Empathy for fishers and farmers

I feel sorry for the small fishermen who cannot find a fish company that will take their codfish, but I am not surprised.

Big business is greedy and they want to catch the fish themselves and make even more profit.

If the small guy has no market for his fish, then he might as well get out of the fishing business.

I was a little disappointed with the public willing to take the free fish that would have cost 20 bucks in a supermarket, and not at least giving a few bucks to the fishermen.

Small fishermen, farmers and small business men/women are all that is between you and big business. Once all the small businesses are gone, you will be faced with big business only that will charge whatever the market can bear.

As a small farmer, I’ve had to leave beautiful broccoli in the field to rot because the mainland supermarket firm would not take it because they had a deal with a mainland farmer to take theirs. Needless to say, we gave up growing broccoli; when it is ready to go to market, it must go to market, you can’t store it and wait until the mainland sold out their supply.

These are things that Premier Dwight Ball should be tackling if he wants to encourage more farming here in Newfoundland.

There is much we can grow but if there is no market because the mainland farmer must be serviced first, even though the public is crying out for local vegetables because they are much better, then why grow It and be at the mercy of mainland supplies coming across the gulf?

They may be held up a few days to a week, but eventually they will get here, a little worse for wear — still edible, but barely. Everett Adams Grand Falls-windsor