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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1992-11-18, Page 5Arthur Black Don’t bet your thermal underwear on it I'm no Oracle of Delphi (are you kidding? I bet on Ross Perot and the Braves in five) - but I am prepared to make one fearless forecast. I can state without fear of contradiction that if you spent July and August in this country, you have one weird summer to look back on. Actually, that's more of an aftercast, I suppose, but safe as a Robbie Alomar slide, no matter how you call it. The summer of ’92 was a strange one, whether you weathered it in Bella Coola, Brockville or Bonavista Bay. For Canucks west of the Rockies it was Death Valley Days - hot and dry followed by lots more hot and another truckload of dry. Rivers parched up to a trickle and lawns simply curled up and died. Homeowners in Vancouver actually underwent water restrictions. Water restrictions? In Vancouver? That's like rationing sand in Addis Ababa. As for TROCIQ (stands for the The Rest of Canada Including Quebec) it was a great summer. For newts and mallards. International Scene By Raymond Canon Ginseng — more precious than gold Over 2,000 years ago the renowned Chinese philosopher Confucius praised the curative powers of a herb called ginseng and this plant has remained a part of Chinese medical lore ever since. Even today it is added to many of their favourite prescriptions and, what is even more interesting, it has become a livelihood for some Canadians who, even a few short years ago, could not even spell the word let alone know what it was. You may be aware of the fact that Latin is still frequently used as a means of identifying specific objects. We use it still in the fishing industry to indicate precisely what fish we are catching out of the Great Lakes and the medical profession uses it as a similar method of identification. Thus the Latin word of ginseng is “panax schinseng” and it is worth looking at both words. The word “panax” comes from the same root as “panacea” or “cure-all” while schinseng, from which our word comes, is the Chinese name for the medicinal root of the plant. Whatever the origin of that word, the fact remains that educated Chinese all over the Orient, still place as high a value on the root as did their worthy ancestors and they pay a higher price for it than any other similar drug on the market. Thus it is that they arc anxious to obtain the human-shaped root and to process it. The root is subjected to a For us, it rained and rained and rained some more. Waterskiing became immensely popular. Especially on the Trans Canada. Regina became the marine Mecca for sports tuna fishing. Across the nation, golf pros issued complementary snorkels with every rented golf cart. As a progressive, forward-thinking citizen, I was not personally surprised this summer to discover wild rice germinating with abandon in deepest southern Ontario. But on the hood of my car???? It was a revoltingly damp summer for TROCIQ, but at least we had the satisfaction of knowing WHY we were going through it. Mount Pinatubo, right? That uppity geological zit on the cheek of the Philippines? The one that erupted last year, spewing noxious plumes of smoke and other airborne pollutants all over the heavens, blotting out the sun and causing all manner of meteorological upsets, including our lousy summer. Right? Well... perhaps. Some experts finger Mount Pinatubo as the source of our summer miseries, but others blame it on El Nino - a kind of rogue ocean current that's been playing havoc with the fisheries in the South Pacific for the past few years. Still other experts attribute our bizarre weather to fluctuations in the Jet Stream overhead. Meanwhile, diehard traditionalists in the process which transforms it to a clear translucency and the net result is a product that can fetch a higher price than even gold. It was at least 200 years ago that some visiting American took a look at the Chinese root and was certain that something very similar was growing back in the part of New England from which he came. He returned home, dug up a few hundred pounds of the American root and set out on his next trip to China with his find. The story has a happy ending; he returned home a far richer man than when he set out. There is, however, one difference between the two. Among the best Oriental ginseng to be found is cultivated in Korea; it is the red variety whose net effect on the body can be described as stimulative. It is probably this characteristic which has resulted in ginseng often being considered as an aphrodisiac; the Chinese certainly consider it as such. The North American variety is white and its net effect, unlike the Korean version, has been labelled as soothing. Given the hectic pace which exists in so many aspects of our society on this continent, this attribute of ginseng might not be such a bad thing after all. It may come as something of a surprise to you to learn that ginseng has grown as an industry in Canada and more specifically as a substitute crop for tobacco. As you probably know, the tobacco industry has gone downhill of late and tobacco farms are not worth nearly as much as they used to. Part of the problem is that many of the substitute crops are capable of producing a return per acre of only about 30 per cent of that generated by tobacco. Another problem is that the soil is not suited for just any crop. However, some enterprising farmers have discovered there is gold in growing ginseng and have switched to include it in their crop. scientific community harrumph “Nonsense!” They're convinced that the blame for our strange summer can be laid at the doorstep of the famous Global Warming Phenomenon - specially the Greenhouse Effect that they've been warning us of for the past couple of decades. The unvarnished truth is somewhat simpler. No one really knows why we had such a lousy summer! Alan Robock, who specializes in volcanic eruptions, explains “We don't know all the possible effects volcanic eruptions may have, which is not the case ... or if it is, somehow, there's no theory to say how it would do that.” To which an informed layman can only reply: “Huh?” Doctor Gerry Bell, a meteorologist who specializes in the effects of El Nino was a little more helpful. “It was anybody's guess” says Dr. Bell. “Meteorologists have no idea how long the effects will linger.” And this year? Well, many experts are predicting a long, hard winter for all. Hudson's Bay stayed frozen all summer, they point out. Squirrels are laying in larger than usual nut stashes. Woolly caterpillars are, well, woollier than usual. All of which, the experts predict, means a lough winter ahead. Maybe. But I wouldn't bet my thermal underwear on it. If you think at this point that ginseng is great for what ails the tobacco industry, let me tell you that cultivating the plant is not by any stretch of the imagination for the financial faint-hearted. Let's look at a few figures. The plant requires three years growth before it can harvested; during that time it will have cost you $70,000 and there is not one cent of income. Much more cultivation is required than for tobacco; 15 times as much fumigant and 10 times as much manure. To top it all off, ginseng is sold on a free market; there is no such thing as a marketing board. In short your outlay is about $1/4 million before any revenue is realized. When it does come, however, it is lucrative. About 2,000 - 2,100 lbs. of ginseng are harvested per acre and, at the current price of about $70 per pound, this gives you a gross of almost $150,000 or double your investment. To make the pot even sweeter, the market price has been climbing steadily over the past few years, from $40 per pound to a current $65- $75. That is not to say, however, that it will continue that way. Not surprisingly, most of the ginseng buyers come from China and pay cash on the spot for their purchase. All this is manna to the farmers involved but they realize that they have to live from one year to the next. Furthermore, Canadian production is only a fraction of that of the state of Wisconsin which turns out about 2,000,000 pounds annually. This gives you some idea of the size of the market but at what point does it become flooded? That and the high cost of entering should be enough to make people realize that ginseng is not for everybody. For those who have done their homework and have cashed in on the demand, it is indeed something of a panacea after years of uncertainty in the tobacco patch. The Short of it By Bonnie Gropp Transition years meet today’s needs With growth inevitably comes change. But, often change is not easily accepted. The other evening at F.E. Madill Secondary School in Wingham, parents, students and educators gathered for the first meeting of the Madill School and Community Association. Part of the discussion concerned the transition years. Provincial legislation that will see the restructuring of Grades seven, eight and nine, was begun in 1988 by the Liberals and is being continued by the ruling NDP's. It came about because the ministry felt, after looking at such things as student retention and equity, that there were problems with the way that system was working. One of the issues being looked at as part of the transition years is the removal of the credit system in Grade nine, otherwise known as de-streaming. De-streaming is the dissolution of advanced, general and basic levels for students entering secondary school. The thought behind this is that with all young people having no choice but to enter secondary school on the same level for one year they are given a period of adjustment. The proposal brought screams of outrage from some trustees and educators who were involved when streaming came in as the right approach decades ago. But what may have been right then may not be now. These feelings arose for the same reason most controversies do— communication problems. With information nights being held at area schools in December and January and through the media, it is hoped this will change. While de-streaming has dominated much of the restructuring talk, the real goal is to prepare young people so they are better equipped to confront the economic and social changes they will be facing. There is no question the move will present a big challenge for teachers as education will be placing more emphasis on the forms of knowledge and the dynamics of learning as opposed to actual subject areas. There will be strategies for dealing with different children. It makes sense to me in theory, though there are certainly parts of it I question (I suppose I wouldn't be in this business if there wasn't). But, I remember thinking about my own choices in Grade nine, and the outcome. In my final elementary school year, I was given the option of choosing advanced, general or basic levels. There was a stigma and a pressure attached, that I'm sure many 14-year-olds aren't ready to face. We were told we were laying the foundation for our future and heaven help us if the workmanship wasn't up to snuff. On top of these choices, however, most of us needed only to worry about whether or not we had a date for Saturday night. Unlike now, there was little thought there may not be a job for us when we were through. The issues that compound our young people's lives—AIDS, violence, race relations, to name only a few—were either unheard of or miniscule by today's standards. Also, it is believed that students now in grade seven will upon reaching adulthood likely hold seven to 10 different jobs with retraining interspersed. They will need to be skilled at decision making, working with people and problem solving. Obviously when we look at the way the world is turning, like it or not, there probably needs to be changes.