Ecological entrepreneurship: sustainable development in local communities through quality food production and local branding

The paper explores the importance of specialised networks in shaping local/regional responses to the deepening crisis of conventional agriculture in the EU, as well as potentially creating a more sustainable platform for rural development. The emphasis will be on the problem-solving aspects of network creation and maintenance within a broader and not necessarily supportive competitive and regulatory environment. This involves examining, both over time and space, how networks function to shape knowledge and create a competitive willingness to innovate to achieve mutually beneficial goals. Through a process which we call ecological entrepreneurship, key actors facilitate sustainable development in the countryside by a combination of fragmentation, specialisation and quality building strategies. We empirically explore these evolutionary and spatial factors through two farming-centred networks—an organic farming network in the UK: the Graig Farm Producer Group; and a regional quality brand in the Netherlands: the Waddengroup Foundation.The analysis of these two networks is used to examine in-depth the significance and construction of the social and spatial milieu for providing the individual and collective capabilities to establish viable problem-solving responses. This raises questions of: (i) how such networks are and can be sustained over time; (ii) the extent to which there are common evolutionary pathways which reproduce and embed problem-solving network building; (iii) how different spatial relations are engendered and (iv) whether such ‘local’ projects can advance to wider counter-movements in the context of the prevailing political economy.     

Transient bacterial contamination of the dual-porosity aquifer at Walkerton,Ontario, Canada

Contamination of the Paleozoic carbonate aquifer at Walkerton (Ontario, Canada) by pathogenic bacteria following heavy rain in May 2000 resulted in 2,300 illnesses and seven deaths. Subsequent tracer testing showed that there was rapid groundwater flow in the aquifer, and also rapid exchange between the aquifer and the ground surface. Electrical conductivity (EC) profiling during a 3-day pumping test showed that most flow was through bedding-plane fractures spaced about 10 m apart, that there were substantial contrasts in EC in the major fracture flows, and that there were rapid changes over time. Total coliform sampling revealed transient groundwater contamination, particularly after heavy rain and lasting up to a few days. These characteristics can be understood in terms of the dual-porosity nature of the aquifer. Most of the storage is in the matrix, but this can be considered to be static in the short term. Almost all transport is through the fracture network, which has rapid groundwater flow (～100 m/day) and rapid transmission of pressure pulses due to the high hydraulic diffusivity. Rapid recharge can occur through thin and/or fractured overburden and at spring sites where flow is reversed by pumping during episodes of surface flooding. These characteristics facilitated the ingress of surface-derived bacteria into the aquifer, and their rapid transport within the aquifer to pumping wells. Bacterial presence is common in carbonate aquifers, and this can be explained by the well-connected, large-aperture fracture networks in these dual-porosity aquifers, even though many, such as at Walkerton, lack karst landforms.     

A subsurface Middle Wisconsinan interstadial site at Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

Commercial borings to a depth of 36 m encountered organic sediments under till. A continuously cored borehole was subsequently put down to 42 m and revealed a succession of sand and silt, over clayey Maryhill hill, over sandy Catfish Creek Till, over fossiliferous sand. Pollen, plant macrofossils, and a few ostracodes, molluscs, and insects provide a coherent picture of interstadial conditions. Two pollen zones are represented. The older zone is characterized by Picea and ThujalJuniperus pollen, and Dryopteris- type and Sphagnum spores, which suggest a lowland, forested peatland. Reduction of peatland, and transition to a wetland with more open water associated with a stream is indicated by an increase in Cyperaceae pollen, Pediastrum algae, and a diversity of aquatic plant macrofossils during the later zone. Fossil plant assemblages are similar to modern southern boreal associations in Ontario, which implies that the climate was cooler and possibly drier than the present. Phytogeographically, Picea needles and wood, and seeds of Brasenia schreberi and Potamogetan spirillus are noteworthy among the plant macrofossils. The sequence of Late Wisconsinan tills overlying the fossiliferous zone implies a Middle Wisconsinan age for the interstadial. This is supported by an accelerator radiocarbon date on small wood pieces of 40,080 + 1,200 years B.P.     

Quaternary stratigraphy and geochemistry at the Owl Creek Gold Mine, Timmins, Ontario, Canada

The Owl Creek Gold Mine is located in Hoyle Township, approximately 18 km northeast of Timmins, Ontario, Canada. The open-pit mine exposes a sequence of altered and mineralized mafic tholeiitic volcanics bounded to the north and south by greywacke and argillite. Gold occurs in the free state in quartz veins, often with graphite, and as fine gold on surfaces of, and within fractures in, pyrite.The study was designed to determine the distribution and distance of transport of Au in overburden down-ice from subcropping Au mineralization. This required an understanding of the glacial history of the area.The Quaternary stratigraphy at Owl Creek was studied and sampled by means of 17 sonic and 15 reverse-circulation overburden drill holes near the open pit, and several overburden exposures in the open-pit walls. Nonmagnetic heavy-mineral concentrates (specific gravity >3.3) were made from the <2000 μm (−10 mesh) fraction of all overburden samples from the drill hole and section sampling. The heavy-mineral concentrates were analyzed for Au by neutron activation. A till pebble lithology study was done on the >2000 μm (−10 mesh) fraction of the sonic drill core.Our stratigraphic studies indicate that there were three major Wisconsinan (Weichselian) ice advances and one minor, late readvance in the Timmins area. The transport and deposition of sediments comprising the “Oldest”, “Older”, Matheson and Cochrane stratigraphic “packages” (oldest to youngest) are related to three ice advances and one readvance which moved towards 240° ± 10°, 150° ± 5°, 170° ± 5° and 130° ± 5°, respectively.Geochemically anomalous levels of Au in the overburden define two dispersal trains down-ice of the Owl Creek Gold Mine. One, in the “Older” lodgement till, is 400–500 m long. The other in Matheson ablation and waterlain tills, is approximately 700 m long.The till pebble lithology study showed that pebble counting can be used to approximate bedrock contacts, but may not necessarily identify the source rock type of the matrix.     

Paleoenvironmental records of water level and climatic changes from the middle to late Holocene at a Lake Erie coastal wetland, Ontario, Canada

Pollen and diatom assemblages, and peat stratigraphies, from a coastal wetland on the northern shore of Lake Erie were used to analyze water level and climatic changes since the middle Holocene and their effects on wetland plant communities. Peat deposition began 4700 cal yr B.P. during the Nipissing II transgression, which was driven by isostatic rebound. At that time, a diatom-rich wild rice marsh existed at the site. Water level dropped at the end of the Nipissing rise at least 2 m within 200 yr, leading to the development of shallower-water plant communities and an environment too dry for most diatoms to persist. The sharp decline in water level was probably driven primarily by outlet incision, but climate likely played some role. The paleoecological records provide evidence for post-Nipissing century-scale transgressions occurring around 2300, 1160, 700 and 450 cal yr B.P. The chronology for these transgressions correlates with other studies from the region and implies climatic forcing. Peat inception in shallow sloughs across part of the study area around 700 cal yr B.P. coincides with the Little Ice Age. These records, considered alongside others from the region, suggest that the Little Ice Age may have resulted in a wetter climate across the eastern Great Lakes region.     

Transforming Atlantis, South Africa, through local economic development

The concept of Local Economic Development is gaining widespread acceptance in South Africa. There are at present few examples of local communities which have developed and applied concrete strategies and programmes. One major exception is that of the apartheid created coloured town of Atlantis near Cape Town. The removal of state support and associated economic and social problems galvanised the local community into action. With the assistance of outside agencies a Local Economic Development strategy was identified and is currently being implemented. Modest success has been achieved and the basis for sustained local development is being laid. The experience of Atlantis serves to illustrate the potential which South African communities have to initiate a process of locally-driven development.     

Local government, local economic development and quality of life in Poland

The establishment of local self-government was a key part of the post-1989 transformation in East and Central Europe. Local government in both Western and East and Central Europe has increasingly been expected to play a role in local economic development (LED). Local government is one important agent in the complex processes of building 'institutional thickness' to ensure the development of local economies and the quality of life of inhabitants. This paper presents the results of a national postal questionnaire survey of the LED role of the lowest level of local self-government in Poland, the gmina or commune. The paper establishes a baseline of knowledge regarding: the local economic problems faced by communes; their attitudinal, strategic and organisational responses; and the main factors which are hindering the communes' LED role. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Source of lead in the gold-bearing quartz-fuchsite vein at the Dome mine,Timmins area,Ontario, Canada

The quartz-fuchsite vein at the Dome mine, Timmins area, Canada, is characterized by a consistent spatial association of gold and galena. A lead isotope study was carried out to trace the source of the lead in the galenas, and to evaluate possible source reservoirs for the gold. Although other sources cannot be entirely ruled out, the lead isotope composition of most of the galenas and of local quartz-feldspar porphyries suggests that most of the lead in the vein-galenas was derived from the Dome mine porphyries. However, lead isotope systematics do not allow unique constraints to be placed on the gold source. Conceptual genetic models commonly advocate gold source reservoirs such as shallow to deep seated igneous intrusions, the middle to lower crust or the mantle for Archean lode gold deposits. A likely scenario is that ore-bearing hydrothermal fluids originated at depth, and were preferentially channeled along the porphyries to the site of ore deposition. The hydrothermal fluids leached lead from the porphyries, and deposited gold and galena together in the quartz-fuchsite vein. Two galena samples have anomalous lead compositions and are colinear with the main galena cluster suggesting one or more contamination episodes, broadly between 1250 and 2480 Ma, resulting in further addition of radiogenic lead to the galenas.     

Coherent slumping of early postglacial lake sediments at Hall Lake, Ontario, Canada

Cores of organic postglacial sediment from Hall Lake, southern Ontario, Canada, are described. The laminated, calcareous sediments deposited between 9,000 and 8,000 B.P. have coherently slumped into the deep part of the lake, causing overturning and replication of parts of the sequence. This process may be considered as a mechanism for sediment focusing, since it involves reworking of marginal sediments into deeper areas. Unlike previously described mechanisms, it may be a source of error in the interpretation of diagrams of pollen percentages as well as accumulation rates. The slumping has only been recognized through the distortion of the laminae. It might not be possible to recognize slumping in unstratified sequences.     

Metasomatic effects in the Faraday Metagabbro,Bancroft, Ontario,Canada

Summary The Middle Proterozoic Faraday Metagabbro in the Bancroft area of eastern Ontario has been subjected to syn-orogenic textural and mineralogical modifications resulting in the formation of scapolite-bearing metagabbro and gabbroic blastomylonite assemblages. The elemental flux during cryptic and overt scapolitization has been calculated usingGresens general metasomatic equation which applies corrections for density and volume changes during alteration. Metasomatic variation diagrams using analyses from two primary gabbros and six altered rocks indicate that Na, K, Cl, Li, Rb, and Ba are the principal introduced elements and that Cu and S were removed. These changes are very similar to those involved in the formation of metasomatic nepheline-bearing rocks elsewhere in the district and, furthermore, nephelinization and scapolitization were broadly coincident in time and space. It is concluded that the nephelin- and scapolite-bearing rocks and their cryptic facies are different manifestations of the same metasomatic agent and that the source of the fluids was a possible horizon of evaporitic sediments within the country rocks in which the gabbro was emplaced.

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Metasomatose im Faraday-Metagabbro, Bancroft, Ontario, Kanada

Zusammenfassung Der Mittel-proterozoische Faraday-Gabbro in der Umgebung von Bancroft (Ost-Ontario) erfuhr synorogene Veränderungen in Textur und Mineralogie, die zur Bildung skapolit-haltiger Metagabbros und gabbroider Blastomylonite führten. Die während kryptischer und offener Skapolitisierung stattfindende Elementtransport wurde mit Hilfe der vonGresens entwickelten generellen metasomatischen Gleichung errechnet; Korrekturen für Varänderungen in spezifischer Dichte und Volumen wurden angebracht. Metasomatische Variationsdiagramme basierend auf Analysen an zwei primären Gabbros und sechs modifizierten Gesteinen zeigen, daß Na, K, Cl, Li, Rb und Ba die hauptsächlich zugeführten Elemente darstellen, und daß Cu-und S-Konzentrationen abgebaut wurden. Diese Veränderungen sind vergleichbar mit solchen, wie sie bei der Bildung metasomatischer, Nephelin-haltiger Gesteine erkannt wurden. Außerdem fallen Nephelinisierung und Skapolitisierung zeitlich und räumlich in etwa zusammen. Daraus kann geschlossen werden, daß Nephelin- und Skapolit-haltige Gesteine und deren kryptische Phasen durch den gleichen metasomatischen Prozeß entstanden sind, und daß die Herkunft der umwandelnden Lösungen möglicherweise in evaporitischen Sedimenten zu suchen ist, in die der Gabbro intrudierte.

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With 3 Figures     

Archean regional transpression and paleomagnetism in northwestern Ontario, Canada

The Archean metamorphic rocks of the Superior province of the Canadian Shield occur in lithologically defined belts or subprovinces. The tectonically more stable interiors of belts possess consistent primary components of magnetic remanence. In the case of the Quetico belt, these stable directions are tightly grouped about 005°/55° with some minor dispersion and most were acquired during the cooling that followed syntectonic recrystallisation.

This study examines the directions of primary remanence components for rocks along the margins of the Quetico belt, within 4 km of the strongly deformed vertical, ENE-trending boundaries. The boundaries are known to have experienced dextral transpression involving penetrative single-phase deformation which out-lasted metamorphism. Within a few kilometres of the belt boundaries, the primary remanence components are re-distributed along a vertical ENE-trending, great-circle girdle which is nearly parallel to the plane of transpressive shear and regional schistosity. It is suggested that the effects of transpression have mechanically deflected the components of primary remanence toward this plane.     

加拿大Sudbury陨石冲击角砾岩中锆石显微构造与相变

关于加拿大Sudbury构造的成因,现在的学者大多认同其形成于陨石撞击。为了找到更加强有力的证据,文中对取自Sudbury冲击角砾岩中的锆石进行了研究。Sudbury冲击角砾岩是Sudbury构造的特殊现象,采用扫描电镜、结合拉曼光谱方法从角砾岩的锆石中发现了显微构造和相变的证据。所观察到的显微构造呈一系列面状构造(planar microstructure),在3个方向上平行展布,并相互剪切。Sudbury角砾岩锆石的典型Raman谱线中,除锆石的几个峰外,在640cm-1和817cm-1也可见两个峰,并可分别与铁橄榄石和一种ZrO2相匹配。该ZrO2相的谱线也不同于典型的斜锆石,却与López等合成的一种含有0.5%(质量分数)TiO2的ZrO2相非常相似。这些证据显示,一些锆石的颗粒边缘发生了如下反应:ZrSiO4+2FeOZrO2+Fe2SiO4,并已变成了一种ZrO2相和铁橄榄石(fayalite)。这些显微构造和相变特征都能够说明Sudbury角砾岩受到过高压冲击,并进一步支持Sudbury构造的陨石撞击成因。     

The private sector and local economic development in South Africa

The objective in this paper is to analyse private sector involvement in LED in South Africa. Four key spheres of private sector involvement in LED are identified and discussed: (1) as participator and occasional initiator of local development processes, (2) as major partner in the development activities of public-private sector partnerships, (3) as lead role player in certain direct initiatives for reviving South Africa's inner cities, and (4) as promoter and facilitator of local small business development. It is argued that the concept of local dependence could be usefully applied to interpret private sector involvement in LED in South Africa.     

Genesis of the Woodstock drumlin field, southern Ontario, Canada

The Woodstock drumlin field was formed about 15,000 years ago during the Port Bruce Stadial of the Late Wisconsinan. It consists of three sections, each composed of texturally different till sheets (Tavistock A, B and C Tills) deposited during marginal oscillations of the Huron ice lobe advancing from the Lake Huron depression. A statistically significant relation between till texture and drumlin morphometry has been determined. Features composed of clayey-silt Tavistock A Till are smaller and more elongate than those built up of sandy-silt Tavistock C Till, which reflects a different susceptibility of the drumlin deposits to the moulding action of the glacier. Based on the field data it is suggested that the drumlinizing glacier was temperate all the way up to its margin and basal sliding occurred also at its outermost peripheries. In the drumlin region immediately behind end moraines the shear strength/shear stress ratio was around I and increased progressively in the upstream direction. In the proposed mechanism of drumlin formation the key factor is pore water dissipation (1) through the permeable substratum and (2) into dilatantly expanding granular deposits, both resulting in the necessary increase of the basal till strength.     

On the origin and age of the Steep Rock buckshot, Ontario, Canada

The Steep Rock buckshot is a brecciated pisolithic ferruginous bauxite found in the Errington iron mine, Steep Rock Lake, Ontario, Canada. It occurs within the almost vertical ore zone included in the Archean Steep Rock Group, reaching a depth in excess of 1100 ft. (335 m). Successive authors considered its age as Precambrian. The biological observations now presented deny this supposed Precambrian age. Treatment of the concretions by HCI, followed by staining, put in evidence abundant microscopic figurate animal and vegetal remains, namely shreds of insect integument and varied fragments of vascular plant material. Comparable results were obtained by casting and by scanning electron miscroscopy (SEM) of the surface of the concretions and by thin sections. All these remains are Phanerozoic and one of them is probably not anterior to the Late Cretaceous. The macro- and micromorphology of the concretions obey models of termite constructions and the spectrum of organic remains is identical to the one found in tubulo-alveolar laterites and in termite constructions. The presence in the matrix of canaliculi attributable to thin roots gives force to the idea that the buckshot was originated near the soil surface.     

Environmental significance of bedrock jointing in Southern Ontario,Canada

The bedrock surface of many glaciated areas is obscured by thick drift deposits. In southern Ontario, Canada, the buried bedrock surface is dissected by channels, infilled with glacial deposits as much as 150 m thick, that are part of a wider mid-continent preglacial fluvial system that predates formation of the modern Great Lake basins. The infills of bedrock channels form major groundwater aquifers, influence regional groundwater flows and contaminant migration to Lake Ontario, and may localize the release of thermogenic methane and radon within heavily urbanized surface environments. A quantitative comparison of the regional pattern of bedrock joints and the orientation pattern of buried bedrock channels and modern river valleys shows that all these orientation patterns are virtually coincident. Buried bedrock channels in south-central Ontario are not part of a simple antecedent drainage system but were likely predesigned by bedrock joint patterns that have subsequently been propagated upward into overlying Pleistocene sediments. Joints in sediments are of considerable environmental significance (for example, subsurface contaminant and gas migration in fine-grained clayey sediments) and of many origins (stress release, desiccation, etc.) but are widely assumed to be a predominantly surface-related phenomena; the existence of deeper joints has been noted by some authors but their origin is obscure. Data presented herein from south-central Ontario confirm that, in addition to surface-related joints, a second population of bedrock-related joints, reflecting the upward propagation of bedrock fractures, is present in Pleistocene sediments of south-central Ontario.     

A paleomagnetic investigation of the sudbury basin offsets, Ontario, Canada

The Sudbury offsets are a series of dike-like structures that appear either to radiate out from, or parallel the main Sudbury irruptive. In an attempt to establish the tectonic and magmatic relationship of these offsets to the main irruptive over 50 sites from 8 offsets were sampled for a paleomagnetic survey. From the over 10,000 measurements it is possible to derive a number of conclusions. First, the offsets are the end product of at least four separate intrusive pulses exactly the same as the main irruptive. The initial formation of the offsets coincides with the intrusion of the norite in the main irruptive. Second, the oldest remanence direction from the offsets exhibits the same directional differences between the north and south ranges as is seen in the norite component of the main irruptive. The offsets must therefore have suffered the same magnitude and sense of tectonic rotations as the immediately adjacent sector of the main irruptive. Three remanence components appear to be intimately associated with the distribution of sulfide rich zones. Of these three, one undoubtedly records a period of magmatic sulphide deposition. The other two appear to be recording mineralization events which require longer periods of remanence blocking and possible models include remobilization and redeposition of pre-existing deposits, and secondary hydrothermal introduction of a new generation of sulphides.