The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

By Carol Stewart-Kirkby Dorothy Middleton joined Women tor the Survival of Agriculture (WSA) iii I‘J77 just to get their newsletter, Since then, she has established the \cr). successful annual seminars called Sunival Techniques for Farm Woe men; has become an experienced lob- byist and public speaker; is presently co-ordinatnig ti research project for -\griculturc Canada: and is the cur» rent president of WSA! Born and raised in the cit). Dorothy and her l‘annly moved to their dairy luriri at Cryslcr. Ontario the same year she joined WSA. Before that. her tnniil} bought a small farm near Picv ion as a summer place while Dorothy and her husband continued to work in Ioronio. ‘(_'ronig back to the land nits something I always wanted to do. but ll wasn't long before I realized that we couldn't survive on two eowsi two D1_L'\;llld a bunch of chickens. no mat» iei now much butter you make yourâ€" sell‘,‘ Dorothy explained. Also. one of licr two sons “its expressing a lot of interest in lilrllllllg and that helped prompt the decision to go l‘tirming lull llmC. Dorothy's background is in nursing and teaching, but for a \thile she worked l‘tir Ll sand and gravel com» puny She attributes that small bust? I'lC\\ experience to the reason for choosing dairy farming. “After some research, \vc rczili/cd that dairy farm, mg is connected to a marketing hoard iirid Is more stable and DIO\'ldES a regular source ol income.” Dorothy said. "We chose Castcrn Ontario be- citusc it was like the land of milk and honey “llh lots ol good land." she added. Becausc Dorothy and her lamin had no dairy cspcriencc. they attended any and all educational courses availv able. "It was during my quest for knowledge that I came upon WSAI' Dorothy sutd. Almost right away. a woman asked her to conduct a cou- ple of meetings on farm safety. be- cause of her background in nursing and teaching, That woman “as Dianne llurkin. founder of WSA, and Dorothy has been involved ever since. “Once I got to the meetings, I was swept away by the women and the challenge of making more people aware of what's happening in farm- ing." Dorothy said. Soon after she reached the farm, Dorothy realized none of the amenities she had enjoyed in the city were available in the counâ€" try. She felt WSA could go a long way towards bringing some of those amenities to rural Ontario. After a couple of courses for farm women at Kemptville College of Agri- cultural Technology, it soon became apparent the women had an insatiable appetite for knowledge. Once again, because of her teaching background, Dorothy was an obvi0us choice for or- ganizing some sort of seminar series. By January 1981, the Survival Techni- ques for Farm Women series was es- tablished. It is an eightâ€"week series. one day per week. Dorothy reported l25 topics have been covered to date and range from computers to artiâ€" ficial insemination in dairy cattle to bookkeeping to behavioral problems in children. Each seminar is full and there are always people who want to attend but can't because the numbers are limited. “I think the program is successful beâ€" cause by educating the women, we are all gaining more confidence and beâ€" coming more motivat 3’ Dorothy said. Women for the Survival of Agri- culture is the only national farm women's group in Canada, with a membership of about 2.000. Dorothy explained that although the group in southwestern Ontario call themselves the Women for the Support of Agri- culture. they still belong to the na- tional group. “What‘s in a name. 4 H S; C July. August, September 1987 What is important is what you .193 said Dorothy. Keeping the commum. cations lines open between the Various provinces is the key to a succes.t‘u] national organization. As well as providing educator-mi information, the WSA in eastern tin. tario was one of the first groups in recognize family abuse in our rtirul communities. As a result, the mt Family Resourca Centre was E\.il‘~ lished in Winchester. “Social prob- lems, agricultural problems ant! 0. men’s issues in the rural area are in lhil we concentrate on,” Dorothy allied, Dorothy is involved in a numb .‘r oi‘ other activities. As well as hair; a mother and wife, doing farm clinics, and being err-call for farm emc‘t cen- cies, she is on the finance comn; 'It‘e of the Ontario Federation of Agrt .lll‘ ture and is a member of the “inan meat, Dundas and Glengarry A-ta its City Council. She is also a ITIEmbcl' oi the advisory committee for 1hr. y..- tional Agriculture Museturi in Oil ma. And, at the moment she is we: king on a project for Agriculture Canada to determine the training need. at farm women and the barriers fining farm women in receiving this training. She expects to present the first phase of the project (collated questionnaire results) at the National Farm Women's Conference in Saskatchewan in No- vember. How does she do it? “Run,” i‘ her answer! She said without the suP‘ port of her family and husband she wouldn’t be able to do a lot at the things she does now. A150. her !“’ volvement in WSA provides her With lots of facts and contacts to malt! some of the jobs a little caste!-