Robert Paterson's Weblog

Your worst Nightmare - Advertising that you have never seen before

I thought I had seen everything - but no - this is the most humiliating experience that I have ever seen - it's also a brilliant ad - you will never forget this

The Future of Public Broadcasting - The 3 Musketeers on Up to Date on KCUR

Todd Mundt, Andy Carvin and I being interviewed on what is going on in public media by Stephen Steigman

Who are we now?

“We somehow evolved from a culture of entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation to a culture of, in a way, mediocrity and bureaucracy,” Mr. Schultz said.

Remind you of anyone?

Foreshadowing our Future?

" ... Rome is hollow at the heart and one day she will come crashing down. A hundred years ago, it must have seemed that all this was forever; a hundred years hence - only the gods will know ... If I can make this one province strong - strong enough to stand alone when Rome goes down, then something may have been saved from the darkness. If not, the Dubris light and Limanis light and Rutupiae light will go out. The lights will go out everywhere. "

Dubris (Dover) Roman Lighthouse

From The Silver Branch by Rosemary Sutcliff - foreshadowing the fall of Rome and the transition that will occur in Britain.

I acknowledge that some of my readers feel that I am being unfriendly to America when I talk like this. I am not. I just have this feeling that we are terrible SYSTEMIC trouble. Some have asked - "What can we do?"

I think the answer is found in Sutcliff's later books in the series that root the Arthur legend in a realistic view what what life might have been like in post Roman Britain.

What she portrays are a group of people who work hard to keep the light alive in their area - the essence of Arthur.

There is no help from Rome. There will no longer be subsidies from Ottawa or Washington. The global transportation system collapsed. Our future will be determined by how self sufficient we can become.

We have to be able to grow our own food and to make our own energy - both are linked.

All our talk about farming misses this critical part. If we lose the knowledge and then lose our access to the global food system - what then?

If we don't work to become self sufficient in energy and we lose access to oil - what then?

How exciting might it be instead to make this our context and to join together as Lantern Bearers to become self sufficient

The Farm Crisis - Read my Lips - If you sell to the system you are F****d

The CBC talk today about the paradox of a rapidly expanding market for Organic Food and falling prices for producers.

The organic market is growing 15 to 20 per cent a year, and is worth about $1 billion in Canada, not including exports, farmers at an educational seminar in Charlottetown by the Agri-Food Canada Organic Network and the Canadian consulate in Boston heard Wednesday.

They also heard more of what they already knew.

"Everybody else is making their margin, but the farmer's got to be the one that takes the bite, that's my concern," said Alan Hicken, an organic fruit and berry grower.

Matthew Holmes, managing director of Canadian operations for the Organic Trade Association, came to the meeting to encourage farmers to join the organic market, despite narrowing profits. Eighty five per cent of the Canadian market is filled by American farmers.

"We need you. There's an immense demand; we can't meet all of the demand globally, as well as within Canada or the North American market," said Holmes.

But much of the new demand for organic food is coming from mainstream supermarkets, and those supermarkets have made it clear they are not interested in paying premium prices for organic foods. A recent television ad featuring Galen Weston, chair of Loblaws, and touting organic baby food at the same price as regular baby food was a focus of conversation at the meeting.

How can we all be so stupid? No matter what you do, if you sell into the "System" they will squeeze you.

All around me I hear farmers in distress hoping for maybe higher prices some time in the future. YOU WONT GET THEM.

It's simple. Coffee in Kenya to the grower 20 cents a pound. Coffee in the Supermarket $26 a pound. Why? It's all about power. 2 buyers thousands of producers.

The ONLY WAY farmers will get paid what they deserve is when they build a system where they can sell direct to consumers and where they own this system. Hard to do but the web will help as it is in all other areas where the middlemen own the show.

Thinking about any other direction is a waste of your time and will condemn you to failure.

Sorry about the rant - it is so hard to sit by and have spoken to the industry here on PEI for nearly 15 years and still see everyone so lost.

Contact versus Content

....... we have not even to risk the adventure alone; for the heroes of all time have gone before us; the labyrinth is thoroughly known; we have only to follow the thread of the heropath. And where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god; where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves; where we had thought to travel outward, we shall come to the centre of our existence; where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world." Joseph Campbell

Both how she speaks and what she says illustrates what I mean by Contact vs Content.

Why did Dr Taylor rock TED this year? Because she showed us the difference. She starts where we are all most comfortable - using the left brain. She offers us a lecture. But then she switches. She shifts to her right brain and then magic happens - we are invited in. She makes contact. The room becomes one. I the video watcher also join her and I am shaken. She becomes what she is talking about and I became part of her.

I have been so moved that I have kept returning in my self to the place that she created at the end of her talk. The experience keeps reverberating.

Why is this important? Because we want to rebalance ourselves to be also able to connect. Julian Jaynes asked why all our older stories have Gods speaking to us and then after a while they stop. His answer is this. That when we learned to read, we had to give our left brain prominence. Perhaps prior to reading, our right brain was the lead. Now after 10,000 years of literacy, the left brain is triumphant. Hence mayabe our disconnection to ourselves and to all others.

What is the real difference between Senator Obama and Senator Clinton? Left vs Right hemisphere - Connection vs Distinction.

What I am hearing is a deep yearning for many to reconnect. Why - because it feels good BUT also because our problems are so complex that they cannot be solved by a linear left brain process. Why do so many fear and hate Obama - because this is an alien concept.

What will be the future of public radio and TV? Those that can connect and those that cannot. We live at a time when content = noise now. Only by turning up the volume can any thing be heard. None of our problems can be solved either in this world of separateness.

The great opportunity to connect is to make contact. The great opportunity to make a difference is to make contact.

Dr Taylor shows me that this means - what about you?

Biofuels for PEI - Rob's Vision

Today the government agreed to move on a biofuels strategy. What could it be like? Here is a press release that I imagined before the last election. It is more than Biofuels - it is about Energy Independence. Do you think we can do this?

Globe and Mail Online - APRIL 1 2019 - JANE NBOKO
PEI FARM INCOME BREAKS ALL RECORDS

The revolution is here. In the midst of a global melt down in farming all over the world, PEI gross farm income broke through the $1.0 billion mark for 2017.  Not only is PEI’ s farm sector booming but PEI is now 100% self-sufficient in electrical power and is 40% self-sufficient in fuel. With oil prices after the Iran war at $200 a barrel, energy self-sufficient PEI has become one of the most attractive places to live and work in North America.

Last year the population reached 212,000. Most of the new immigrants are young.

This shift in demography has eased the aging crisis that is confronting most of the developed world. At the centre of all of this is the “New Farm” a product of the Independence PEI Plan.

Governments and farmers all over North America and the world now routinely visit PEI to find out how they too can do this. Today we are making the same pilgrimage ourselves.

The Webster operation in Kinkora is a typical “New Farm”. We visited the patriarch, George Webster who still lives on the property of the farm that is now run by his sons and nephews. We met him down the road from the home farm in Maple Plains where we can see in microcosm the secret of the PEI revolution.

“As you can see on this part of the property we have 2 V90 turbines that are part of the Kinkora Energy Corporation’s (KEC) 12 V90’s. The Webster Farm has a direct income stream guaranteed for 20 years of $40,000 from these two turbines and, as an owner of the KEC, we receive a dividend each year from the larger system.

The KEC also put the old Scales Pond hydro plant back into action. Our local wind farm and Scales Pond supplies the wider Kinkora area with all its electrical power. With our wind and hydro, Kinkora was the first community on PEI to have 100% locally owned electric power. We are well on our way to be independent in biodiesel and in local heat as well.

This year we are growing a new high yield canola. We sell the canola to the KEC crushing plant in Kinkora on the site of the old Esso where it is made into biodiesel. We buy all our biodiesel from KEC - so in effect we buy from ourselves

Each Watershed on PEI has a small scale oil plant so our logistics costs are very low. KEC is in turn part of the PEI Independence Energy Alliance (PIEA) fuel network. All our Watersheds and our local watershed based businesses are connected in an Island wide energy network. Across the Island there are straw and methane operations as well.

You will see that all PEI school buses are painted green. This is how we started our biodiesel business. We used the demand to supply our school buses and to heat the schools to kick start our local fuel system.

Adjoining the school, and sharing its heating system, is the Kinkora Food Corporation (KFC) that is part of the PEI Independence Food Alliance (PIFA). Here we locally process food from farmers in our watershed for sale to the school system and to our local market. This was all part of our plan to give our kids a healthier start in life and to create a local processed food capability. Our children get access to a real breakfast and a real mid day meal. Parents and local resident can order meals online that are delivered
by the bus on the way home. All Kinkora residents own the KFC so we feed ourselves with real food grown locally.

When we started the menu was very modest. We stuck to the kind of food that my granny used to cook. By doing this we could use 90% local ingredients and we could use the skill of the typical person in our community. But as we learned more, we have expanded beyond a simple and narrow range to the kind of menu that everyone here can enjoy. Chef Michael Smith has been huge help as has the Culinary in town that has outreach courses for our staff.

We use the green buses not only to deliver our kids but to deliver everything and everyone locally. It’s funny how blind you can be. We had this local transport system sitting in full view! The school buses now work 7 days a week & 12 months of the year moving people and goods around locally. We also have an Island wide shuttle service. Kinkora is linked into the rest of the Island by a fleet of biodiesel and hydrogen buses. The hydrogen comes from the larger wind farms on the North Shore. It’s like having the trains back! We have cut the use of private cars down by 40%.

Kinkora is busy again. My granddaughters, and nearly all my young nieces and nephews, work now locally. Kinkora had become a dormitory and we had been losing our young to the west. As so many local businesses related to energy and food have sprung up, we can now employ most of our residents in good jobs here back in Kinkora. It is becoming a real community again.

We farm quite differently now. Our fields are much smaller than they were 10 years ago. They look more like they did when my father farmed. If you look over there into the lower ground, you will see trees and a water meadow. This is not wasted land. This is part of the local water buffer system that the Webster Farm also gets paid for. The Webster farm is a member of the PEI Water Alliance (PWA). PWA is responsible for all water on PEI and it has an attractive incentive plan that pays me and other farmers to improve water quality. We got this idea from upstate New York that has been paying its farmers for years now rather than having to pay for a water filtration system. Being a good land steward has become a good business.

Oh I nearly forgot - the potatoes! We still sell some of our crop to the processor. But now even he has had to radically change his business. Since McDonalds responded to pressure about how the Burbank was affecting the environment, the Green Fry, made from earlier maturing varieties, has become the new standard. We harvest now in late July and have a cover crop sown in time for winter. My fry business is about 25% of my gross and only 15% of my net. McCains also process my table stock for the Food Trust
that sells high end fresh pack to the supermarkets. With so much food now grown locally, there is not much of a market for bulk potatoes anymore.

My potato costs have dropped by 50%. Because we don’t grow the Russet now, we use smaller & less expensive equipment. We only store for very short periods now. My input needs are way down as both the pest and disease pressure has dropped. The PEI Independence Investment Fund (PIIF) helped finance the conversion on much of my potato storage into a pellet factory and a natural fuel storage facility.

We are running a series of tests on coppicing and on fast growing species that we can convert to pellets.  I have high hopes for this new line of business as we will have to reduce our traditional wood burning. Pellets are a lot easier to use and to store and the incentives for all Islanders to move to pellet is building the market. Over 50% of Island homes heat at least partially with pellets now.

We are doing so well because most of our market is internal to PEI. While the outside world is reeling, we  are making a good living by providing each other with what we all need the most.

What a change for a man my age. It all began back in 2008...........”

Lantern Bearers in a Dying World?

credit: Excalibur movie poster art by Bob Peak http://www.BobPeak.com (painting among other original movie poster classics by Bob Peak will be on exhibit in LA june 2009 details at: http://www.BobPeak.com )

"We are the lantern bearers, my friend; for us to keep something burning, to carry what light we can forward against the darkness and the wind".

I am just completing the 4th book by Rosemary Sutcliff on Roman Britain. They are making me feel very sad for they foreshadow and then tell the story of the end of a great civilization.

Civilizations can and do fail. They fail after a long series of shocks that seem to be recovered from and then one day - yes in a day - they fail.

The underpinning of our modern world is our financial system. For all those who are worried this week abut other things I am reminded of the thought that I read somewhere - It is foolish to worry about your haircut if you are in the tumbril on the way to the guillotine.

The Fed's job right now is to prevent the house of cards from crashing. It's not abut saving the bankers it is about saving us. I am not sure that it can be done. We can save One Northern Rock and One Bear Stearns but not hundreds.

My friends in the news rooms - there is only one news story right now - the fall of Rome.

Maybe all some of can really do is to do our best to pick up our own parts of the pieces. This was the only avenue left in post Roman Britain. This is the Arthur Legend in reality - an attempt to keep alive the embers of the light for another time in the future.

Success - Lonliness - Sex - Spitzer - Public Media

David Brooks really nails it today as to why so many Type A men - who are so often found at pinnacle positions - get themselves into so much trouble.

To get so high on the greasy pole, they have to use other people. Often they use their own families. But at some point, having lost any semblance of intimacy, they feel lonely. Deeply lonely. Sex gets confused with intimacy - that authentic sharing with another that we all hunger for. Sex is confused with power - for using power is all they know. Sex is seen as a transaction - for all life is a transaction to this type.

So what has this to do with public media Rob?

It is this - our need for connection - a connection that makes us whole and human - is I think the greatest need that we all have. It is so great that people like Mr Spitzer will risk everything to find it.

Transactions - read "mere Content" - don't do it.

Stations and producers that can offer "Contact" - a relationship to the program/station and between listeners/viewers that enables them to feel connected are going to do very well.

I see signs of this with Bryant Park. My day makes it hard to listen as much as I would like. But the Twittering between the staff and between the core Diner Listeners and between all of us is creating a kind of "family" where I am interested in the lives of the others and where I am feeling this connection. This is just a baby step now but you know it when you feel it.

I think that we now live in a world starved for real intimacy. This hunger catches up with us - we must satisfy it before we die - is this what mid life crisis is all about?

All real economies are based on scarcity. If intimacy is the most needed and most scarce part of life - then those that offer it will do well.

Is media intimacy a product of having a large budget? I don't think so - maybe the opposite? As we have more resources, we add in more inhuman process.

So here maybe a landscape ideally suited for Public Radio and TV - The big guys cannot follow you here - for they are the transactional world.

Jeffrey Dvorkin on NPR and Ken Stern

When I first arrived at NPR I was introduced immediately to a fellow Canadian - Jeff Dvorkin. There is a tradition of Canadians in Public Radio and TV in the US. I was told by others that Jeff really knew what was going on and that if I wanted to know more asking Jeff would be a good place to start. Well Jeff is no longer at NPR but he has not stopped being thoughtful.

Here is his take on Ken and on the issues confronting NPR and the system