The prices of beef and pork, paid to the farmer, is so low currently that it is obscene. It is a situation that begs for investigation, and yet there has been no response at any level to this situation. Every time a farmer sells stock at these indecent amounts, and every time the consumer pays the outrageous price in the grocery store, we are subsidizing the meat packers.

Let's view this from a different angle to give the average consumer an idea of what current prices paid to the farmer are like.

What if the price of gas went down to $5.00 a barrel, but the price at the pumps stayed at the $10.00 a barrel price? Wouldn't there be public outrage? Yes, as a matter of fact, there was. The question of price fixing at the pumps has been investigated by the Federal government twice now.

But, has anyone, in any level of government, in the RCMP, local police, anyone at all, every stood up and announced that the artificial prices for beef and pork being paid to farmers should be investigated? No, and yet the prices to the consumer has never changed.

The amount that a farmer is getting for stock at an auction is approximately the same amount that same farmer would have received in the '70s. Yet people are eating more red meat today and there are more people today than in the 70's.

Therefore, the demand must be greater. It probably makes sense that the amount of people who don't drive is roughly equal to the amount of people who don't eat red meat. This means that the equation remains the same.

There is a higher demand, then why are prices at such an all time low?

Farmers are being hit with an enormous increase in costs in order to provide a safe, reliable food source.

This summer, on top of everything else, the primary concern is water. With so little rain, the conservation authorities declared a "level three" drought.

This is the highest level of drought that can be declared, but the Provincial government didn't declare an emergency. They still allowed our ground water to be drained for the manufacture of bottled water. The companies who drain this water, for profit, pay no money for the hundreds of thousands of gallons of water they are taking from the ground. Yet the farmer who's well runs dry, must pay thousands of dollars for a new well.

Again, we all heard on the news that it was a dry summer, but apparently it won't be a concern until large urban areas start to run out of water, or the Credit River becomes the Credit Stream and there are no fish.

H. Foster Orangeville