Olde Posts Addenda (5)

  Since all of the news is "breaking" these days, here are some more stories which have broken and are related to older news items in MM.

War Is Also Bad For Animals
  Back in the spring of 2019 in MM I called to your attention the "Factlet" that in the fall of 1939 the pet-loving Brits chose to "put down" around 400,000 of them. The grim details are found in: Factlet (2) - The Brits and Their Pets.  Such an astonishing figure will need verification and it is found in a book mentioned in that post: The Great Cat and Dog Massacre: The Real Story of World War Two’s Unknown Tragedy by Hilda Kean.

   To the library of books about awful things that have happened to animals, another can be added: Humans and Other Animals in the Deadliest Conflict of the Modern Age, John M. Kinder. It is published by the University of Chicago Press where this description is found:
   A new and heartbreaking history of World War II as told through the shocking experiences of zoos across the globe. As Europe lurched into war in 1939, zookeepers started killing their animals. On September 1, as German forces invaded Poland, Warsaw began with its reptiles. Two days later, workers at the London Zoo launched a similar spree, dispatching six alligators, seven iguanas, sixteen southern anacondas, six Indian fruit bats, a fishing cat, a binturong, a Siberian tiger, five magpies, an Alexandrine parakeet, two bullfrogs, three lion cubs, a cheetah, four wolves, and a manatee over the next few months. Zoos worldwide did the same. The reasons were many, but the pattern was clear: The war that was about to kill so many people started by killing so many animals. Why? And how did zoos, nevertheless, not just survive the war but play a key role in how people did, too?"
The author of the book was asked five questions which are also available and answered in the related U of C blog.
  For a review of the book see: "With World War II on the horizon, animal keepers in cities around the world had to face one question: What would happen to their charges?" By Sophy Roberts, Wall Street Journal, April 18, 2025.

War Is Certainly Bad For Humans

   Although the Vietnam war ended fifty years ago, even those of you born in this century will certainly have seen at least one of the two photos provided in: "Napalm Girl" and "Napalm Girl" (Again). "Napalm Girl" is still alive and is living in Ontario. The photos mentioned can be seen in the posts above and will not be shown again here. In the second post, it is noted that questions have been raised about the "authorship" of the "Napalm Girl" photo. Since it was written, the questions have been addressed and the 97 page report is linked in this article:
"The Associated Press Won’t Change ‘Napalm Girl’ Photo Credit: A documentary called “The Stringer” called into question whether Nick Ut actually took the famous photograph in Vietnam. The AP’s year-long probe couldn’t prove otherwise," Scott Nover & Jada Yuan, The Washington Post, May 6, 2025.

The End of the Crickets

Like Buddy Holly They Are No More

   De Bono, one of the last of the local reporters, has been dutiful in his reporting on the demise of Aspire, the London cricket factory. I also have been devoted to this subject and a future historian will find in this post all they need to know about the failed aspirations of this London enterprise. I will offer first, the latest and surely the last cricket story which is provided by Mr. De Bono. Then follow the MM posts which are largely based on his reporting. I did contribute a bit about Kricket Krap, a by-product the Aspire folks may have overlooked. And, if you are still not interested I should mention that the company was seen to be part of a conspiracy. 
   Mr. De Bono is a professional and his titles are clearer and first sentences better than mIne:
"Cricket Producer in Receivership: City Plant Still Going as Aspire, Reportedly $41.5M in Debt, Seeks Buyer or Financing," Norman De Bono, The London Free Press, May 14, 2025.
"By Jiminy, London's cricket dreams have run into a financial roadblock as menacing as, well, a massive can of Raid."
  Now, here is one of my titles and you will likely spot the difference:

"ENTOMOPHAGY"
  I will skip my first sentence and go to the second paragraph by the professional:
 "Norman De Bono (the reporter) revealed that, London will become home to the world’s largest indoor cricket farm with Aspire Food Group opening a 100,000-square-foot plant here that will act as a launch pad to bring bugs, as food, to the North American market....At the plant, crickets will be hatched and grown on-site and will become a tasteless, odourless protein powder that will be sold as a food additive, and will also be used to make protein bars.
That post is the one that mentions Kricket Krap which is sold by a company in Georgia so you shouldn't buy any right now.
  Here is the post which reveals that this cricket business is just part of a scheme by Davos-types who want to force us to eat insects in communist Canada.  Crickets and Conspiracies.

Trashy News
  That is a more attractive title than "News About Trash", about which I have provided many posts since there is plenty of trash. The new title about trash is all you need and I will spare you the details which are hardly needed: "On a Remote Australian Island, the Birds Are So Full of Plastic They Crunch: Seabirds Have Been Fishing Plastic From the Ocean and Feeding it to Their Chicks, Researchers Say. One Bird Was Found to Have Ingested 800 Pieces," Victoria Craw, The Washington Post, May 16, 2025.
For more proof that the plastic is piling up and that there is now something called "sea snot", see below:
Flotsam and Jetsam
More Flotsam
More Trash
Marine Mucilage in the Sea of Marmara 
Polluted RIvers

The Bonus:
  I couldn't help but notice that one of the authors in the articles cited above provides an example of an inaptronym (Kinder in the article about killing) and another an aptronym (Craw in the last article about birds ingesting plastic.) About that subject see: Aptronyms. 
Amen

   

Dead Fish Headlines

 

More Signs of the Times

  You may have noticed many recent news stories with headlines such as the ones provided below. They all relate to dead fish in the Gulf of Mexico, the ones pictured above.

“Dead Fish Wash Ashore on Texas Gulf Coast: A Biblical Plague”
“Tens of Thousands of Dead Fish Wash Ashore on Gulf Coast Texas”
“Why Hundreds of Dead Fish Washed Ashore in Texas”
“Hundreds of Thousands of Dead Fish Are Washing Ashore”

  There are many others and I decided to troll and find more. A simple search yielded many from all around the globe. I will just provide the headlines because I am too lazy to type or paste the full source. Trust me, unfortunately they are all real and recent and there are many more than I have presented.

From elsewhere in North America:

“Dead Fish Washing Up on Shores of Lake Washington” (Washington state)
“Dead Fish and Other Aquatic Animals More Common in Summer Heat” (Michigan)
“Why Dead Fish are Washing Up on Michigan Shores" 
“Biologist Explains Uptick in Dead Fish Floating Along Riverfront” Paducah (Ohio River)
“Annual Spring Die-off of Lake Erie Fish Causing Concern”
“Dead Fish Spotted at Canyon Lake” South Dakota"
"Dead Fish Surface at Sunset Park Pond” Nevada
“Dead Fish in Grenadier Pond Being Investigated” (Toronto)
“Locals Still Concerned Over Dead Fish in RIver (Tenn.)
“Hundreds of Dead Fish Die From Spawning Stress in Iowa Lakes”

From the UK:

“Dead Fish Found Floating in Earlswood Lakes” 
“Ballinderry River: Fish Kill Investigated in County Tyrone”

From the Middle East and Africa:

“Authorities Probe Suspected Poisoning of Dead Fish in Sea of Galilee”
“Fish Deaths Near Rio Tinto Mine in Madagascar Dredge Up Community Differences”

From the Far East:

“Dead Fish Raise a Stink in Sursager Lake Once Again” (India)
“Thousands of Fish Dead in Dal Lake” Authorities See Thermal Stratification as Reason” (India)
“Almost 400 kg of Fish Found Floating Dead on Nam Ngao River” (Laos)
“35 Tons of Dead Fish Wash Up in China Lake”

Last, But Not Least - Australia:

“Dead Fish Found in the Darling River at Menindee”
“NSW Chief Scientist to Lead Inquiry Into Menindee Fish Kill”
“Millions of Dead Fish Wash Up Amid Heat Wave in Australia”
"Thousands of Fish Flushed Out of the RIver Murray"
“Tonnes of Dead Fish Pulled From Darling in River Cleanup”
“Thousands of Dead Fish Surface on Gold Coast”

I did not include magazines in my search, but here is one example that relates to the picture above" "Millions of Dead Fish Are Rotting in an Australian River," Margaret Osborne, Smithsonian Magazine, March 21, 2023. I also excluded stories about the fish killed in Ukraine - "“Footage Shows Dead Fish in Kakhovka Reservoir After Dam Flooding."

  The fish are disappearing fast along with farms in Ontario. At least we have our cricket factory. 

For more about our cricket factory see: "Entomophagy" and "Crickets and Conspiracies." 

For more about fish dying from industrial causes rather than unnatural ones see: "Holy Mackeral." 

For headlines that are less depressing see: "Headlines.

Crickets and Conspiracies

 

About the Conspiracy  

 I just uncovered a note to myself from back in the summer. In it, I had noticed a CBC article about a conspiracy involving the crickets now being raised in a factory here in good old London, Ontario. Apparently these little livestock are part of a "sinister totalitarian plot" promoted by a "cabal of shadowy elites" who "are trying to force us to eat insects. Seriously. 

   It is likely that you may have missed the article, so I will resurrect it here and present it as proof that conspiratorial thinking also occurs north of the border. As well, I will provide additional cricket information. The rationale for doing so is not obvious, so I will make it so. I have already written about our new cricket factory and about the consumption of them and other insects (see, Entomophagy.) If you combine the information already offered with what is about to be presented, you will have amassed a considerable amount of information about crickets. That will likely surprise you, but not nearly as much as I was surprised to learn that I am again writing about crickets. 

   What follows will not be so convoluted and will be presented like PowerPoint points, rather than in long, quirky sentences. Sources are provided, as usual, so you can go directly to more reliable and better written material. The short points follow this long introduction about the CBC piece.

The CBC Exposure

   The CBC title is a good one and should serve as a piquer (that is not a French word, but an invented one of mine. It should pique your interest.) "HOW A LONDON, ONT., CRICKET PLANT FOUND ITSELF AT THE HEART OF AN INTERNATIONAL CONSPIRACY THEORY, 7 DAYS AFTER THE FACTORY WAS BUILT, IT WAS FALSELY IMPLICATED IN A GLOBAL CONSPIRACY." by Colin Butler, CBC, Aug. 29, 2022. 

   It is quite long and well done. A timeline relating to the spread of the theory is offered as well as some comments by a professor here in London who teaches about conspiracies. A link is provided above, but here are some bits that may pique your interest. It's a conspiracy theory, so needless to say, the WEF, Jews and deniers of all sorts are involved. If they have their way, you will no longer be eating beef tenderloin.

   "The conspiracy theory has been circulating for months, amplified and published by hawkers of online misinformation in Canada and elsewhere in English and Chinese, often with the falsehood growing more sweeping or outrageous with each iteration. 

Those spreading the myth aren't just online bloggers and anonymous social media accounts. The falsehoods are also spread and tweaked by a number of political operators to suit their agenda, including the Alberta separatist movement and politicians like a sitting MP and a Conservative Party of Canada leadership hopeful. 

CBC News charted the history of how this conspiracy theory grew, from a single tweet by an Ontario construction company to being used as rhetoric in the Conservative Party of Canada leadership campaign. 

The timeline of the theory's growth

The entire thread begins simply enough with a tweet on June 10 from the Toronto-based construction company Ellis Don, announcing it had just completed work on the world's largest cricket production facility. 

The information was picked up a week later by Awakening Canada, a Facebook group that posts misinformation about the pandemic and conspiracy theories about the World Economic Forum.

The June 17 post was published shortly after midnight, asking: "Are you guys ready to eat some crickets welcome to communist Canada." It got 10 shares among the page's 4,600 followers. 

Eight hours later, the false information was repeated by Mike McMullen, a London, Ont., political candidate who ran for the People's Party of Canada in the last federal election, and a candidate for city councillor in this October's municipal elections...."

False info persists

Back on June 17, information about cricket consumption for humans continued to be shared on Facebook in Chinese on this page. According to Facebook's translation algorithm, followers are told the cricket factory is part of the "'Great Reset' agenda to stop the people from owning everything and implement the major food chain." 

On June 18, a similar post appears on Black Sheep Truth Media, a Facebook group that features numerous conspiracy theories with the caption: "The planned food shortages now offers a solution. Not to worry now, there will be plenty to eat folks."

The information has been reaching more people, with at least 292 shares and 164 comments among the page's 30,000 followers. It is also flagged as false information by Facebook after being singled out by independent fact checkers. 

Next, on June 22, the conspiracy is repeated by Tanner Hnidey, the vice-president of economics with the Alberta Prosperity Project (APP), a provincial separatist group. 

Hnidey posts a video to his personal Facebook titled "We're going to keep eating Alberta Beef!" 

"I do not intend to eat crickets or bugs for breakfast," Hnidey says in the video, falsely claiming the federal government is trying to replace beef with insect protein...."

On July 9, federal Conservative leadership hopeful Leslyn Lewis wrote a blog post with the heading, "Is animal meat being phased out?" that hints the cricket plant is part of a larger plan by the federal government to phase out meat.....

[The comment by the professor about all of this:]

"CBC News shared the timeline of the conspiracy theory's growth with Alison Meek, an associate professor of history at King's College at Western University in London, Ont., who studies conspiracy theories. 

She said the false information taps into a growing anti-government sentiment, playing on the fear and isolation many felt during the darkest days of the COVID-19 pandemic when authorities were imposing sweeping lockdowns and health restrictions that upended many people's daily routines. 

Meek said it's clear from the timeline that the false information was twisted and manipulated by each person who spread it, adding or taking away details in order to create propaganda to suit their own agenda."

--------------

   The timeline related to the cricket conspiracy has continued into this new year.  Here is the first paragraph from an article in the publication, American Thinker:

"Give up cheeseburgers, and eat bugs instead.  That's what the Davos elite want you to do, while they dine on $50 burritos and slabs of steak.  They would even have you feel good about being a meat- and diary-free insectivore.  To this end, they have carefully manufactured the cult of environmental alarmism, whose virtue-signaling adherents have been duped into thinking an ecological disaster is at hand." From, "Let Them Eat Bugs," Janet Levy, American Thinker, Jan. 23, 2023.

More Cricket Material

The Construction of the Cricket Factory

   EllisDon did construct the factory and the announcement is found here:

Aspire Food Group - New Production Facility. 

About Aspire - The Cricket Company

   The company website is useful and it announces that, A growing population and increasing demand for food and raw materials requires sustainable, scalable solutions that keep our world healthy.

Canadian Government Support For Aspire

   It is the case that the company received government funding in the summer of 2022. "Investment in State-of-the-art Facility For Aspire to Support Sustainable Food Production," Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, June 27, 2022.

"The Canadian agriculture sector continues to develop innovative ways to meet the demand for more sustainably grown food. Today, Francis Drouin, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, announced on behalf of the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, an investment of up to $8.5 million for Aspire to support the building of a commercial facility to produce cricket protein.

Alternative sources of protein such as insects provide an opportunity for Canada's agriculture and agri-food sector to more sustainably meet global demand for food. Aspire's goal to tackle global food scarcity led to its focus on edible insect production, which can provide high volumes of nutritious food with a low environmental footprint.

With funding under the AgriInnovate Program, Aspire will use the latest smart technology to create the ideal growing conditions for crickets at its facility in London, Ontario. This investment will allow the company to monitor and grow billions of crickets at a time, producing a nutrient-rich protein for premium health food and pet markets. The technology will also significantly cut Aspire's cost of production, making its products more attractive for sale in domestic and international markets."

WEF Support For Insect Eating

   Early in 2022 the WEF did publish this report: "5 Reasons Why Eating Insects Could Reduce Climate Change," Feb. 9, 2022. The link is provided. It is noted that the report has been under attack: 

Help us prevent the spread of disinformation

This article has been intentionally misrepresented on sites that spread false information. Please read the piece for yourself before sharing or commenting.

The World Economic Forum is committed to publishing a wide array of opinions. Misrepresenting content diminishes open conversations.

Our consumption of animal protein is the source of greenhouses gas and climate change.

Insects are an overlooked source of protein and a way to battle climate change.

The consumption of insects can offset climate change in many ways.

Thinking About Entomophagy?

   See this video offered by the New York Times: "The Joy of Cooking (Insects)," Tala Schlossberg, et al, (no date) 
Mealworm soup. Chile-lime cricket tacos. Charred avocado tartare with ant larvae.

"In the West, edible insects have long been the domain of food adventurers, with few other takers — even as billions of people elsewhere on the planet count insects as a part of their traditional diets.

But as we explore in the Opinion Video above, a growing tribe of environmentalists, academics and entrepreneurs are arguing that edible insects must enjoy a wider acceptance to help create a more sustainable global food system and save the planet."

"Salted Ants. Ground Crickets. Why You Should Try Edible Insects," Carolyn Beans, Washington Post, Nov. 27, 2022. 

"Sanchez encourages people to eat insects, in part, to lighten environmental footprints. Farmed insects produce far less greenhouse gas and require much less land and water than conventional livestock. Insects also generate more biomass with less input. Crickets, for example, are 12 times more efficient than cows at converting feed into edible weight.

Already, 2 billion people eat insects, according to one estimate — primarily in parts of Africa, Latin America and Asia. The practice dates back millennia. “I always thought, even back in the ’90s, someday, maybe, [Americans] will do this,” Sanchez says."

Thinking About Getting Into the Cricket Business?

   Here is an abstract of a market research report indicating billions can be made. 

"Edible Insects Market by Product (Whole Insect, Insect Powder, Insect Meal, Insect Oil), Insect Type (Crickets, Black Soldier Fly, Mealworms), Application (Animal Feed, Protein Bars, Bakery, Confectionery, Beverages), and Geography—Forecast to 2030’, provides an in-depth analysis of the edible insects market in five major geographies and emphasizes on the current market trends, market sizes, market shares, recent developments, and forecasts for 2030. In terms of value, the Edible Insects Market is expected to reach $9.60 billion by 2030, at a CAGR of 28.3% during the forecast period 2022–2030. In terms of volume, the Edible Insects Market is expected to reach 3,139,035.10 tonnes by 2030, at a CAGR of 31.1% during the forecast period 2022–2030.

The 237 page report will cost you $4,175 (US).

The Bonus (finally)

  For another example of conspiratorial thinking in London, see my post about 9/11.

  You probably failed to notice that the name of a food writer above is "Carolyn Beans", an example of an aptronym.

CRICKET

  For those of you who thought all of this might be about the sport, see my "Sports News From Elsewhere." You will learn that real money can be made in cricket. 

  If, on the other hand, you don't know a "googly" from a "lolly" see: "15 Corker Cricket Terms, Deciphered", Angela Tung, mentalfloss.com, May 5, 2016.

Edible and Available in Ontario

 The Pawpaw or Paw-Paw

   During my childhood (which extended into my 30s) I was incurious, or at least not curious about the things that counted. Those 'things' included just about anything not directly related to goofing off, playing around or drinking. In fact, I didn't even bother to learn much about the things required during those activities. If, like me, you were making spitballs during biology classes or aimlessly shooting your BB gun while walking through the woods, you may not know about the pawpaw tree. 

   I am trying to pay more attention now, and in doing so read this article which is why you are now reading about the pawpaw: "The Forgotten Fruit: Few People Have Heard of It. Fewer Still Have Tasted It. The Pawpaw, Ontario's Mango, Has A Rich Indigenous History, But a Vulnerable Future in the Province," Jade Prevost-Manuel, On Nature, Summer, 2022. The only thing I knew about the pawpaw was this lyric, which I probably remember from playing and goofing off: 

"Where, oh where is dear little Nellie?

Way down yonder in the pawpaw patch

Pickin’ up pawpaws, puttin’ ’em in your pocket."

   Did you know that a tropical mango-like fruit grew in Ontario and that it has been described as tasting like a custard made from a combination of mangos, bananas and pears - "nature's Creamsicle"? Did you know that a 'patch' of them could more properly be referred to as a 'grove', since the pawpaw grows on pawpaw trees and another grove of them has just been discovered in the Chatham-Kent area and you can find the PawPaw Woods near Wallaceburg. 

   Given that we have only recently noticed that most of our food comes from far away and may stop arriving, perhaps we should be paying more attention to things that can be harvested here (I will avoid for now the related subject which has to do with the fact that we have to hire people from far away to come and do the harvesting.) To assist you in learning more about our 'tropical' fruit, I will provide sources since most of what I know was revealed in the lyrics provided above.

Cricket Chow
  It was announced yesterday that our food security has been enhanced and that soon thirteen million kilograms of crickets will be processed annually here in London. The Federal government just provided $8.5 in assistance. You should know all about cricket eating because the subject was thoroughly covered in my post on ENTOMOPHAGY. I even mentioned the possibilities presented by the byproduct "Kricket Krap." Perhaps someone in the company or the government actually read it since I noticed in the article that: "Some of the byproducts from the Aspire operation processing will be sold back to area farmers as fertilizer..." ("By Jiminy! Feds Put $8.5M Into London Cricket Farm," Dan Brown, London Free Press, June 27, 2022.)

Sources:

   I skipped horticulture classes as well, but I have learned from my research that you need a couple of trees to start, the shelf life of the pawpaw is short and in Ontario they can only be grown in our "carolinian area." These sources will suffice:

   You can start, as usual with the Wikipedia entry. Then just go to Kentucky State. Cornell is also good - "Pawpaw - A "Tropical" Fruit for Temperate Climates," Guy K. Ames. Closer to home there is the Arboretum at Guelph and there is an Ontario Tree Atlas. If you want to grow your own see "Care and Stewardship of Pawpaw Trees," Ben Porchuk, Carolinian Canada. 

   There are many articles in sources close by. For example: “New Guide To Growing Forgotten Pawpaw Tree,” Sharon Hill, Windsor Star, May 29, 2020 and 

"Why an Ontario naturalist wants to Make Pawpaws Great Again: The once-popular fruit faded into obscurity in the 20th century. Now Dan Bissonnette is trying to bring it back, Daniel Sellers, Feb. 9, 2017, TVO Today. There is even interest among the Torontonians and this piece is quite good: "The Native Tropical-Tasting Fruit Can Be Foraged, But It's Easy to Grow Yourself," Edible Toronto.
Forage On!

   For Food History, see my magnum postus. 

The Land of Cockaigne

 

      Food Insecurity is a major topic of concern these days. The closing of the border and the disruption of supply chains has caused food shortages and higher prices and increased our awareness of the facts that we can't grow a lot of it here and, if we can, we don't have anyone around to get it out of the fields for us. That we might not have enough guacamole for the Super Bowl was of real concern to those who were already worried about not having enough avocados for their toast. But, I am not going to talk about Food Insecurity. If you are disappointed, you can read all about it in this report from the Library of Parliament: Covid-19, Food Insecurity and Related Issues. 

   Recently there has been a lot of good news about food in London as these headlines indicate: "Federal Funding Plants Seeds for Agri-food Growth in London," and more recently: "Innovative Factory Turning London Crickets Into Food Nets $17M Backing," by Norman De Bono, LFP, Feb. 18, 2021. It is a good thing that some of our land is now being used for food processing facilities, rather than for just supplying shelters for those retirees from Toronto who we see increasingly in our grocery stores. For really good news about food, however, one needs to look to the past, when we actually grew crops and constructed palaces out of grain and corn and used cereal in our architecture.

   To learn about such things, the book pictured above is useful. It "explores the background, history, development, and meaning of corn palaces, crop art, and butter sculpture from 1870 to 1930, concluding with a consideration of the implications of food art for today.” Such items were icons of abundance and provided visual evidence that we lived in a land of plenty. Definitions are provided: 
“A word about terms: corn palaces and their sister grain palaces are sometimes referred to as “cereal architecture.” These large exhibition buildings are covered inside and out with a cladding of grain and other natural products. “Crop art,” as the term is used here, refers to sculpture and smaller-scaled architectural forms such as street kiosks covered in grains, seeds and grasses. Butter sculpture is simply sculpture made from butter; it might be layered over an armature or carved from a solid block, but butter sculpture must be cooled in some manner to survive.” (p.x.)

Butter Sculptures

  

   The book focuses on the huge corn palaces in places like Sioux City, Iowa and Mitchell, South Dakota, but crop art also existed in Canada, as did butter sculpturing. One of the practitioners of this fine art lived close by and produced the "Life Size" sculpture made of butter pictured above. Simpson provides this information:

 “Ross Butler, a Canadian artist known for his lifelike animal sculptures, began working for the Canadian dairy industry in the 1940s, and in 1952 modeled an equestrian Queen Elizabeth II for a Toronto show. It drew so much attention that he was invited to re-create it for the coronation that summer in London. But the thought of so much butter being wasted in a sculpture drew angry newspaper letters from Britons, who were still facing food shortages. The anger was compounded by a newspaper typographical error that reported the sculpture was to be made of 15,000 pounds of butter rather than 1,500. The incorrect amount would have been enough to supply a week’s butter ration to 120,000 people. Butler and his sponsors defended themselves, first by correcting the typo, then by pointing out that the Canadian industry was shipping tons of butter to Britain as part of the celebration, and finally by assuring people that the butter would not be wasted but would be recycled. Nevertheless, it took considerable effort to offset the unexpected bad publicity.”

I suppose it would be in bad taste if the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair (upcoming virtually in March) displayed a lot of food that was being wasted.

   Lest you think this is all ancient history, having occurred in the early 1950s, there was another butter sculpture incident in Toronto sixty years later in 2012.  If you think a Life Size butter sculpture of Winston and the Queen was huge, imagine how big this one was. 

   That is a bust made of butter of the late Rob Ford, brother of the current Premier of Ontario, which was on display in the CNE in 2012.  The 230 kg depicts the Mayor reading a Margaret Atwood book, while resting against a steering wheel. Apparently Ms Atwood and others were upset about library funding issues and Ford had recently been chastised for driving while distracted.

But What About The Land of Cockaigne?

   I sometimes use trickery to try to get someone to read this blog. For example,  I wrote earlier about London's new cricket factory, under the heading ENTOMOPHAGY. The assumption is the reader will see such an odd word and peek at the post rather than go to Wikipedia, where there is, for example,  a good definition of  "The Land of Cockaigne."  It is written about in the book above as well. It is a land of plenty where fences "were made of sausage and houses were roofed with bacon." (p.9) The kind of place mentioned in the song, "The Big Rock Candy Mountain", where there are lemonade springs, where the bluebird sings and the farmers's trees are full of fruit and the barns are full of hay and the chickens lay soft boiled eggs. 

While Canada can never be an agricultural paradise or Cockaigne, perhaps the current pandemic will at least teach us to pay more attention to the food we can grow and eat and where it is from.

Sources:

 Although there is a Wikipedia entry for Ross Butler, there is information about him close by in Woodstock. See: Ross Butler Gallery; this exhibition brochure - "Ross Butler, Branding, Butter, and Bulls" and the Ontario Agriculture Hall of Fame. 

   The Ford butter sculpture did indeed exist. See: "CNE Masterpiece: A Well-buttered Ford Reading Atwood, Leaning on a Steering Wheel: Who Said Rob Ford Wasn't Smooth," Niamh Scallan, The Toronto Star, Aug. 23, 2012 and "Toronto Mayor Rob Ford Made Into Massive Butter Sculpture," ca.news.yahoo.com, Aug. 24, 2012.

The book above: Corn Palaces and Butter Queens: A History of Crop Art and Diary Sculpture, Pamela H. Simpson. U of Minn. Press, 2012. I have the only copy in London. I am not sure why.

The Bonus: Miller & Miller Auctions  LTD.

 This provides yet another example of the bonus being better than the content. While doing the kind of exhaustive research required for an endeavour such as this, I stumbled upon this about Ross Butler: "Ross Butler, Canadian Artist. How Dawes Black Horse Brewery Made His Sculptures Famous," [he sculpted using things other than butter.] 

If you bother to check that link you will see it comes from the website of Miller & Miller. 

And, if you bother to check that link you will find The Miller Times - "an online magazine sharing intriguing stories and little-known facts about the unique items we come across at Miller and Miller Auctions." 

There is much on these websites that you will enjoy and you are likely to spend the rest of your day on one or the other of them.

Miller and Miller is apparently located in New Hamburg. I have never been there and they don't know me - that is, this is not a promotional gimmick. Given the way their website and blog looks, they would likely be embarrassed to find out they were mentioned in a blog that looks like this one. One is reminded of another classy establishment, RM Auctions in Blenheim. It was purchased by Sotheby's.