LINDSAY — When corn producers called for countervail against U.S. corn, they crossed the Rubicon, the river from where there’s no turning back.

"I never backed countervail," says Joe Hickson, the owner of Midnight Acres in Kawartha Lakes. "But now that farmers have decided on it, I’ll back it."

He says if farmers back down, politicians and industry leaders won’t take farmers’ demands and threats seriously any more.

One of the organizers of the tractor protests two years ago, he says all farmers must back countervail for the good of the industry.

The fact that the corn producers have gone this far should show government and the industry what farmers are going through. He figures the veiled threat by the CASCO U.S. office to close Ontario plants if tariffs are implemented could be posturing. "The U.S. farmer can’t produce corn for $2 a bushel and neither can Canadian farmers," he says. Only the government can keep them (American farmers) producing at such a low price.

He wants to know how the company made a profit when corn sold for $4.and $4.50 a bushel.

But CASCO isn’t alone in its opposition. Some hog and beef producers, especially feedlot operators, are opposed to countervail. They aren’t saying much, says Ellard Powers, a director in the National Farmers Union. But they see it as an extra expense. The Renfrew County farmer says too many farmers are willing to get by on someone else’s misfortune.