Shocking Propaganda: Go Vegan. Save the Planet. What our kids are being told.....

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Permalink Reply by Wayne Black on September 12, 2009 at 2:34pm

You are absolutely correct Joe. "We need to be aware..." We also need to get involved or get run over. This December it hit me front and centre - my first "30 days in office" (as President of the Huron County Federation of Agriculture). Locally the Huron County Planning Department was working on a Draft paper called "Sustainable Huron". Within the paper there were suggestions that we should "Become a vegetarian or reduce your meat consumption" (Goal 3: Agricultural Strength and Diversity") & "Eat one meatless meal a week" (Goal 10: Healthy and Active Communities).
We got the wording eliminated quite quickly and printed the an article in our February newsletter in the Rural Voice. To sum it up this is an snippit on just the Sustainable Huron issue:
Recently the Huron County Planning Department released a draft document called "Sustainable Huron, Take Action Report".
Wayne Black, HCFA President, found within the first draft of the document a suggestion that Huron County residents consider becoming a vegetarian or reduce their meat consumption. Given the agricultural production of Huron County, the HCFA quickly questioned the merit of this statement, and the draft document was quickly changed. It did have quite an impact with media though with Black and the Federation getting coverage at all levels. Locally the radio station farm news and talk show mentioned it, provincially Ontario Farmer did an article, and nationally AgriSuccess wrote an article. This was all due to a single action of reading the report and providing changes for the benefit of all HCFA members. So the moral of the story would be - these types of reports and proposals need to be taken seriously, and all producers need to be looking out for the best interests of the entire industry.
It is a big issue when it gets coverage locally immediately (the next day) and within two weeks covered across Canada.
When people question their payment to a General Farm Organization in Ontario (OFA, CFFO, or NFU) I bring up this example on something the HCFA keeps doing locally to keep a "sustainable" agriculture industry in Huron County. Lately it has been water quality - check out betterfarming.com (Sept. 10th) for my latest (issue) letter.

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Permalink Reply by Kevin Stewart on October 4, 2009 at 3:05am

I remember a year ago my 10 year old came home from school and asked me, "why do farmers treat their animals so badly?" I asked her where she got that idea and she said the teacher told the class during a discussion.

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