Wednesday, July 26

A friend has just come back from a study tour of farms in the UK.  He had another one recently in Canada and he comes back with great stories to tell.  One farm he visited in the UK had 300 acres of poly tunnels, where the farmer grew berries and cherries.  300 acres sounds a lot but the margins are tight and volume counts.  This particular farmer has 300 employees, all Polish. His rationale is that the locals won't do the hard work.  

Our farmers here in Tasmania say the same: it's hard to find farm hands who are prepared to deal with the early mornings, if they're milking, or the all-weather expectations, or the hard physical labour, for not very much money.  The answer in the UK is immigrants and, in the US, it's Mexicans and Filipinos who are the pool boys and the hotel maids.  

Another report in this morning's news is that a recent study is showing a dramatic drop in the sperm count of males from developed Western countries, including The US, Australia and New Zealand.  Is this natural selection at work?  Has Western civilisation evolved to the point of steady decline leading to extinction?  Will we go the way of the dinosaurs, unable or unwilling to work, and unable to reproduce more of our species?

19th century Europeans and 20th century Americans thought they were masters of the universe.  Who will take over that mantle in the 21st century?  It seems a change is on the way.