They don't do badly with Art and Culture either. REH
----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, December 10, 2002 8:48 PM Subject: RE: Re: Community decline > Thanx Pete for this. In reading the debates over subsidies to European > agriculture I have always felt that it was a subsidy for a way of life, a > way of valuing quality over quantity. > > arthur > > -----Original Message----- > From: pete [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: Tuesday, December 10, 2002 6:58 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Fwk: Re: Community decline > > > > On Tue, 10 Dec 2002, Ed Weick <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > >Karen, thanks for the piece on rural decline in the US. Several parts > >of agricultural Canada are in no better shape. Increasingly, it does > >seem that rural areas are dependent for their income on transfers from > >urban/industrial centres, and not on what they can produce themselves. > >There remains a mystique about the rural way of life and the family farm, > >but even that is beginning to wear thin with the growing recognition that > >many farms are probably no longer viable unless they are heavily > >subsidized or supported by special marketing arrangements. > > Ah, I 've been thinking about fitting this comment in, and this > seems like a good place: I spent most of the autumn this year > at a lab in europe (CERN), and got a chance to get a feel for > the day to day culture over there. As I was flying in, I looked > over the landscape of France and Germany, on a fortunately clear > and sunny day. It was achingly beautiful. Despite the high > population density, the population centres were mostly small > towns and villages, nestled among farms and woodlots. The > property boundaries, even in relatively level ground, were > not the rigid squares of north america, but complex patterns > reflecting the local features - rivers, hills, old winding roads. > Perhaps not the most efficiently utilitarian design, but good > for the soul. While staying near Geneva, I had the opportunity > to visit a local family for dinner. They have a farm just outside > a small village, and I spent some time walking about the area, > noting the seamless meshing of the farming activity with the > commercial activity of the village; like much of europe, many of > the buildings are centuries old, but beautiful and well maintained. > The family I was visiting depends on a subsidy to sustain their farm > (not the EU subsidy, as this was in Switzerland, but similar). > > So I thought about the Canadian prairie farmers being driven > off their farms by low grain prices (and absense of matching > Canadian subsidies), and the loss of the small prairie towns. > Then about what will happen to the beautifully tended european > countryside and the beautiful villages when subsidies are cut, > and only large industrial farms will be economical, like the > ones now appearing coincident with the depopulation of the > Canadian prairies. Perhaps one of the free trade zealots here > can paint me a picture of how the brave new world ahead will be > an improvement... > -Pete Vincent >
