Media last week reported the discovery of a massive colony of ants.
This “largest co-operative unit ever recorded,” according to the
Toronto Star, stretches about 6,000 kilometres from the Italian Riviera
to the coast of northwestern Spain.
Ants, long known as models of industry, normally fight when they
encounter others from a different nest. But these ants, reported the
Globe and Mail, “act like one big happy family.”
This activity “runs counter to conventional theory that altruistic
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behaviour occurs only among relatives. Strangers, the theory goes,
would naturally fight.”
Let us turn our proboscises now to the worker ants of our country, also
known as Canadian farmers. These industrious beings frequently join
colonies, also know as farm groups, and commence to further their
agendas whilst growing and gathering food for the voracious appetites
of the Canadian and international public.
Upon encountering another colony working at perceived cross-purposes,
battles ensue. The centre of insect life, also known as Parliament
Hill, then becomes a teeming mass of conflicting requests, the result
being that the political arachnids are able to spin their sticky webs
as usual while claiming confusion about the ants’ real needs.
With the efficiency of a No-Pest strip, the Western Producer newsroom
last week collected News release
newsfrom farmer colonies representing a
sizable population of agricultural ants. You’ve read it here first:
it’s an apparent and even dazzling replication of the co-operative
spirit permeating the ant colony on the Riviera.
Canadian Federation of Agriculture, Wild Rose Agricultural Producers,
Agricultural Producers of Saskatchewan, Keystone Agricultural
Producers, Grain Growers of Canada, Saskatchewan Wheat Pool and
Agricore United are all asking the government spiders for the same
thing.
They want a trade injury compensation program for grain and oilseed
producers. They’ve even agreed on a figure: $1.3 billion for losses
between 1995 and 2000.
As requests go, that’s quite an armful, even for ants, who have many
arms and can lift several times their own weight. But lift it they
have.
Co-operation, altruistic behaviour and a clear direction – these
agricultural ants plan to eliminate confusion on the big hill and march
to victory.
Now, the arachnids must overcome a shortcoming common to the
multi-appendaged, that of giving with one hand and taking away with the
other. They’ve had a lot of practice, but if ants can break the
stereotype, maybe spiders can too.
