Quote:
Originally Posted by McKellarDweller
Aren't there long-term, multi-decade studies conducted on that land that can't be started from new?
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Yeah. The quote below gives a good idea of those considerations.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ottawacurious
From the article: Bold is my highlight. I agree with what Jeff is saying and I also agree with the above comment. How much does this matter? In science, you try to control all the variables and it makes it tougher when a new variable is added to the mix. How significant it is? To us uninformed folks, it seems pretty minor. To the scientists at the farm, doesn't seem to be minor for them. So, we say 'adjust', and they say 'we have 150 years of history in this specific field, it's not that as simple as adjusting'. How important is that specific research when where they plant will have other variables? I don't really buy the farms logic of significance either despite personally having a dairy farm background. Trees will grow around farmers fields. Shadows are a thing. Add it to your study and say "impact of shadows on growth patterns of soybeans".
"I have also pasted a screen shot showing modeling by Agriculture Canada demonstrating the reduced minutes of sunlight (including red spectrum light that is particularly important to the process of photosynthesis and that is more abundant when the sun is at a more oblique angle later in the day: it is helpful to know that there are 260,000 minutes of sunlight in an Ottawa growing season, not accounting for cloudy days).
The concerns are legitimate. As I understand the issue, plantings are not uniform throughout the fields in question: different varieties are planted within discrete small plots. If the sun moves across a field in a way that results in different levels of spectrum across varieties, it will be challenging to isolate the variables in determining which varieties are best achieving the desired scientific outcomes.
Bluntly, I believe that bigger concern being expressed is the future of the Farm. If the different levels of light can’t be accounted for through a regression analysis, the fields here are not at least so unique as to eliminate the potential to do the same research elsewhere. But as has been expressed to me, if the Farm’s research potential is nibbled away at how long will it be before its utility as a living lab is gone? When that day comes would the Farm simply be sold off for development? These are not wild-eyed questions. They are though, I believe, premature: even if the Taggart proposal is allowed to proceed it’s by no means inevitable that it will result in loss of the Farm"
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I don't think any of us are scientists who work in the agriculture industry. We don't know what's at stake. Maybe it is time to have a serious conversation on the future of the Central Experimental Farm. We could look at finishing the multi year studies, but start gradually moving the experiments elsewhere, like the Greenbelt or further out.
Long term, it might be worth considering redeveloping much of the farm, once all research moves out, or create a urban farming zone that provides food for locals.
For now, I don't think we can outright reject the arguments from actual scientist who work on this research. It's not necessarily NIMBYism, but there life's work.