The inspiration for this month’s story came from our visit to Timiskaming District last September. We had just sent our October issue off to press, with a cover story about the challenges of new power charges on today’s modern electricity hungry farms. When large-scale farm operator Norm Koch told us he was using a diesel generator to power his grain storage and dryer system rather than depend upon the grid, it underlined the concerns that farmers have about the perceived instability in regulated hydro electric prices.
We realized that we had missed something.
We hadn’t talked to the farmers who were concerned about costs associated with hooking up to the grid and who were willing to do something about it on their own terms.