Letter to the Editors

I was excited to read the article you printed on the Community Butcher Shop, which I frequent and am grateful for.

As someone who lives in rural Peterborough County, I did take exception to Scott Walsworth’s suggestion that Peterborough is a good choice for such an endeavour because “…flowing from Trent University, it has an urban population with an ingrained culture of critical thought, intellectualism, and activism.”

I would gently remind readers that none of these attributes necessarily flow from any academic institution nor are they the preserve of urbanites. Many
rural people live where we do because of a critical worldview that motivates us to grow food, save seeds (eff you Monsanto), raise livestock and hunt. Wanting to know where our food comes from and eating ethically are as deeply if not more so ingrained in many rural people.

Although admittedly chauvinistic, I cannot resist adding that when those critical-thinking intellectual city-dwellers come to our small communities, it can be hard to keep a straight face when they want to know the (precise) date on which the blackflies will arrive; when they try to make campfires with green wood and camp stove fuel; when they spend good money buying marshmallow-roasting sticks from a store (!); and when they complain loudly in contemptuous tones when they cannot find a Globe and Mail to buy.

Thanks for printing the story though. It is an awesome business and I am glad it’s there

Kathy Hardill
Kawartha North Township