Economic development for Lumby

In the search to find an alternative to the saw milling industry for Lumby, we need to unearth our underutilized assets - the things we have in abundance that other people cherish. Things that reproduce, will not run out, and that we can exchange for dollars. Feel free to add to this list:

Motorcycling Hwy 6
Salmon watching
Hang gliding
Snowmobiling
Hiking, boating, camping

A good list so far, but these are experiences where people have to show up. All the above increase the risk that people will want to move to Lumby, which puts pressure on our "crumbling infrastructure" (Globe and Mail, Nov. 11th, 2010). My preference is to ship something tangible away from here in exchange for dollars.

The asset I have identified as having the greatest potential is our system of collecting and concentrating solar energy. We are surrounded by literally thousands of hectares (sp?) of green, lush, fenced areas with access roads winding between them. These massive 'solar collectors' spend 8-9 months of the year soaking up the sun's rays and storing the energy collected in a green, leafy substance that expands during the heat of the summer. Stored solar energy, waiting to be put to work.

One of the major drawbacks of solar energy is its diffuse nature. Solar collectors have to be as big as the great outdoors. To overcome this problem a subsystem, dubbed 'solar concentrators', has been devised by ingenious local farmers. Solar concentrators are trained to meander across a 'solar collector' in a tireless search for as much of the leafy material as possible. They work from morning to night, seven days a week for almost no reward to create packets of concentrated solar energy.

Some solar concentrators become packets wrapped in brown paper. These lumps must be kept frozen until needed. The more ingenious, however, are the dairy farmers. Their solar concentrators produce a liquid that, when removed from the animal, appears to do them no harm. They continue on as having been given a new lease on life to produce another packet twelve hours later. Twice. Every day. Of the week

Try as we might, the 5,000 or so people who live in Greater Lumby could never consume all the packets of stored, transportable solar energy produced by our farmers. Therefore, we send the packets away and in return receive dollars from the city folk who earn their dollars in other ways (don't ask me).

The beauty is that at the end of the exchange, not only do we have the dollars, we still have the solar collectors and the concentrators (or their offspring). My conclusion is that we should do what we can to support and enhance this 'sustainable system'.