Of all the seven bank accounts of a farmer the one that I enjoyed adding to the most is “continuous education!” Because our family was dairy farming and trying to grow enough crops to keep them healthy and productive, we usually attended as many of the information days where dairying, crop production, soil health, and management were the topics, as possible.
As we attended info sessions over many years in different towns, countries, and places from a university to sitting around a kitchen table, we heard some topics discussed many times. Many scientists, university professors, and farmers would have the same opinion on a topic. But there were several times when someone would come up with a completely different conclusion with enough backup information to make you think about what the true conclusion was. It usually took some very difficult, pointed questions before some disgruntled speaker either walked out in disgust or admitted that their conclusion could be wrong.
Often what we learned on a farm tour was seeing what didn’t work was more important than seeing something that did. Some of what we were told in university 50 years ago to be the gospel in how to farm, was later proven to be totally wrong.
It used to be that what scientists had spent a lifetime working on was accepted as a true conclusion. Until about the mid 1960s, basic research was carried out at our best universities and funded with our tax dollars by the federal and provincial governments.
Because most successful, peer-reviewed trials can take several years to complete; often, it was after the government changed that the positive results were released and the newly elected party claimed the success even though they voted against the funding when the previous party was in power. A change was made in research funding provided by the government. The new way of funding research was by implementing shared funding. Under this new shared funding the government would pay half the cost if the other half was found in the private sector. Large for profit corporations (like big pharma) jumped in to provide the other half, but wanted control of the research! As a result, some research projects were never completed or the results published.
The government could claim that research was doubled and the private industry got half their research paid for by us taxpayers. Another major change evolved when those large corporations with deep pockets could hire the best graduates from university because they usually paid higher wages than the government did.
Many of Canada’s best scientists are from other countries where wages are much lower than in Canada. A drug used on dairy cattle was almost accepted by the federal government of Canada, except one of these great scientists from another country under threat of losing his job leaked some results to a senator who was once the minister of agriculture in Canada. The results did not prove the safety of the drug. The scientist lost his job but was later reinstated. The drug company volunteered to not sell the drug in Canada if further research was stopped.
Today the most controversial subject among scientists is how climate change should be addressed. The two largest camps of scientists addressing climate change are the climate change scientists working for big oil and the scientists from all over the world who believe that time is very short to address the rising temperatures that are melting our ice packs, and causing huge swings in storms, droughts, and floods. About 40 years ago all scientists, all political parties, and even climate change scientists from big oil agreed that climate change was and would be a major world problem. Then climate change became a political issue and a former employee of a large petroleum company ran for and became the Canadian prime minister. It was easy to persuade the Canadian public that addressing climate change would be very expensive, although a fraction of what the cost will be today. Once in power there was a huge effort to discredit the proposals of the world of scientists who agreed that immediate action must be taken to stop and reverse global warming. When did you see almost all of our snow in Pontiac County disappear in January?
We have noticed a revolving door that moved top paid private individuals from industry to influential positions in government and some influential government employees and electees move to private industry. What influence and information did that person take along? Anyone who is near the place where political decisions are taken, has noticed the extreme lobbying and dollars spent lobbying to try to sway the decisions of our lawmakers.
Yes follow the science and be aware of where the scientists come from and where their salary comes from. We are but the custodians of our great grandchildren’s world!
