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.

ReThink London: Biogas fueled buses

Click on the link and read how buses in Stockholm, Sweden, are running on biogas. One of the bus depots has a biogas filling station with a direct gas line from a sewage treatment plant producing the biogas fuel.

This is worth investigating.
Swedish Environmental Protection Agency: Biogas used in buses

Digesters in Ulsan, South Korea

As the Swedes learn more and more about making and using biogas, they are taking advantage of their unique knowledge and exporting what they have learned, for a fee, around the world. Scandinavian Biogas worked with the city of Ulsan, South Korea to improve its biogas production and increase its treatment of food waste at a city wastewater treatment plant.

Another new source of power for buses plying urban routes is the fuel cell. Sau Paulo, Brazil, is getting 25 Ballard fuel cell powered buses. There are 21 more going to Europe.
A Ballard fuel cell powered fleet of 20 buses in British Columbia is said to be the largest hydrogen fuel cell-powered bus fleet in operation anywhere since it went into service approximately 2-years ago. It is the first such fleet to hit (and surpass) one million miles (1.6 million kilometers) of revenue service.

The buses went into service in January, 2010 prior to the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

Read more here: Fuel cell bus fleets.

London experimented with natural gas powered buses but rushed into the purchase of the vehicles and then rushed out of the natural gas experiment just as quickly. They didn't do their homework and it showed. (I know as I covered the story for The London Free Press. Well, I shot the pictures.)

Are noise curfews really that rare?

The tweet by The Free Press reporter read: You know how you could make downtown #ldnont really great? Ban young people. And fun. This is a great first step: http://www.lfpress.com/news/london/2012/06/19/19897556.html

And just what promised to kill all fun in downtown London and chase young people from the core? I followed the link and learned a civic committee responding to complaints from downtown residents voted to keep London's 11 p.m noise curfew for downtown festivals.

Now, there were some minor modifications. The committee agreed to allow the existing 90-decibel volume limit to be exceeded by 3 decibels for up to 10 seconds at a time to allow for musical crescendos. And there is now a 15 minutes grace period after the 11 p.m. curfew is passed. (This is actually rather generous.)

This will keep young people from going downtown? Have young people changed that much since I was young. Heck, I recall noise curfews and they were not game killers in the '60s. That said, I do have a great memory of the Amboy Dukes, with Ted Nugent leading the assault, loudly breaking the sound barrier while playing at a teen night club in Windsor, Ontario.

The Motor City Madman played well past curfew, the police were called but The Nuge wasn't intimidated. The music didn't stop until the wildman put his guitar through the wall at the back of the stage. Even that violent move didn't stop the music. Nugent continued loudly grinding his broken guitar against the jagged edges of the smashed drywall until he had broken every amplified string. Then, he strutted off the stage.

So, do any other cities or towns have noise curfews? I decided to do a Google search.

• The first hit told me in Vancouver, B.C., the PNE (Pacific National Exposition) will no longer book electronica concerts into the Forum. No concerts. No noise. No time period exempt.
• Next, I learned that Rock the Garden 2012 at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, MN, was restricted by a 10PM noise curfew. The last group obeyed the curfew by not playing an encore. They played right up to 10PM and wound up their set.
• In Houston, TX, the city is considering revisions to its noise ordinance. Presently they bylaw allows up to 65 decibels during the day and 58 at night in residential areas. Non-residential areas are allowed 68 decibels at all times. Businesses or individuals with a permit are allowed 75 decibels from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., Sunday through Thursday – and Friday till 11 p.m. Under the proposed revisions, critics warn someone could potentially end the music and dancing at the annual Greek Festival with a single phone call. A downtown resident could stop a world-touring music artist at International Festival despite the fact that they have a sound permit issued by the City. Historic venues that have hosted many touring musical acts could be a thing of the past. Local musicians would be left with few if any places to perform.
• Even Seattle, WA, the home of grunge, limits outdoor concerts to a decibel level of 95 dB, lasting up to one minute as measured fifty feet from the source. Seattle, a creative city, according to Richard Florida, a city to be emulated according to The London Free Press, seems almost in sync with London.

An interesting thing about the Houston ordinance is that no initial complaint or evidence (decibel meter reading) is required before a ticket may be written. It is a judgment call left to an officer's discretion.

With over 53 million hits, I read a few more, and came to the conclusion that the London noise restrictions are not all that unusual.

What I don't understand is the hostility shown to those who have lived in the core area for years and are complaining about the noise pollution. The core is their home. They have a right to complain about a real threat to their enjoyment of their home. And rock music played at a level to rattle one's windows at midnight, many would agree, is a problem. These people spend 365 days, and nights, living in the core.

When I lived on Wilson Avenue, right across the river from Harris Park, my attitude would have been, "Hey, I live here. You don't. You, Mr. Drummer, are a guest in my neighbourhood. If you don't like the rules, take your music and go. Maybe you can find a park in your neighbourhood. Go and hold the concert there. Say, isn't Weldon Park in Arva?"

Please, allow me to answer Joe Fontana's EMD questions

I checked out Mayor Joe Fontana's website today. I discovered a post titled: Statement regarding EMD – February 3, 2012.

Screen grab from Mayor Joe Fontana's website.

In his post Mayor Fontana tells us:

• I cannot understand why Caterpillar has chosen to announce the permanent closure of the EDM facility . . .
• I cannot understand why Caterpillar would not return to the table and negotiate . . .
• I cannot understand why Caterpillar has not stepped up and acted in good faith and demonstrated respect for its employees.

Please don't take this wrong, Mr. Fontana, but the answers are as close as the Internet. Since you and your staff seem to have a problem using Google, let me be so bold as to supply you with the answers and some links.

When Caterpillar bought EMD the closure of the London assembly plant was already well into the planning stage.

Electro-Motive Diesel president and chief executive officer John S. Hamilton appeared before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials Hearing, on April 20, 2010. At that time, he bragged a great deal but he never got around to mentioning London. [Note: Caterpillar and Progress Rail signed the agreement to purchase EMD on June 1, 2010. This is months after CEO Hamilton made his appearance.]

Concerning high speed rail, Hamilton said if given the chance EMD "would make most all of the critical technologies [in La Grange, Indiana]. We have the equipment. We have 1,600 American workers ready to do this work and we would recall workers currently on lay-off to meet the additional workload. In accordance with Buy America, we announced last week a search for a facility in which to perform final assembly. [This would be the Muncie plant that is now in limited operation.]

With these words the death knell was sounded for the London operation.

Caterpillar did not return to the table because there was nothing to negotiate. Keeping the London plant open while the U.S. operation was being brought up to speed was appealing ---  but only if it could be done at a bargain basement price.

When the London workers didn't go along with the hefty cuts proposed by Caterpillar, the plant closed. No one should feign surprise or claim to not understand what just happened and why. It wasn't hard to fathom. I blogged on the eventual shut-down almost a full month before the closure was officially announced.

If you'd like to have links to my relevant EMD posts, here are a couple:

• Are London EMD workers facing a Hobson's choice?
• EMD CEO's talk fails to mention London

You wonder why Caterpillar acted as it did. You ask, why didn't it "demonstrate respect for its employees?"

Mayor Fonatana claims ignorance.

Companies like Progress Rail and its parent, Caterpillar, are bringing third world employment to North America. David Olive, of The Toronto Star, looked at this development in an article: America, the world's sweatshop. Why would you expect London workers to be treated any differently than their American counterparts?

As I suggested in early January, the locked out workers in London were given a Hobson's choice. No matter what decision they made, in the end they were going to find themselves out of jobs.

I believe it is important that you understand what went down at EMD. Your ability to turn around the economy in London may well depend on it. I do hope I have been able to help and that you no longer are puzzled by the EMD closure.