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p 4 weekersder dlay 20l5 v stutf current wisdom is bottoms up theres an emerging theme on the provincial election trail parties are discovering that local is more account able we in the community newspaper business have always known that local coverage and local opinions are relevant to peoples lives people are where its at and therein lies the solution for our current pressing issues have you noticed that the liberals and conservatives both want to take waste management back to the regional level they believe thats where the best economy will take place but we know it goes even more local than that it goes to each consumerhouse- viewpoint holder and his or her dispos al habits same goes for health care all of a sudden district health councils are being politically recognized as an efficient and worthy power centre in determining fund ing for community health services local hospitals are recognizing their ultimate responsibility in delivering service thats sustainable provincial bodies such as the ontario hospital association may be impediments to fun damental change but again the solution is even more grass roots than decentralized centres we the users must become more responsible in the demands we place on the public sys tem or well burst the boun tiful balloon then theres education the royal commission on learning found that the development of a public input process would make the school system more accountable better managed and efficient it recommends spending more money in the class- canigoover to 01mmi house mother sy fa adam by brian basset iflmalfbtnepartness aubtowivkwipiouger the kirs w bed tonight 6e64mlthaugt ftivjeresotltsej semeottme kits t0demvii7h1hem irwraiwavs wiped cwr ill have 1he stamina ot- 10 mem that stilt leaves noushokvofvwst ahcwe moms room rather than top down spending on administration the province is mandating programs such as junior kindergarten which are polit ically popular but not sus tainable at the same time as reducing basic funding the solution to crime isnt more and thicker prison cells its recoognizing and tapping the potential of those at the bottom of the success chain current wisdom is bottoms up we need politicians who can help get the province out of the way in waste manage ment health care and educa tion and put the people back on the job the tribune weekender edition a hetrolaod community newspaper patricia pappas publisher joann stevenson edjtortochiet andrew hair general managereditor debrawelleb director of advertising barky goodyear director of distribution vivian otceo badness manager pamela nichols operations manager glxwitvnjk au enquiries 8402100 fax 6405477 6244 main sl slouffvlllc ont l4a1e2 uxbfttobr all enquiries 8529741 sisszwrsl s brock 8tw uxbridge ont lbp1p4 the tribune published every wednesday and saturday is one of the metroland printing pub lishing and distributing group of suburban newspapers which includes markham econo mist and sun ajax pickering news advertiser auroranewmarket era banner barrie advance brampton guardian burlington post citjparent collingwood connection etobicoke guardian georgetown independentacton free press kingston this week lindsay this week milton canadian champion misissauga news northumberland news north york mirror oakville beaver orillia today oshawa-whitby- clerington this week peterborough this week richmond hiltthornhillvaughan liber al scarborough mirror todays seniors con tents not to be reproduced without written per mission from the publisher permit 1247 the farms coming back when i was a kid growing up in 1 confess toronto one of my favorite getaways was the farm it was a couple of hours drive west of hogtown out in the southwestern ontario bush north of fergus a hundred acres of pasture wheat fields and woodlot and it was home to my uncle roy and my aunt belle no to no stereo ou lamps for illu mination it was what is referred to nowa days as a mixed farm which is to say my aunt belle and uncle roy raised a little bit of every thing chickens cattle wheat barley apples potatoes onions turnips beets hay strawand incidentally 10 kids not to mention the byproducts of same extralarge eggs with yolks the color of a bahamasjsun- set creamy warm milk right out of the bucket beefsteak thick as a land developers billfold and homemade bread steaming fresh from the oven it was a wonderful way of life and as doomed as the ojibway and huron ways of life it replaced generations earlier today farmers arewell not farmers for starters they call themselves beef producers or soy bean specialists or poultry rais ers my uncle roy kept a herd of six holstein milkers he called by name modern dairymen lose that many cows in a bad month specialization is the name of the game today my aunt used to send the kids on egg hunts around the barnyard wed try and figure out where flossie or pansy had decided to lay their eggs this week in a modern egg operation the hens have no place to hide any thing including themselves they live in wire cages piled in tiers their vitaminized anti- bioticed hormonegoosed food pellets come by on one conveyor belt and their eggs leave on arthur black another increasingly it seems that modern farms arent farms at all theyre proteincarbohy drate factories run by chart- watching computerpunching biological engineers theres just one small problem with the brave new agricultur al world weve created the managers of these hitech opera- tions arent much better off than the farmers of my uncles era theyre still working twice as hard as most folks still getting bushwhacked by bad weather worse markets and predatory bank managers and theyve been demoted from farmer husbander and cus todian of a plot of land to fore man of a branch plant in an uncertain economy it makes for a pretty depress ing prospect or it would if i had nt happened to see the results of a survey recently published by the trends research institute of rhinebeck new york heres a quote from the survey a confluence of natural social and economic forces is sowing the seeds of a backtothelarid trend that will bloom into an agricultural revival in north america the forecasters at the institute say that the trend back to the farms is now only in its infancy but will flourish throughout the next century as industrial age factory farms are supplanted by kitchen gardens and micro- farms my uncle roy and aunt belle just slightly ahead of their time