Farmers in attendance at Casselman's Casselview Golf and Country Club February 4 could be forgiven for puffing their chests out a little after hearing just how instrumental they are to the economic well-being of the five easternmost counties of Ontario.
They always sensed they played a viable role. They could see with their own eyes that the countryside in Stormont, Dundas, Glengarry, Prescott and Russell counties was dominated by one specific business - farming - and in particular, dairy farming. When you added up the financial impact, they surmised, it must be substantial.
But it was really just guesswork. And they noticed they weren't always accorded the appropriate level of respect by municipal politicians and non-farming neighbours commensurate with a recognized large economic generator. A lot of "the others" tended to think of local farming as mom-and-pop operations that were just scrimping by.
As detailed elsewhere in this edition of The AgriNews, the curtain was finally lifted once and for all at Casselview on any lingering misconceptions about the contribution of farming in Eastern Ontario. And because the commodities farmed, the individual operations and the outputs are similar, the broad lines presented for these five counties can probably be applied as far west as Peterborough.
Farmers now have in their hip pockets the Economic Impact of Agriculture Study prepared by the University of Guelph's School of Rural Planning and Development which is stuffed with facts and figures to wave under the noses of anyone who still may not get it. Five-counties farmers are now as well armed as farmers in Huron County where the first such study was conducted, while farmers in Simcoe and Lambton counties will be the next beneficiaries.
The five-counties numbers are staggering...$364-million in farm gate sales a year, more than every Maritime province accept Nova Scotia with which the five counties are running neck-and-neck; 17,885 jobs in the region directly or indirectly related to agriculture, 19 per cent of the total including jobs in Cornwall; 5.5 per cent of the cultivated land area in Ontario producing 4.6 of total farm gate sales... and on it goes.
The question now is how to use the information collected for maximum benefit. Well, study leader Dr. Harry Cummings took care of that to, indicating to regional political and agricultural leaders they should capitalize on the powerful potential of farming by exploring increased opportunities for export and value-added processing.
Local leaders would be remiss in not heeding his advice. And other rural counties and regions in Ontario would be remiss in not calling upon Dr. Cummings to initiate similar studies as soon as physically possible.
From the Archives:
Op / Ed, March 1999
