Spud Economics 101

Sad to see the farmers of PEI suffering from the market glut and low prices for potatoes. Here are some acreage stats on the reality of the North American market from this agricultural consultancy firm:

And speaking of potatoes…

  • Slight dip in US potato acreage since 2003
  • This year, total potato acreage across the United States is down 7% – or 88,300 acres. This year’s total is 1,184,300 vs. 1,272,600 last year.
  • Dramatic 5-year shift in potato acreage distribution in Canada
  • since 1999, P.E.I.’s potato acreage has shrunk by 7000 acres.
  • All other provinces’ potato acreage has increased by 68,000 acres.

How introducing only a cap at the present 106,000 acres in addition to the practice of crop destruction in such a small part of the total continental market will effect the desired change is not clear to me – but it is not like there is really an answer to the whole situation.

Yes To Inquiry

The appeal period will have to run out before any decisions are made but this statement by the son of one of those lost in the Air India disaster is entirely correct:

“This was not an aviation accident. This was not an in-flight accident,” said Susheel Gupta, an Ottawa lawyer who was 12 when his mother died on board Air India Flight 182 on a June morning in 1985. “This was murder, pure and simple,” said Gupta. “Murder in any system of justice demands just that – justice. And if the murder of 329 innocent people … doesn’t deserve a public inquiry, then we ask: what does?”

Robots On Wheels

Here is Hitachi’s entry into the robot WARS!!! race and one that points out an actual use for the Segway concept. Why have all those chunky walking technology worries like nightmarish future soldier Honda’s Asimo.

Hitachi had a press conference introducing them yesterday:

Two wheel-based Emiews, Pal and Chum, introduced themselves to reporters at a press conference in Japan.

How nice. It kind of looks like Pal…or Chum…is holding a flamethrower Swiffer-brand duster to get at those difficult areas.

National Six-Pack XI: 10W30 Dark Ale, Neustadt, Ontario

10w30

The trouble with Ontario is really expressed in its beer distribution system: it is too big. Half the nation lives here, half the office space and half the bears as well. It goes from the arctic to the Carolinian forest, from the western prairie to a few miles from Montreal. The effect on beer distribution is a focus on localization so that if you want to find one of the beer from the handful of brewers in the province you have to drive. Driving on the weekend for other reasons, I took the opportunity to test the LCBO stocks in Guelph, north on highway 6 just past the Sleemans Brewery, four hours drive to my west.

This beer was worth the drive. A dark ale that actually tries to be something other than a darkened lager like the quite foul Waterloo Dark. Dark ale is not really a style so much as a place there by brown on the lighter side and porter on the richer. It is a small place and this beer settles there well. The body is heavier than the average Canadian ale – as the automotive oil name would imply. It is however fairly fresh with bright, if twiggy, hops cutting quite a sweet rich malt profile. Within the malts there are grainy pale malt flavours as well as some chocolate. Amongst those there is also a treacle note and perhaps a little hint of licorice. A brighter and lighter Theaksons’s Old Peculier? Here is what the advocates say.

Perhaps not the most amazing ale but – for those named dark – the best I have had from Canada.