When a young Canadian was told, “you can’t build something that can fly,” that just made the challenge even greater for J.A.D. McCurdy in the Silver Dart designed by an association founded by Alexander Graham Bell. He just proved that some things are more difficult than others, but not impossible. J.A.D. McCurdy did make the first flight, if only 800 meters above the ice of Baddeck Bay, Nova Scotia. When Christopher Columbus began to prepare for the “first trip across the ocean” in search of India, most people said, “You can’t because the Earth is flat and you will only sail off the edge of the earth never to return!”
We all know how that went. Christopher didn’t get to India even though he called the first inhabitants Indians, but he did find America and proved that the earth was not flat.
From thousands of years B.C., we have records and structures, like the pyramids. After many years, lives lost in construction, and untold monies spent that probably came from raiding other countries of both wealth and grain for food, they were built and perfectly aligned with the stars. We do know that astronomers were the most highly regarded people in the kingdom.
We also know that the first huge colosseums were built for sports activities like “chariot racing”, fights between “gladiators”, and fights between wild animals and prisoners. Thousands of people filled those colosseums to watch those bloody events with the king in attendance making the final decision on whether to have the person killed. Many of our stadiums, rinks, or sport fields today also hold thousands of spectators. Most players are not killed today, but often their lives are shortened by severe knocks and charges to their bodies. Most sports games were not that violent in years past, but many of today’s fans like to see more violence in games. Many sports players today make higher wages than the leaders of our countries but many players in local sports teams play just as hard in small-town arenas and on fields as those pros do. Some sports fans can pay more to see a final game in person than a small wage earner would spend buying a small TV that shows a re-play of every goal if you missed it. More money is spent today betting on sports than it would cost to supply the cupboards of the nation’s food banks. More than 25 years ago, a famous sports figure was paid more to allow his picture to appear on a cereal box than the farmer who grew the grain used to make the cereal inside the box. Is our food really too expensive?
For more than 40 years, I represented our local farmers at the local, regional, and provincial level to improve food security for Canadians because our Canadian consumers thought that anything that was on the shelves of the grocery store was safe. Our farmers wanted to assure our consumers that it is. All our farm animals are and have been tagged with electronic ear tags for more than 40 years to allow farmers and government to track an animal all its life so we know every farm or area it has lived. If any disease outbreak is found, we know if there has been any contact with each animal. Canada has used the Canadian Quality Milk program in dairy farms for more than 20 years to not only assure that every animal is recorded – every vaccination, every treatment, every calving, every sickness, etc. All those things are recorded in the on-farm computer and a copy of the activity is stored in a second place (the house). Each farm is inspected for animal conditions, adequate feed and quality, drug storage, cleanliness, air quality, time and temperature of milk, milking equipment cleanliness, condition of barn and milking equipment, water quality tests, and record keeping of every activity any time the inspector decides to come.
In the ‘60s it was noticed that a steady supply of milk was not being followed by all farmers and at some times the federal government had to buy surplus dairy products not sold when Canada was short. Canadian dairy farmers, the federal government, processors, retailers, and consumers developed the supply management system of ensuring steady supply and reducing surplus to a level that was adjusted by a milk quota. The federal government promised to keep other countries from dumping their surplus dairy products into the Canadian market when they had too much. The average cost of production to produce milk was monitored across Canada and any dairy farm that could produce milk at below the average made a profit but the others either reduced their costs or quit. After watching this COP method for many years, it was noticed that not all the big farms were the best. Every farm could make improvements. This system ensures that what the consumer pays for the dairy products at the check-out is all they pay. Even the cost of quota is not included in the Canadian COP. The last U.S. farm bill was $1.4 trillion more than what their consumers pay for their food. Yes there is a difference in ‘can’ or ‘should.’
Chris Judd is a farmer in Clarendon on land that has been in his family for generations.
