Beaten down by poor prices at the sale barns, the animated Cull encouraged 400 farmers to attend a meeting at a Douglas high school Feb. 20 where he launched his idea of farmers taking control of the beef industry.

"The time has come for one voice, one power," Cull told the crowd and introduced the Quebec model for farmers to get the political job done. It’s the Union of Agricultural Producers (UPA). It’s the Quebec farmers’ muscle and they know it.

"We get what we want 90 per cent of the time," Quebec beef producer Gib Drury told the impressed crowd. All Quebec farmers pay into the association, starting at $240 per year, and "we tell the politicians what to do," he said. With a grin he added: "This is a crisis year. They’ll move pretty quick."

He encouraged Ontario farmers to organize in the same way and negotiate among themselves behind closed doors before facing politicians who see disagreement as a reason not to act.

"Fight like hell in the room but when you go out – go out as one," he said. "Producers have to call the shots."

Since the mad cow crisis began last May, the UPA has bought up 80 per cent of Quebec’s livestock sale barns in a move to control the beef industry and rebound from the worst crisis in Canadian agriculture. "Keep the government out and do it yourself," Drury advised.

Shawville, Quebec, dairy farmer Chris Judd agrees. "It’s time we take back control of our industry."

He recalled a high school teacher in his youth who told him that the longer you hang on to your product, the more you process it, the more money you earn. "Why we don’t own our own abattoirs, why we don’t market our own meat, I don’t know," he said. "It seems people don’t pull together until they’re poor enough. Maybe we’re not poor enough."

The crowd, which earlier in the evening had its share of shouting matches and cursing, listened with approval.

Following the meeting, Drury told Farmers Forum: "These guys don’t know how much power they have. They’re being tromped on. They’re not fed up enough. They’re getting there."

Ron Wooddisse, president of the Ontario Cattlemen’s Association, also spoke to the lively crowd and noted that discussions have already taken place between the Ontario Federation of Agriculture and the Ontario Cattlemen Association to agree in public.

"We really must get more involved in marketing our own product," Wooddisse said. He added that the one voice revolution "will have to snowball from one county to the next."

But it will not be realized in time to solve the mad cow crisis, he cautioned.

Farmers in the audience agreed. Said beef farmer Bob Dobson and former president of the cattlemen’s association: " it will take two years to happen."

To solve the present crisis, Preston Cull listed what he feels are the current options, including a Canada-wide farming strike.

"We just quit," he said. "We go on strike. We sell nothing for one week. It’ll hurt the dairy guys – they pour their milk down the gutter for one week. Some guys will do this – some won’t. I don’t like this option but we have to think of these things."

Or we shoot our cows, he said. "Shoot the bastards. You’re only shooting $100."

Press municipal governments to forgive property taxes for one year, he added. This has already happened in Grey and Bruce Counties in western Ontario.