Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1990-03-28, Page 5THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 28, 1990. PAGE 5. How come nobody apologises for weather? “Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it”. Everybody thinks that Mark Twain wrote that, but he didn’t. A pretty well utterly forgotten scribbler by the name of Charles Dudley Warner penned that observation ‘way back in 1897 in an editorial that appeared in the “Hartford Courant”. Somehow, history bungled it, and now the whole world thinks the credit belongs to Mark Twain. That doesn’t surprise me. Weather is a treacherous topic best untrifled with. But the hell with it. It’s a blustery, cruddy late Spring date; there’s a pair of worm-lusting robins hunched over on my front lawn like a couple of winos on a streetcorner; there’s a leak in my base­ ment, a draft under the back door, my cat’s got spring fever, which means I have to get up every three minutes and forty-five seconds to either let him out or bring him in ... and I feel like picking on somebody. So let’s beat up on ... The weatherman. You know what bugs me most about Please pass the quinua BY RAYMOND CANON I think most of us, at least those in the 39-plus category, have eaten one or more foods during our childhood that are no longer to be found on the table at meal time. However, by and large, we eat the same foods as we did when we were young although they may be done up at times in very fancy packaging. However, trying to reintroduce something that has gone out of world diets can be painfully difficult as some agricultural scientists are discover­ ing. The foods in question are amaranth and quinua, two names which I am sure will be totally unknown to almost 100 per cent of my readers (well, all three of them). However, in early days both of these, along with com and beans, were basic foods in the New World. The scientists which I mentioned above would like to bring them back since they note that people in the world get most of their calories and protein from only 20 species, which they consider to be a dangerously small selection with which to feed a planet whose population is expected to double before it finally levels off. Quinua grows best high up in temperate climates. It is, like wild rice, obtainable in speciality food stores in both Western Europe and North America but even the farmers who grow it consider it to be little better than a weed. Amaranth is similar to quinua but is more versatile. It, too, suffers the opprobrium of farmers, in Zimbabwe, which can use all the help it can get, they consider it to be nothing better than pigweed. At the equator it can be grown from sea level to 10,000 feet and, as a grain crop, it does best in semi-arid places with a warm growing season. In some places it is grown for its leaves which have a taste somewhere between spinach and arti­ choke. American agricultural researchers in Pennsylvania have provided amaranth seeds and technical help to countries in Central and South America, Africa and Asia and have tried to persuade them that the plant can be a great help in countering malnutrition in drought-ridden places. weathermen? Not that they’re wrong all the time. As a matter of fact, they’re not. Their forecasts are reasonably accurate - at least as reliable as Old Man Maidle’s down the road. He keeps track of squirrels’ acorn stashes and the thickness of caterpillar pelts. He also has a whole bunch of agricultural rhymes about the weather. Rhymes like “Crick don’t flow; watch fer snow”; and “Cows in the clover, summer’s ‘bout over.” I figure Old Man Maidle’s weather poetry is dead accurate about 50 per cent of the time - which is about the same as the guy with the Magic Marker on TV. No, it’s not the weather forecasters’ accuracy ( or lack of it) that bothers me. It’s the fact that when they are wrong, they ... never apologize. It’s true! They can tell you on Friday that Saturday’s going to be a great day for a picnic, and you can go to the park with your little hamper of egg salad sandwiches and thermos of Freshie and wind up clinging to a floating picnic table in a deluge that makes the Johnstown Flood look like a sunshower. You get home that night and turn on your TV and does Mister Blow Dry Pompadour apologize for his goof? Nah. He smiles and banters about the Blue Jays with the Sports Jockette and points a well-manicured (dry!) finger towards the low pressure trough over Baffin Island that is going to, he says, make Sunday a ‘great day for a picnic’. They point out that it has a higher protein count, not to mention fibre content, than wheat, com, soyabeans and rice. Its performance borders on the spectacular in resisting drought, heat and pests. However, the word back from such places as Kenya is that until amaranth is accepted in North America, it will not be accepted in Africa. One statement from this area very much to the point was that, “once Kellogg uses it as a mix, there will be no problem in Africa”. With that sort of comment in mind, American researchers have set about trying to make it a more acceptable plant. They have developed seeds that produce a crop of uniform height; the plants also have a sturdier stem and stronger roots than they used to. There still remains the problem of the size of the seed; it is so small that it is difficult to handle them; the solution seems to be to put on a coating similar to the one being currently used for lettuce and carrot seeds. Another problem is the yield. American Threshers explain THE EDITOR, On March 14, The Huron Pioneer Threshers and Hobby Association Inc., met with the Council of the Village of Blyth, to review our proposals for projects on the Blyth Fairgrounds. At that meeting a letter listing our projects was read by the village clerk and copies were given to all present. The project proposals were reported accurately in your newspaper, but we also had some comments in the letter which were present­ ed with the intent that it would prompt all parties involved to assume responsibility for their actions and co-operate in the successful completion of the project in a manner that no innocent people get hurt. We respectfully submit this portion of our letter for the information of the public. “We understand the ball diamond project has gone over budget and the parties involved, appear to have defaulted leaving the Village of Blyth with the responsibility to complete the project. “Our agreement with Blyth Council was that if a fence were erected, we would require a 20’ warning track and a 20’ gate in outfield, to allow tractors to use the diamond area during the show, without damaging the sod. If council decided not to erect a fence - no warning track is required, as equipment can be driven out, without going through a confined area. Once - just once - I’d like to see the weatherman pop up on my TV screen right after the newscast, all decked out in manacles and prison greys. I’d like to hear him confess incompetence for missing yesterday’s blizzard, plead guilty to lousy forecasting in general, then commit the weatherpersons equivalent of hari kiri - falling on his telescopic pointer in front of the Canada Weather Map. It won’t happen in my lifetime of course - but I would have settled for watching TV in Britain the night after the devastating hurricane of 1987. This really happened, folks. Following his newcast, the BBC news anchor turned to weatherman Ian McCas­ kill and said, on live TV “Well, Ian you chaps were a fat lot of good last night.” Ian defended himself meekly, pointing out that they had forecast a “rather windy, showery airflow”. “No kidding” responded the news anchor witheringly. “If you can’t forecast the worst storms for several centuries .. what are you doing?” Poor Ian McCaskill. He and all the other British weather forecasters really didn’t have a leg to stand on .. particularly when it was revealed that weathermen in France, Spain and the Netherlands had forecast the hurricane, using data obtained from the Weather Centre in ... Reading, England. If only Ian had double-checked with Old Man Maidle.... farmers can grown about 2,400 lbs. of wheat to an acre but only 400 lbs. of amaranth. In spite of this, the high price charged for it in health stores makes it a marketable commodity. Farmers in the U.S. are earning $200 an acre in gross income for amaranth compared with $120 for wheat and $100 for sunflower seeds. Americans usually take to something with a vengeance when they decide to grow it and so caution is being urged. Farmers are being told to grow it on a small scale at first until they have learned to harvest, dry, transport and clean the crop. The same farmers are being advised to find somebody to contract for part or all of the crop before it is even grown. In the poorer parts of the world farmers do not grow crops for health foods since nobody will pay extra for it. For this reason the main effort being made is to increase the yields to the point where it is no longer a marginal crop, planted only as a last resort in order to offset the effects of any drought. position “Doug Scrimgeour, of George Radford Construction Limited, stated at the site meeting on September 11, 1989, that the screenings for the warning track would probably have to be trucked from White­ church and the trucking would be costly. In his proposals presented following that meeting, the cost of the screenings was excluded from his contract. “We feel that the Grants systems in place such as PRIDE have helped organiza­ tions like ourselves to provide facilities for public use and do not wish to see the grant system put in jeopardy. We realize if one group defaults, it places all as suspect, so we are prepared if required, to provide security for 150 per cent of the cost of our matching funds to guarantee, that any project started will be completed, or that funds are available to complete the project. “We have made contingency plans for rental of additional land in case the ball diamond is not completed for use by September, but we sincerely hope with the co-operation of all parties involved that the problems can be resolved and the facilities are available for public use at the earliest possible date.” James Sloan, President, Huron Pioneer Threshers and Hobby Association, Inc. Letters Saving the earth THE EDITOR, A Global Celebration! Earth Day - April 22, 1990. It’s a chance for several million people and many countries around the world to actively demonstrate their com­ mitment to living harmoniously on this wonderful planet. The 20th anniversary of Earth Day could be the start of the “Turn Around Decade” where we learn to control our actions for the health of the earth. We read daily frightening stories about what we are doing to our biosphere. It seems as though our environmental report card has just been sent home for signing and the marks are poor. Good times have been synonymous with growth, spending and waste. Our seemingly endless appetite for material goods has placed enormous strain on the earth’s resources. Many problems are surfacing (over-pop­ ulation, global warming, acid rain, the greenhouse effect, rainforest, devastation, Elmira’s cancer causing water, tire fires, oil spills, garbage problems, PCB’s, air pollution, the ozone layer hole, phos­ phates, soil erosion) and many more. Will it ever end? We can feel depressed and the problems too large for the individual! I say cheer up! It is my belief that every individual can make a difference and we can solve these problems - if we act quickly and decisively. Let’s give earth credit. It is very durable, resilient and has the ability to rejuvenate itself with our help. 1990 - it is the time to start NOW. We have tremendous power if we act collectively. More and more we read about people and organizations that are tackling the problems - making a difference. People are asking the right questions, joining environ­ mental groups and exerting pressure politically. Even politicians now realize that a strong “save the world” platform will win elections. This year on Earth Day, April 22, think globally and act locally. Stop being a spectator. Become involved individually or as a group. Everyone can help - women’s groups, church groups, seniors, schools, girl guides, boy scouts - anyone! By working together we can preserve our fragile bisophere. HOW??? •use the 4 R’s - recycle, reduce, reuse, recover •lobby for blue boxes in your community •support our Environment Minister, Jim Bradley, on his strong stand against polluters •write letters of concern •join an environment group •plant trees to reduce carbon dioxide emissions •drive only when necessary and be sure your oil isn’t leaking •buy products with less harmful packag­ ing. Don’t patronize restaurants that use excessive packaging, especially styrofoam •start a compost pile •alter consumption and waste disposal practices in order to reduce the burden on landfill sites •conserve energy and our fossil fuels •don’t use spray cans with CFC’s •ask guest speakers in to inform your organizations •clean up a park or a gully •become informed about ways you can help These are only a few of the ways we can give the earth “A Hug”, show her our love. She is down but definitely not out. My challenge to you is to become one of the several million that really do care! Get involved on April 22 and stay involved. Remember, this world is not ours, we only borrow it from our children. Wayne Stewart, Science Co-ordinator Huron County Board of Education. Thanks-from the heart THE EDITOR, On behalf of the Heart and Stroke Foundation, I would like to thank all those who gave so generously to the Heart and Stroke Canvassers in the south of Grey. Many thanks to Velma Locking, Nancy Vanass, Teuni Smith, Clare Veitch, Ste­ wart Steiss, Pat Gillis, Annette Lewington, Judy Lee and Keith Williamson, who gave so willingly of their time to canvass. Your generous support has enabled us to surpass last year’s goal. Thank you again. Jo Ann McDonald Captain of Grey South RR 2, Brussels, NoG 1H0