada and can’t be expected to, nor can we afford to, have first class roads everywhere, especially when we have lost the rail system….
Drive in Alberta and see how many miles between roads, and the acres and acres of pasture land. Farmers have benefited greatly from a good crop insurance program, beef and hog programs, and a lot more support programs where the Saskatchewan government has participated.
There is only so much money to go around. This is an agricultural province with high implement costs, trucks and cars that can be written off for income tax purposes. Where is the money to come from? Now it is the rural people that have forgotten.
Let us start promoting our province, not Alberta. Maybe the Saskatchewan Party’s real problem was their negative attitude about the province, not the NDP’s support of (crown) corporations.
We live in a wonderful part of Canada and have so little to complain about.
– Allene Douglas,
Eatonia, Sask.
No lawyers
Mark my words: there will be no change in federal government attitude towards Western Canada when Paul Martin is in charge. He and Jean Chrétien have the same academic background and therefore equal political ambitions.
Only when the majority of voters across Canada realize the error being made in electing a lawyer to a political position will Canada have an efficient and fair government. I believe in the campaign slogan: It’s a D.E.A.L. or Don’t Elect Another Lawyer.
Since 1950, at the age of 21, I have been voting provincially, federally and municipally. Never have I voted for a lawyer candidate. They cannot be trusted to represent 90 percent of their constituency.
– W. M. Pender,
Fort Macleod, Alta.
No to oils
Re: Canola set for fight?, WP, Nov. 13.
There is no place in a healthy diet for any vegetable oil that has been refined, whether it’s from soybeans, corn, canola, palm kernels or anything else.
Refined oils bear no resemblance to the fats our species evolved on and which we require for good health.
These oils are not natural, they are completely abnormal, hence they are extremely dangerous. In my view, none of them should ever have been allowed on the market.
Ideally, the only fats we should be consuming are those which are fresh and unaltered. Vegetable oils are radically different from the beneficial fats provided by fresh whole foods. The fatty acids in these oils are chemically changed during the deodorization and refining process to the extent that they become very destructive….
Nutritionists have known this for 50 years, and have periodically issued warnings, only to be ignored or drowned out by marketing forces.
It’s outrageous that products made from or containing denatured oils are advertised as healthy alternatives when in fact they are clearly the most harmful concoctions ever to end up in our food supply.
– Thomas Anderson,Ph.D.,
Summerland, B.C.
TSE challenge
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is paid hundreds of millions and tens of millions in user fees, equals nothing of measurable value. We paid these premiums annually to insure things like BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) doesn’t happen. Killing water buffalo didn’t help.
CFIA ignored risks of TSEs, (transmissible spongiform encephalopathies.) They ignored Health Canada’s recommendations, they imported diseased wildlife, didn’t remove rendered protein or keep track of it, didn’t keep track of untested imported heifers. CFIA doesn’t know how to solve this problem. …
The cow was a symptom, not the source. If you don’t want some disease in the food chain, you would have to develop specific, quick tests with high confidence limits. If you want to eliminate the source, you would have to monitor and test everything in its environment and the animal itself including every blade of grass, water source, wildlife and document it all.
Britain had (animal) identification before BSE and foot-and-mouth and these outbreaks proved that the source didn’t have two tags and a passport. The problem is that if you don’t eliminate the source, the problem will reoccur.
There is no one who knows all there is to know about TSEs. CFIA has everything bet on an old theory. If evidence doesn’t fit or they can’t make fit, they ignore it….
Since losing the Crow (Benefit), our birthright, grain infrastructure has depleted. We were encouraged to diversify into exotic livestock – a pyramid scheme – and independent pork production.
BSE is just what the government ordered. It not only gets rid of the new producer but also the original producer plus all those who produce ruminants….
– Ted McCaffrey,
Manitou, Man.
Chess game
Regarding the political marriage of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservatives, what a political chess game.
The Conservatives, who in my view are socialists, are trying to move the Alliance away from its stand for less government.
The Alliance’s predecessor, the Reform party, of which I was a member, was founded by Canadians to steer the ship of state back to less government and more God. Let’s not lose this religious-political battle by default.
– Geo. G. Elias,
Morden, Man.
Ingrained thinking
By being critical of Jim Pallister, (WP, Nov. 17), the president and CEO of the Canadian Wheat Board, Adrian Measner, exposes the ingrained, convoluted thinking of the CWB.
Mr. Measner states he called for fair and open trade. However, one must wonder how our competitors view the 2002-03 CWB sales that are government subsidized by $85 million. While the CWB gets taxpayer money to subsidize grain sales, our competitors sold their grain at record world prices.
The “best price it can achieve …” as Mr. Measner puts it, lost western farmers some $500 million in value in 2002-03.
Mr. Measner also attempts to make the point that director elections are a referendum on the monopoly of the CWB, when in fact the elections are held only to select people to oversee the organization. It is unfortunate that CWB staff and many directors view those elections as a referendum and put little importance on farmers’ core business.
Mr. Measner and many of his staff are “career CWB” and their paycheque depends on the continuation of the monopoly. Relinquishing control is something they would not embrace.
The largest marketing failure by the CWB in many years occurred under Mr. Measner’s watch.
Corporations who are responsive to the needs of their shareholders have no room for this kind of loss in value and would hold the CEO and his senior staff accountable by issuing pink slips without hesitation.
By remaining silent and taking no action, the members of the board of directors are clearly telling us that they also value the bureaucracy ahead of farmers.
– Albert J. Wagner,
Stony Plain, Alta.
