Welcome to the third world

A tourist assists in cranking open a lock on the Trent-Severn Waterway.

Years ago I used to say, "Don't bother visiting the third world. Just wait. The third world is coming to a neighbourhood near you." I had no idea how right I was.

On the weekend my wife and I drove to Peterborough for a family event. Saturday was free, so we drove about the city doing some touristy stuff. For instance, we checked out the local locks on the Trent-Severn Waterway.

The TSW has a history predating Canada itself. The canal has roots going back to about 1833. But the waterway is no longer needed for the transport of goods and has attracted the attention of the federal government budget cutters.

I talked to two tourists who had assisted staff with cranking open a lock. The tourists thought it was great fun. The lock staff appreciated the help. The lock staff is short handed.

The story I heard from locals was that the government was cutting the period of canal operation from 16 weeks to 8 weeks. Tour boat operators and canal boat rental companies would be hard hit financially if this comes to pass. They may not be able to make enough in such a short period of operation to remain in business.

You can read more about this by following these links:

• How do we say goodbye to our heritage?
• Shortening period of Trent-Severn lock operation will devastate tourism

Like I said, "Welcome to the third world."

Kaleidoscopes

My granddaughter in a kaleidoscope produced image.

When I was a young boy, one of my favorite toys was a kaleidoscope. It worked with a rotating ring and small pieces of randomly tumbling bits of coloured plastic. Then in the '60s, well into my teens, I discovered kaleidoscopes that break the world into a kaleidoscopic image. I thought this was really cool.

These units were inexpensively made out of a cardboard tube, a plastic lens and three little mirrors taped together; yes, I took one apart to inspect its innards.

I was so impressed that I bought one for each my nieces and nephews. I took them for a walk around their neighbourhood and we viewed their usual world in an unusual way.

The other day I found my old '60s kaleidoscope forgotten in a box in the basement. I wondered if I could capture the images it created. I positioned the lens of my point and shoot in front of the viewing hole and voila I had a picture.

I know there are apps available for the iPhone to manipulate images and give them the kaleidoscope look, but I enjoy watching the images form and evolve on my camera back. If the idea of an app interests you, check out Kooleido for your iPhone.

I'm wondering how hard it would be to make a proper little kaleidoscope to attach to the front of my point and shoot. There are instructions on the Internet for the old-fashioned children's toy and even suggestions on making one for use with a camera. If I make one that works, I'll post some pictures.

For high quality results, Photoshop may be the best answer. Start with a fine quality image and let Photoshop take it from there.

Flowers on the patio as seen through my kaleidoscope.

To see my best efforts, check out these. I tried my little gadget on my lilies.

Higgs Boson

This is a fine little animated feature explaining the Higgs Boson. The feature starts about forty seconds in. Cheers!

Concerns about the future of farming

Farms are more than businesses; they are vital to Canada's economic strength.

 

Today I noticed a posting on my brokerage site reporting a Bank of Montreal survey that tracked the concerns of Quebecors about rural Francophone youth turning their backs on farming and moving to the city.

 

 60 per cent of Quebec residents surveyed believed the migration of young people from rural to urban centers was having a harmful impact on the family farm. On this both urban dwellers and rural residents were in agreement.

 

 The age of Quebec farm operators has climbed to an average age of 51.4 years (up from 49.3 years in only five years), and operators under age 35 have declined eight percent in the same time period. In light of this, the BMO survey asked a range of questions on the impact of youth migration from farms to urban centres.

In addition to the negative impact on the family farm, Quebecers also said that the youth migration from the farm to the city was having  significant negative consequences on the: 

• Supply of labour (66 percent) 
• Transfer of knowledge to next generation (58 percent) 
• Rural economy (58 percent) 
• Agriculture sector (56 percent)

"It is easy enough to take agriculture for granted when you have a grocery store full of food, but to sustain this, we need young people in agriculture," said CFA President Ron Bonnett. "BMO's study shows ALL Canadians are sharing similar concerns and recognize the importance of the sector, and this is encouraging. Broad public support is what's needed to secure the future of our farms and food."

"A farm is more than a business; it's vital to Quebec and Canada's economic strength, and this survey highlights the value Canadians place on family farms being able to survive and prosper," said David Rinneard, National Manager, Agriculture, BMO Bank of Montreal.

The family farm is under assault. It is not just the draw of the city that is sucking the youth from the land. Giant corporations are taking over more and more control of food production. It is a tough, competitive world out there on the farm. London, Ontario, must not be too complacent about its position in the middle of Ontario's farm belt. So much has slipped by, and out of, the city over the past few years. Let's not let agriculture take the hit that our industrial base has.

ReThinking abandoned orchards

Abandoned fruit trees in southwest London.

I often drive by the abandoned Cornell Orchard on Southdale Road just west of Colonel Talbot Road. The take-out where I buy a shawarma with fries is located where the old Cornell store once stood. It burned some years ago. There were rumors about the abandoned orchards, about the burning of the retail store, gossipy stories filled with murky facts swirling in a fog of local myth.

Recently, The London Free Press ran a story on the abandoned operation with a picture of the "tapped-out orchard" where "weeds grow between what were once rows of fruit trees." The story made me think about those abandoned trees and wonder why no one was interested in harvesting the apples. 

It could be there are legal issues preventing these particular trees from being cared for. But what about other orchards? Why is it not uncommon to see abandoned orchards in southwestern Ontario? Or to read stories about orchards being bulldozed? (Today, the fall of 2016, the former Cornell Orchard has been uprooted and the dead trees sit in large, piles in the cleared field.)

Apple growing in abandoned orchard.

With a little research I learned one should not be too quick to tear out orchards. Old fruit trees can be renovated and transformed both aesthetically and in terms of productivity. With some luck, a mature orchard can be encouraged to again produce fruit. 

But this gets harder and harder if the orchard is left untouched too long. Diseases will get firmly established, destructive insects will flourish and time will take its inevitable toll. So, why are our older orchards not being cared for and replanted when necessary? Read on.

I learned that apple trees originated in the Tien Shan mountains in southern Kazakhstan. The last surviving wild apple forests are to be found in those mountains in Central Asia. Those forests are now threatened by urbanization and modern agricultural methods. Many wild apple species are facing extinction.

If one wants to breed an apple for resistance to disease and to drought, the malus sieversii is a good apple to investigate. Thought to be the source species for many of today's farm grown varieties, the malus sieversii is on the list of endangered apple species, along with 44 other apple tree species found in Central Asia.

Over-exploitation and human encroachment are among the main threats to the forests of Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. These forests are home to more than 300 wild fruit and nut species including apple, plum, cherry, apricot and walnut. These valuable, unique, heritage trees are under threat.

Wild genes carry resistance to diseases such as apple scab, a fungus that can devastate crops. A lot of our domestic fruit supply comes from a very narrow genetic base, it is imperative that scientists are able to return to heritage fruit tree species for inclusion in breeding programmes. In the future, this may not be possible. The heritage trees are disappearing.

Sadly, the BBC reports these countries lack the resources to conserve their valuable trees. But there is nothing unique here. We don't seem to be able to protect our North American fruit tree species from the threat of extinction. The Gravenstein, a very old variety of apple first recorded in Denmark in 1607 and brought to the U.S. around 1826 was praised by Luther Burbank as one of the best apple varieties is facing extinction today.

Luther Burbank, the man who developed the Russet potato, once said, "The secret of improved plant breeding, apart from scientific knowledge, is love." As twenty-first century folk have moved from the land to the city, maybe we are losing our love for plants, for farming, for the world that produces the foods that keeps us healthy.

London, Ontario, sits in the middle of some of the richest farmland in the world. And yet, London is somewhat divorced from food production --- traditional food production. In fact, some food production today may be somewhat divorced from food. The Casco plant in London takes corn and after some fancy processing pumps out high fructose corn syrup. There are those who would argue that this sweet concoction from the lab is not food -- at least not a good use of food: corn.

Fruit is shipped to Canada from around the globe.

We no longer need Ontario fruit trees for fruit. Fresh pears can come from South America, and canned peaches from Greece. Apples come from lots of places except that in the future they may not come from Kazakhstan. Or from southwest London.

Read: The Toronto Star article, Ontario fruit growers losing ground

 

Many believe fruit growing operations are threatened in Southwest Ontario.

ReThink London: ReThink Suburbia

The next day I saw a young woman with two children using the new, little park.

I realized something this evening while playing with my granddaughter in a new playground in a new subdivision on the edge of Byron in southwest London. I like suburbia. I mean I really like living in suburban Byron.

Returning in the family car from the restaurant, Fiona spotted the new playground and immediately wanted me to stop so she could do some serious playing. I stopped. My wife relaxed on a park bench while I watched over the kid. At 33 months, she needs supervision.

The playground is on a hill overlooking the shopping area going up at the corner of Colonel Talbot Road and Southdale Road West. I looked at the stores, banks and restaurant, all bright, new and spiffy. I listened to the sound of the constant traffic passing just metres to the south of the park. I watched my granddaughter playing, I noticed suburbanite couples strolling along Southdale and I felt the cool, evening breeze swirling about the park.

I thought to myself. This is pleasant. This is good. Despite all the recent talk about downtown, I realized I don't care as much about the state of downtown London as I do about my suburban Byron neigbourhood.

Soho homes with a large apartment building looming behind.

I found myself thinking about Mayor Joe Fontana. Old Joe talks a good line about downtown London and how important it is to him. But old Joe doesn't live in downtown London. Old Joe doesn't even live in London. He lives in Arva immediately north of the city. Joe, some might argue, lives in exurbia: a residential area outside the city, beyond its suburbs, that is often inhabited chiefly by well-to-do families. 

And I thought, I bet Joe loves his neighbourhood. I bet Joe, as much as he is concerned about the city core, would never give up his home in Arva to live in a downtown apartment in SoHo.

The Storybook Gardens ice skating pad needs more skaters.

Maybe ReThink London should be rethinking all of London. Oh, they give lip service to thinking about the city as a whole but it is the beach at The Forks of the Thames that gets the publicity --- a beach that isn't even there yet. The huge ice skating loop in Storybook Gardens gets no mention. The skating loop is there and it is begging for attention. Something must be done to increase public interest or this wonderful rink may close.

London has a ski hill. I think this is really cool. London kids need to go no further than the southwest end of the city to find a rather decent hill complete with high speed lifts. The recent warm, short winters are threatening the survival of the hill.

A not-for-profit operation, run with the benefit of numerous volunteers, the Boler Mountain ski hill is a big plus for the city and not a huge drain on the taxpayers. It has given so much to the community during its many decades of operation. Maybe it is time for the community to give a little back. Maybe the city could find a way to cut the ski hill's water consumption bills. Making all that snow is tough, and expensive.

I don't want to be too tough on downtown. When I first moved to London, I lived within almost a stone's throw of The Forks of the Thames. If, living in Bryon, I must support a beach on the edge of the Thames in the core of the city, then I would like to see the folk living in the former Petersville (my old neighbourhood downtown) supporting my Storybook Gardens skating pad and my Boler Mountain ski hill.
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I wrote this post before attending the ReThink London event today. I'm beginning to have some good feelings for our city planners. I'm realizing my beef is more with folk like the mayor or reporters like Randy Richmond at The London Free Press. Richmond's reports are very poetic and read very well. He's a good writer. But, it is style over substance when it comes to Richmond's reports.

ReThink London: ReThinking Car Ownership

Getting people out of cars may take putting them into, uh, a car, a shared car.

My grandfather never owned a car. It simply wasn't something he needed. He walked a lot. He was a pharmacist and owned his own business. He walked from home to work everyday of his working life and he worked until he was about 85.

Even in his 90s he still liked to walk. Sometimes he walked as far as three kilometres to take in a movie. For longer distances he used buses, taxis and trains. He said a nice perk of never owning a care was all the money he saved.

My grandfather died in the late '60s. If he was alive today, he might own a car. Transit today is not what it was in my grandfather's day. For instance, the taxis that my grandfather used were Mercedes. They were very nice cars unlike some of the dirty cabs I've taken here in London.

My nephew, who has lived most of his life in New York City and Chicago, got by without a car until he moved to Hamilton. Living in Hamilton he needed a car. He bought a little Ford Fiesta. When he moved back to Chicago he took the little car with him.

My nephew is very lucky, he had free parking available to him in Chicago. This made keeping his car a reasonable decision. Now that he owns a car, he drives. He drives a lot. He no longer takes public transit all the time, as he once did. You see, there are certain fixed costs associated with car ownership. These costs --- for example, insurance and depreciation --- do not change all that much whether you drive your car or not. Day to day, the costs that concern my nephew are the immediate ones, like the cost of gasoline. This makes driving seem less costly than taking public transit. Often, it isn't, but it is a great illusion.

I know driving my Volkswagen Jetta TDI has cost me about 84-cents per km. That includes all out-of-pocket expenses. If I keep my Jetta long enough, like something approaching a decade, I may get the cost per km down to about 35-cents. On a day to day basis, I only think about the cost of diesel fuel. My Jetta only costs 8.3 cents to cover a km.

In other words, when I drive downtown today, it actually costs me $8.00. If I keep my Jetta long enough, the cost drops to $3.30. But the cost today feels more like 78-cents; The cost of the diesel fuel.

There's a lesson here. If public transit is to work, we must keep people from even owning cars. This sounds tough and I'm sure it is but it is possible. Sometimes it is even possible to get a car owner to use public transit, if it must be truly competitive with the car.

I know this because I lived in Toronto for awhile and I almost always took the subway, the streetcar or the bus. The traffic in T.O. was hellish and pull out of the traffic mess and one quickly discovers that parking is yet another horror story.

And here is the next lesson: If you want to get folk out of their cars, don't invest too heavily road improvements. And let the car owners worry about parking. If finding parking is tough, well tough.

And the last lesson flows from the first two. If public transit is competitive with the car, if driving a car is slow, expensive and irritating compared to public transit, folk will gladly take the bus, or whatever is offered.

And, this is the funny part. It is possible that one of the best things that can be offered folk to get them out of their cars --- is a car. Think autolib', the electric-car sharing scheme being tested in Paris, France. And here is a link to an article from this past April: 100,000 rentals!

Autolib' in Paris, France, was in the testing stage when last I checked.

If this has got you interested, here is a short video looking at both the bike and the car sharing programs in Paris.