The Mist of Gold

Angus looked up from the notebook’s monitor as an overweight man settled into his chair at the head of the table. Beside him, Dr. Stevens, head of the Environmental Board whispered, "Do well, Dr. Liew." A smile crinkled on his aged face as he tightened his hands around Angus’s shoulder.

An appreciated gesture at a time like this, Angus thought as he silently rehearsed his speech. However, sitting directly opposite, an apple grower by the name of Valence cast a frown at him. And can you blame him? Angus sighs inwardly.

"Ahem," the chatters ceased as the overweight man spoke. "The official document presented to me is rather sketchy. As Minister of Agriculture, I need clearer explanations of what’s going on before it gets harped by the media." He bent forward with his arms on the wooden tabletop and looked at Angus.

"Minister," Valence said, "as representative of the River Valley Orchards Association.."

"Mr. Valence," the Minister cut him short, "let the scientist first speak."

Valence, chafed, kept his silence.

Angus tapped his finger on the mouse and a picture appeared on the gray screen lining the wall. Angus inhaled, than said, "Minister, as you know, the Waikato River has been the dumping ground for various pollutants over the years. This has been a source of great media…"

"Please, cut to the chase and no rhetoric, Dr. Liew." The Minister said. "And by the way, while we are here, call me Greg." He smiled. "Now, go on."

"Thank you, umm, Mr. Greg," Angus stammered, than continued. "Ok, until two years ago, the Waikato River was poisoned by organophosphate based pesticides used by farmers on her banks. This affected the viability of the water supply from the river, the safety of the fishing industry, and the river’s ecosystem."

He looked at Dr. Steven’s who nodded. "No one could do anything without seriously affecting the agricultural sector near the riverbank. As I’m sure you’ll recall, this even spawned a mineral water frenzy in all the major cities along the bank."

Dr. Galen, one of Angus’s colleagues, grinned. He capitalized on the frenzy by bottling water from his family’s well, earning a fortune in the process. Sadly, this ended when someone blew the lid that his well shared the same water table as the river!!

"That was till we discovered this," Angus directed his pointer at the picture of a paramecium on the screen. "An endemic species of a symbiotic paramecium whose bacteria degrades organophosphate compounds in pesticides to harmless byproducts…"

"Just hang on there, Dr. Liew," Greg bolted upright at a surprising speed for a man of his girth, "This is not genetic engineering or stuff like that is it"

"No, this is a naturally occurring protozoa in isolated local bogs. Not one base code modified artificially."

"Phew!!" He said. "At least the Greenies have nothing to complain about."

However, Valence was not convinced. "You say that this is natural, yet we orchardist and farmers never had this disaster before. Explain!"

Angus pursed his lips. "This type of paramecium’s not present in the river system itself. What we did was to extract some from the nearby bogs than introduce them into the river. Naturally, you would not have encountered this ‘problem’, not disaster, before."

"Not a disaster? Merely a problem?" Valence cried.

The Minister snapped. "Valence, control yourself. Angus, how do you identify this paramecium? I mean, they all look exactly the same to me," gesturing at projected slipper shaped form to make his point.

Thank you Greg, Angus smiled. "The easiest way, Greg, are these gold spots you see surrounding this round thing we call the nucleus. These are the bacteria that give this form of paramecium the ability to degrade organophasphate-based pesticides. In fact, they are bioluminescent. Umm, it means that they glow, with a yellow light."