It used to be that a greenhouse was constructed on good soil, so that the plants could flourish under the warmer conditions during the winter. I can remember these greenhouses - Niagara had many floral crops under glass - you could see and smell roses and lilies in the middle of winter and buy a bouquet.
There's no soil in a commercial greenhouse today. Everything is sterile to reduce issues like fungus and insects. Biological controls are used - no chemical sprays anymore.
So Niagara soil is often covered with hundreds of acres of greenhouses on cement floors. It is up to thousands of acres under glass - peppers, cucumbers and tomato production represents 3,000 acres of greenhouse growing. (This would include the Windsor corridor.)
There were 223 vegetables and 400 flower greenhouse operations in Ontario in 2015. The greenhouse produce industry in Canada is worth $1.3 billion. I was able to see in to some of them because of an open house on the weekend in support of charity. Seven in the Jordan area were on the tour. Included was CosMic the phalanopsis orchid grower and Jeffrey's where I buy overflowed pot plants in the summer. Jeffery's is particularly large. It also grows other seasonal pot plants, such as Chrysanthemums for autumn and Poinsettias for the Christmas market. There were floral greenhouses on the tour that I hadn't seen before. Below is a picture of statice - one of the bouquet flowers. They also grow amaryllis for the floral trade and peonies outside for the June market, to keep their staff employed.
The number one cost of greenhouse operations is labour - around 30-40%. And that is with migrant workers who are below minimum wage. There is some automation - little robots space the plants perfectly for maximum efficiency. Automation supports moving plants up to the next pot size - filling pots with soil. There are a few other areas applications. But all the pinching is done by hand, and there's a fair amount of it.
We didn't get to see a tomato production house. I ran out of time to see St. David's Pepper production. Here is a wonderful Financial Post article HERE covering the largest tomato greenhouse producer in Canada - located in the Windsor area. There are great pictures and video. What I was interested in was that the article covers the Vineland Research Station's new 1 acre test greenhouse. It has a greenhouse tomato breeding program. They are hybridizing like crazy in there - cross-pollinating commercial and heirloom tomatoes to get the supreme tomato of great flavour and great durability. It is just a matter of time...
We see what the industrial floral landscape looks like. Our first picture shows a typical migrant worker - they come from Mexico and South America. In the second image is the water reclamation pond. Little irrigation hoses go to every pot. Our third picture shows the work at hand - pinching, etc.
There are some flowers to see - but mostly a vast landscape of green all around. There were some pretty pot plants in Jeffery's showing colour. They will likely get shipped out this week to their major customer Costco.
Beauty pageants have not been in my thinking for decades. I wondered what became of the Miss America Pageant. It joins the Miss Universe, Miss World, Miss Earth and Miss International pageants. These are the "big Four'. There are 190 countries involved and it is seen by more than half a billion people annually.
The entire list of female and male beauty pageants is extensive - major and minor international pageants, continental and regional pageants, and national pageants. The Men's pageants have interesting names such as Manhunt international.
There are varying dates when female beauty pageants began - 1920 or 1926, probably depending on which pageant one is referring to. It used to be that contestants needed to be 'of white race' until 1940. There was also controversy in 1945 when a Jewish winner was told to change her surname. She refused. There are current controversial rules now. They are listed HERE. They include not allowed to get engaged, never having any children - biological or adopted, never to have been pregnant, and so on.
Today the big four female pageant organization and brand is owned by a talent agency. Everything about the pageant isHERE on Wikipedia.Did you know that Donald Trump bought the pageant in 1996? The pageant was broadcast in the United States on NBC until 2014, but in September 2015, NBC cancelled all business relationships with Trump and the Miss Universe Organization in response to controversial statements about illegal immigrants who crossed the border from Mexico. He became the sole owner, and then sold the company to WME/IMG.
What about the Mister World pageant? It is sponsored by the Miss World Organization. It is biennial and started in 1996. The entrants compete in various activities including waterskiing, mountain biking and marathon running. Mr. Rohit Khandelwal became the first Asian to win the title of Mister World in July 2016. He also competed for various sub-titles at the pageant, including but not limited to Mr. World Multimedia Award, Mr. World Talent, Mobstar People’s Choice Awards, Mr. World Sports Event and won the subtitle of Mr. World Mutimedia Award. You can see more HERE in Wikipedia on the Misters.
Now we're up to date on beauty pageants - not much seems to have changed since I watched one on television in the 1960's.
Tomorrow I'll tell you more about yesterday's greenhouse tour of 7 growing greenhouses in Niagara. This was the message at one of the stops on the tour.
