NY Times writer Austin Ramzy recently offered a bright example of the intelligence of small-scale farmers in the article entitled Australian Deploys Sheepdogs to Save a Penguin Colony. Foxes, imported years ago to feed Brit passion for fox hunting, have flourished down under. When it was discovered that they were eating Little Penguins to the point of near extinction it took a local chicken farmer named Swampy Marsh to come up with the idea of using predator control dogs, specifically Maremmas, to protect the little flightless birds. Seems Marsh’s free range chickens were being picked off until he employed the dogs and now the problem has vanished. The Little Penguin numbers had fallen to below 10 before the authorities took Swampy’s suggestion to heart now the little bird’s numbers on Middle Island have rebounded to 150. Small farmers saving life on the planet one silly little idea at a time. LRM