Norfolk County, known in the day as the centre of Ontario’s once profitable tobacco industry, has a new claim to fame. Now it is home to the province’s first Alternative Land Use Services project. Started in 2008, the pilot made the successful jump to a permanent project last fall.
The project did not make the conversion easily, as our writer Mary Baxter notes in this month’s cover story starting on page 16. The idea of buying ecological goods and services is finding traction elsewhere in Ontario but facing hurdles as well. On top of that, there is a lack of clarity as to what is a true ALUS project, and proponents contend that the lack of a government buy-in is holding back the ecological goods and services concept.
We’ve written about on-farm solar energy production in the past, but there has been so much interest we thought it deserved more coverage. The feed in tariff program that took off like wildfire seems like a new thing, but writer Mike Mulhern found it dates back to the late 1970s in the United States when there was an energy crisis and conservation was on everyone’s lips. His story looks at what works in getting medium scale projects off the ground. Some good advice from installers is to plan ahead a year. That story begins on page 53. As this magazine was being prepared for press, Hydro One, which services the majority of the province’s rural communities, was reportedly declining microFIT applicants in some areas the opportunity to connect because the grid couldn’t handle their production. For continued coverage of this development, see our website at www.betterfarming.com.
Our European writer Norman Dunn reports on the dioxin scandal on the other side of the pond. In a note accompanying his story, he writes “the revelations about shoddy testing of feed are getting more alarming every day.” But he notes that the story is changing fast.
Planting season isn’t much more than a month away in some parts of our coverage region. With that in mind we decided two publish two timely offerings by crops writer Pat Lynch. The first of those columns is on page 42.
This month’s Crop Scene Investigation scenario is a little different! It involves a particularly interesting situation as related by Huron-based crop consultant Mervyn Erb.
The story is on page 38. Erb took additional photos of the corn, which are available for viewing on the Better Farming website (www.betterfarming.com). We invite readers to submit their solution to this puzzle. In an upcoming issue, we’ll bring you Erb’s theory and a collection of reader solutions. Be sure to get your answer to us by March 10 to make our publication deadline.
Send your solution to Better Farming at: rirwin@betterfarming.com or by fax to: 613-678-5993. This time all the answers (not just the correct ones) will be pooled and one reader will win a Wireless Weather Station. BF
ROBERT IRWIN & DON STONEMAN