Craig Hunter stepped up, impromptu, as our speaker today. Craig spent 30 years with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs advising farmers on crop diseases, pesticides and fertilizers. Post retirement he worked with the The Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers’ Association. Always on the front line, he has seen the joys of successful treatments and harvests but also experienced "heart felt" the devastation that crop failure reaps onto farm and families in our area.
Its no coincidence that today is the 115th anniversary year of the founding of Rotary by Paul Harris in 1905.
Sergeant at Arms, John Valley had taken us through the Four Way Test. But it struck me that Craig (unwittingly) was speaking directly to those elements. "Is It the Truth", "Is it Fair to
all Concerned", ... .
"Memories from my career - different than yours - but similar!" (cont'd below)
"Learning from the old guys" because they lived it everyday."
* Fresh out of university, the Red Banded Leafroller had became a problem pest in apple orchards. But no text book or university course ever advised farmers when to spray. Craig, his boss and team were housed in a little white house on the Queensway near where the Comfort Inn is today. There was an apple tree on the property. His boss climbed the tree in the early spring, identified an egg cluster, a tiny scale on the underside of a leaf, marked its location and monitored it every day. When the eggs hatched - he then told the farmers to spray!
* Another year a farmer came - rattled that the branches of his cherry trees were so limp that they could be "tied into a knot" - off they went to orchard. One look and he advised the farmer that he had over-sprayed the orchard, but that it would recover.
"Honesty"
An Agribusiness advertised that its treatment would increase crop yields 5%. In nine out 10 farms it did. On a tenth farm there was no apparent increase from the controlled acres and Craig was asked to verify the results. Investigation by others and Craig's initial review answered no questions. But "feet up the lane way" with the farmer, asking if anything was "different", the farmer admitted that to conserve time and fuel cost he had combined a seaweed nutrient mix with the treatment. I think I got this right, but it seems that the fungus or pest first thrived on the seaweed nutrient, "yum yum", then in turn next inflicted its normal damage to the crop. Applied properly the seaweed nutrient is still in use today.
*Witchcraft?
Craig was called to Brighton, ON. Patches of cauliflower (a local crop at that time) in the farmer's fields, were suffering a strange black death. Craig drove down the road and could see the black patches in the fields. Out of the car, into the field, with a big knife he cut a few cauliflower heads in half - black from the center out. "feet up the lane way" again, he asked the farmer if he had experienced any large rainstorms in the last 10 days. Farmer said yes - with lightning! Conclusion and result - each of the dead patches of cauliflower had been hit by lightening and burnt/boiled/killed the plants. But good news - the rest of the crop is fine! (Grape crops are susceptible to the same fate if lightening strikes the wire running/supporting a row of vines.)
* Fresh out of university, the Red Banded Leafroller had became a problem pest in apple orchards. But no text book or university course ever advised farmers when to spray. Craig, his boss and team were housed in a little white house on the Queensway near where the Comfort Inn is today. There was an apple tree on the property. His boss climbed the tree in the early spring, identified an egg cluster, a tiny scale on the underside of a leaf, marked its location and monitored it every day. When the eggs hatched - he then told the farmers to spray!
* Another year a farmer came - rattled that the branches of his cherry trees were so limp that they could be "tied into a knot" - off they went to orchard. One look and he advised the farmer that he had over-sprayed the orchard, but that it would recover.
"Honesty"
An Agribusiness advertised that its treatment would increase crop yields 5%. In nine out 10 farms it did. On a tenth farm there was no apparent increase from the controlled acres and Craig was asked to verify the results. Investigation by others and Craig's initial review answered no questions. But "feet up the lane way" with the farmer, asking if anything was "different", the farmer admitted that to conserve time and fuel cost he had combined a seaweed nutrient mix with the treatment. I think I got this right, but it seems that the fungus or pest first thrived on the seaweed nutrient, "yum yum", then in turn next inflicted its normal damage to the crop. Applied properly the seaweed nutrient is still in use today.
*Witchcraft?
Craig was called to Brighton, ON. Patches of cauliflower (a local crop at that time) in the farmer's fields, were suffering a strange black death. Craig drove down the road and could see the black patches in the fields. Out of the car, into the field, with a big knife he cut a few cauliflower heads in half - black from the center out. "feet up the lane way" again, he asked the farmer if he had experienced any large rainstorms in the last 10 days. Farmer said yes - with lightning! Conclusion and result - each of the dead patches of cauliflower had been hit by lightening and burnt/boiled/killed the plants. But good news - the rest of the crop is fine! (Grape crops are susceptible to the same fate if lightening strikes the wire running/supporting a row of vines.)
Farming is a significant part of our economy. Border controls are absolutely necessary to keep pests, fungi and invasive species out of Canada and protect us from economic and social harms.