In this issue

180 Miracle rice and miracle locusts by Michael Allaby Th e geneti c vulnerabilit y o f th e world' s major far m crop s

170 Canada and the US energy crisis by Geoff Mains Th e US is lookin g t o Canada t o provid e fuels ; doe s Canada posses s enoug h an d wha t are th e politica l an d economi c implications ?

176 In search of bonanza by Peter Bunyard Can Britai n suppl y a significan t proportio n o f it s energy requirement ?

186 Propaganda for what ?

by John Adams Economist s refus e t o com e t o term s wit h th e irrelevanc e o f thei r assumption s

164 Falmouth flattened ?

by Robert Allen 161 News 167 Comment Th e energy crisi s

169 Gremlin 190 Down to earth Frying tomorro w

191 Gulliver in Automobilia 193 ^Conservation Society Populatio n Day

195 Friends of the Earth

196 Books

199 Letters

198 Classified advertisements

Publisher: Edward Goldsmith; Editors: Robert Allen, Peter Bunyard. Edward Goldsmith; Managing Editor: Michael Allaby; Associate Editors: John Davo/t, Jimoh Omo Fadaka, Gerald Foley, Lawrence D. Hills, Brian Johnson, S. G. Lawrence, Jean Liedloff, Andrew MacKillop, Charles Maclean, John Papworth, Graham Searle, Robert Waller, Richard W/'llson. All communications should be sent to The Editors, Ecologist, 73 Molesworth Street , Wadebridge. Cornwall PL27 7DS . Telephone Wadebridge 2996/7. All advertising enquiries to Interpress, 19 Anne Boleyn's Walk, Cheam, Surrey. Tel. 01-642 5826. Published by Ecosystems Ltd., registered office 73, Molesworth Street, Wadebridge, Cornwall, PL27 7DS and distributed by the Hachette Group, Continental Publishers and Distributors Ltd., 4 Regent Place, London W1R 6BH ; Telephone: 01 -734 5259; Telegrams: Alibrairi London W1 ; Telex 25114. Subscriptions to: The Ecologist, 73, Molesworth Street, Wadebridge, Cornwall PL27 7DS. Printed by The Garden City Press Ltd., Pixmore Avenue, Letchworth, Hertfordshire SG6 US .

€) Ecologist, May 1973

162

is chalky downland soil and it cost an average of £800 an acre.

The estates are managed by John Roantree, an agricultural chemist turned economist, who was born and brought up on a Derbyshire hil l farm. He has great sympathy for the undercapitalised small farmer and a deep concern for the effect of large-scale farming on local communities. English Farms owns an entire village—Brown Candover. The estates had been running down for thirty years and this is evident from the condition of the houses. Morale among the workers fell and those that could left to find other jobs. Roantree believes that farm workers must be given the best tools, the best working conditions and the best houses. The existing houses wil l be repaired and new ones built, but he believes the days of the tied cottage are numbered. From now on, farmers wil l build houses and sell them to their workers. He believes, too, that the wage disparity between agricultural and industrial workers will disappear by 1978, with a 93 per cent increase in farm wages.

The farms employ about 80 workers and the number tends to rise. There are three managers, three livestock managers, an estate manager, an accountant and a surveyor, John Mills, who draws plans for the farm buildings and supervises the contracting out of large jobs. Repairs and small jobs are done by the company itself, but some of the work is too extensive. There wil l be four covered cattle yards, 210 by 60 feet each, intensive pig units and 11, 250-cow dairy units, one to be built on the site of a derelict Wesleyan chapel. The Lyons group owns Atcost, the agricultural building company, but Atcost would have to devote one of its factories, at full production (600 tons of concrete a week) for months to meet the farms' requirements.

The farming wil l be monitored by the IC I computer at Billingham, but managers will be allowed considerable freedom to experiment. The plan is to devote most of the land to dairying, with a rotation of four years grass and one year arable, and put the remainder down to permanent grass to raise two 1,000 head beef herds. They have rejected intensive livestock rearing as uneconomic. A t present they use large quantities of artificial fertiliser, but once the farms are fully operational all