Veggie.ca will be featuring a business in Canada that goes out of its way to provide veggie eaters with something special. We will keep the profiles archived on the site just in case you want to read them over and over and over again!

We are proud to present: Metcalfe Windmills Metcalfe ON tel: 613-821-0807

One thing that has become apparent since the time that we first started up this website is that once one starts exploring the realm of the "alternative", it opens up doors in other areas. The result is that more often than not, like-minded individuals converge in areas of social activism. Meet Kim MacMullin and George Wright of Metcalfe Windmills, who epitomize this concept. Between living a life of dedication to the environment and running a business which provides environmental alternatives for pond aeration and water pumping, they are truly an inspiration. For more information, please contact Metcalfe Windmills at (613) 821-0807 or e-mail info@veggie.ca.

10 Years ago, Kim MacMullin and George Wright bought a beautiful 45-acre hobby farm in Metcalfe, just 20 min. south of Ottawa. They had recently graduated from university and were keen on rebuilding a small 1850s log house on their property. Needless to say, as recent graduates, they were on a very tight budget, so the $6,000 that Ontario Hydro quoted for having the poles to come up their driveway, was shocking. They, in retrospect, thank Ontario Hydro for changing their lives. "If we'd had the money, we probably would have hooked up then and there, but instead, we investigated other kinds of energy. We've never looked back."

They have set out to make their, now, 3,000 square foot home as energy efficient as possible using the most renewable energy they could. They heat with dead fall (trees that have died on their own) in their 1940s cookstove which also heats their water supply and cooks their food. They have 450 watts of energy available to them from their solar panels and 600 watts from their wind energy. The energy gets stored in batteries and their inverter converts the DC power stored in the batteries into AC power for regular appliances. Through the use of only renewable energy, they are able to have a fully functional household equipped with an electric fridge and washing machine, not to mention a toaster, breadmaker, microwave oven, computer and a host of power tools. They and their two beautiful children (and one on the way!) feast from their large organic garden and enjoy a mostly vegan lifestyle.

For 8 years Metcalfe Windmills (then called Metcalfe Wind Electric) installed wind and solar electric systems, but due to the difficulty in convincing people that producing renewable energy is superior, they have refocused their energies. At one point they even got into manufacturing. "We did manufacture a grid-intertie windmill which was able to back feed power into the hydro grid, unfortunately the new Ontario Hydro no longer allows backfeeding of power and so we have stopped production." In plain terms, this system would allow Hydro to cycle the energy from wind farms back into the homes of Hydro customers, but have rejected the idea for short term financial reasons.

They now focus on windmills that pump water and aerate ponds. 1) Pumping water helps farmers keep their animals from drinking water along stream beds and ponds. By pumping the water up to a tank, this prevents animals from needing to drink from waterways, which in turn prevents stream bank erosion and the fowling of waterways with manure. 2) Aerating ponds increases the amount of oxygen in the pond, making oxygen available to all of the organisms. Algae cannot survive in an organism rich pond environment. The pond becomes clean enough to swim in and/or to raise fish in.

This may seem a contradiction in terms, as both of the aforementioned functions can be used for farming animals. However, until consumers reduce their meat consumption, we must still have ways of making animal farming less degrading to the environment. As well, a properly aerated pond serves as a healthy and environmentally safe alternative to concrete swimming pools filled with chlorine.