Simcoe Reformer
Sept 19, 2008
Food safety -- the very issue that landed Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz in hot water Wednesday -- was the main course at yesterday's local agricultural campaign stop by MP Diane Finley.
Ritz, whose off-hand wisecracks about the deadly listeriosis outbreak have become public, was a no-show at his scheduled meeting with agricultural groups at the Simcoe Research Station. Finley was mum on his absence.
"We got a phone call this morning that his travel plans had changed," said Finley, who collected questions from area farmers to have Ritz personally answer.
But that didn't halt local farmers from posing tough questions about food traceability to Finley.
"We do have one of the safest food systems in the world," Finley reassured farmers, crediting the system for putting a quick stop to the listeriosis outbreak.
She was impressed with farmers' initiatives to be able to trace their own produce back. For example, she has visited several blueberry farms that have implemented advanced coding systems on their cartons.
"They can actually trace who picked at what time down to the hour," Finley explained.
But Carmina Halstead, a director of Nightingale Farms, wasn't impressed. She said the industry-standard food safety programs aren't being properly subsidized by the federal government. Her farm has turned to an outside computer programming company with knowledge of farming to create a specialized program for her business. What will a reelected Conservative government do?
"There's an opportunity there for someone who is enterprising," Finley repeated several times.
Finley also kept on repeating that tobacco farmers can expect their buyout money soon.
"A reelected Conservative Party will deliver that money," Finley promised.
But local tobacco farmers weren't jumping with joy over her guarantee.
"I think she's sincere, but I'm just frustrated that this thing is taking so long," said Karen Csoff, a member of the Tobacco Women of Ontario. Her family is looking to leave their 110-acre tobacco farm in Delhi -- now planted with corn this year -- but are waiting for the funds to see how much debt they'll have left.
"You can't move on with your life until you know what you're taking from the past," Csoff explained.
She knows that regardless of the amount, her family will likely be forced to sell the farm once owned by her parents.
"That would be the only option," she said. "Corn and beans are not going to pay a tobacco debt."
And yet the man at the centre of agricultural decision-making -- and now controversy -- wasn't there to offer hope to local farmers such as Csoff.
"I'm disappointed he (Ritz) wasn't here for me to ask these questions personally," she added.