farmdoc's blog post number 223

Many of mankind’s recent inventions – in the last 50 years, say – are breathtakingly awe-inspiring and wondrous. Think interplanetary rockets, microsurgery, the internet, transplant surgery, IVF, decoding the human genome et cetera. Conversely, some inventions are just plain banal and stupid. For example the motorised leaf blower. Last Wednesday morning I saw, and heard, one of these idiotic machines being used to blow leaves and grass clippings along a path at the Daylesford Primary School, as darling Jarrah was escorting Sweetheart Vivienne and me to her classroom. They are noisy. They are dusty. They use petrol and therefore generate greenhouse gas. And, blimey teddy, I don’t know what their purpose is. Yep, it’s ostensibly to blow leaves. Before, during and after all, it’s a leaf blower. I can understand that leaves may need to be moved from A to B. But for the life of me I can’t grasp why a motorised gizmo is necessary to do it. Whatever happened to the good old-fashioned broom? Especially in this land of ours where obesity is epidemic. Brooms are quiet. They are inexpensive. They don’t use petrol. And so they’re greenhouse friendly. One of my favourite films is Field of Dreams, and one of its best lines is ‘Build it and they will come’. Leaf blowers have been built. They are well marketed. And they are used. By morons.