Food activist Thomas Pawlick in Sharbot Lake

Dec 02, 2010

Photo: author Tom Pawlick at Oso Hall

On November 16, Tom Pawlick, award-winning journalist, editor and author of a number of books including his most recent, “The war in the Country: How the Fight to Save Rural Life will Shape our Future”, spoke to a full house at Oso hall in Sharbot Lake.

The event was organized by Sharbot Lake resident Janina Fisher, who introduced Pawlick.

He began by describing a history of government control of farm land centuries ago in Europe. This history provided a background to understanding what Pawlick said has been happening over the last 50 years in North America. “This is a very old idea and right now in Canada there are six or seven large multi-national corporate food industry players who have decided that they want to dominate world-wide,” said Pawlick.

Pawlick said that these businesses are doing this through “cost price squeeze” - controlling prices at both ends, and are now taking that control to the next level. “As always happens when greed is the dominant factor, the companies now want to control everything in the middle. Thus we are seeing a concerted effort by every multi-national corporation in the world including Canada and the US to take over absolutely everything to do with the food production industry, including the land,” he said.

According to Pawlick, politicians benefit from the purses of these companies, and as politicians form the government, they are creating legislation designed to undermine every small entity in their way, i.e. family farms, cheese factories, health food stores, farmers’ markets and small abattoirs.

“Governments respond very quickly to what these big corporations want by passing a whole bunch of regulations for the environment and for public health, which to the average City Joe seem right but which are designed to put small scale food producers out of business,” he said.

He cited the example of a friend of his who owned a successful butcher shop for 20 years but was forced to close after the government slapped the shop with $20,000 worth of “unnecessary overhauls”.

Pawlick also spoke of small-scale egg farmers who are forced to have on-site grading stations if they want to consider expanding their production. “What most people don’t realize is that grading eggs only sorts them by size; that is all. Grading has absolutely nothing to do with health.”

Palwick then cited an incident involving a small family poultry operation that was deemed to be breaking government regulations and was stormed by a SWAT team. The team hauled away their entire flock, injuring and killing a number of the birds by attempting to stuff them into a truck too small to house them.

Vegetables came next as Pawlick cited statistics gathered over a 56-year period that showed a drastic drop in the flavour and nutritional value of vegetables.

Regarding huge multi-national cattle farms like the feed lots in Texas, Pawlick’s statistics and facts led him to compare them to concentration camps. “The way these animals are housed and treated is an abomination, a crime - and I hesitate to use this word, a sin.”

Though in some ways Pawlick was preaching to the converted, he did shine a light on the steps that concerned groups, consumers and producers can take.

He paid heed to local efforts like those of the National Farmers Union’s Local 316 chapter who are leading the way in developing a strong local food system and he encouraged support for these systems and others like local farmers’ markets, CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farms and other groups.

But he said that supporting local agriculture is not enough, political action is needed, and he would like to see some seemingly unlikely coalitions develop. “The NFU needs to work with political groups such as the Ontario Landowners Association to really make some changes happen. Why not?” he asked.

Following the meeting a sign up sheet was passed around to begin a local area coalition group. A follow-up meeting will take place on December 5 at Oso hall from 2-5pm. For more information contact Janina Fisher at 613-279-2288.