Every time you attend a funeral or pay your taxes, you are reminded of the first two. When we take a few minutes to think back a few years about the changes we have witnessed in our life we can remember countless changes.

Grampa used to cut hay with the six foot cut horse mower and rake it with the horse drawn dump rake. My very first job on a tractor was to drive the little 25 horsepower Ford-Ferguson pulling the hay loader. I don’t remember how old I was but I had to stand on the clutch with both feet and push up on the steering wheel to put enough weight on the clutch to stop the tractor.

Grampa probably cut about three acres per day and by the time that my dad had picked up three acres of loose hay with the hay loader, drawn it to the barn, unloaded with the horse drawn hay fork and mowed the loose hay back by hand with a three pronged fork it was time to milk the cows again.

Now some 65 years later, we can cut 10 or 12 acres of hay in an hour and pick up, chop, haul and store away in the bunk silo over 100 acres of hay a day.

My grandma used to milk 13 cows by hand and now my daughter can milk a 160 cows.

For many years, we trusted Health Canada, Agriculture Canada and the U.S. federal department of agriculture to test everything from sprays we used on crops to all the food that we bought or ate. Some of the chemicals and sprays that farmers accepted as a godsend to improve production and kill those weeds that our grandparents cultivated and pulled by hand every season were removed from the market only a few years after their testing and approval for sale. It was found that not enough testing was completed or maybe some of the test trials were skewed which allowed the release of some super spray that was later found to cause health problems to either the farmer who applied it or consumers who ate food that had been treated.

Even in this super cautious world we live in there are foods displayed without labels or warning in the grocery stores and available on restaurant menus that can cause severe reactions to some people who consume them. Many people who are sensitive to these foods keep a written or a mental list of foods to avoid, but I worry about the children who are dependent on their parents to make choices for them and those in schools, hospitals, retirement homes or other institutions who depend on others who may or may not be educated in all the food sensitivities that can cause health problems.

Some countries a our little planet already have strict labeling laws in place to allow consumers to choose only foods that are safe for them. Some countries even make it an imprisonable offense to have anything to do with these products.

In North America it seems like some very heavy and expensive lobbying and even non-disclosure of evidence that could warn consumers and law makers of health problems helps prevent similar health safety laws from being written or passed. Recently, several multi-billion dollar compensations have been awarded to victims of contact with some of these products by U.S. juries.

Ask questions about what you eat or feed others. There are no stupid questions, only stupid and uninformative answers.

Chris Judd is a farmer in Clarendon on land that has been in his family for generations.

gladcrest@gmail.com

Register or subscribe to read this content

Thanks for stopping by! This article is available to readers who have created a free account or who subscribe to The Equity.

When you register for free with your email, you get access to a limited number of stories at no cost. Subscribers enjoy unlimited access to everything we publish—and directly support quality local journalism here in the Pontiac.

Register or Subscribe Today!