In recent years, the provincial government has moved the milk testing lab to Guelph, most of the vet lab, and now the crop program.

Historically, attempts to develop a supporting agricultural industry has been hindered before by the west-east syndrome. In 1984, Weston Graham published a study for a soybean plant for the Prescott Elevator that would have brought in a profit by the end of year three of 15.7 per cent. I was writing for Farm and Country at the time but the article on the soy plant wasn’t published. I was told that western Ontario interests opposed the plant because there wasn’t enough capacity for the plant already at Hamilton. Since then, a private plant has been established at Winchester.

The latest loss, the crop program at Kemptville College, will be the beginning of the end of all Kemptville College research and will endanger the prosperity of agriculture in the east. There are three components in a successful agricultural industry: one is raw materials, another is plant processing, and a third education and research. Historically, the three have gone together. But in a bold new experiment the Ministry of Agriculture is going to run everything from a central office.

The tepid response by some farm organizations, quartered in the west, to our loss has been disappointing. The Ontario Corn Producers Association (OCPA) says cuts are never welcome. But the impact will be minimized as a "result of careful planning." The OCPA, which collects a checkoff on 1 million acres of corn in the east, says the university programs are well positioned to assist the food sector with their support needs. The OCPA should spell this out and explain how support is to come when there isn’t a single field person representing the college in Ontario.

Before the cuts became public the OCPA and other commodity groups were in on the discussion. Commodity groups at least gave tacit approval.

Would the OCPA have given tacit approval if the research had been cut west of Yonge Street?

Would the proposed Seaway Valley Farmers Ethanol plant have had stronger support if it had been based in western Ontario? The OCPA never dissed the ethanol program, but it never threatened to man the barricades either, never has it shown any passion for the project. Bureaucracies kill with faint praise.

We think farmers should start asking board representatives where they stand on these issues.

This is all about politics, power and money. Is there any doubt that if Seaway Valley Ethanol promised to build a plant in Shawinigan, the plant would be built now?