Dough Days at Manaia

Yarrows have been baking bread in Manaia for 80 years and now their products head right around the world. Eat a Subway roll in Singapore or a croissant in Canada and there's a good chance the dough came from Yarrows the Bakers.

Noel and Melva Yarrow

Noel Yarrow has watched his bakery grow. 250 people work there now and when they scrub up to begin their day they stand in a shiny new washroom where Noel's bedroom used to be.

Rewind...to 1923

True or false?

1. Women in the workforce are earning about half as much as men are.

2. Many people expect a woman to leave the workforce as soon as she marries.

3. More people live in rural, (country) areas than urban, (town) ones.

4. Drivers of Model T cars often go backwards up hill.

5. The first dental nurses start work.

Starters

Where's Yarrows? Decide where Manaia is on this Taranaki map.

Thumbs up?

What do you think? Are these things business builders? They all happened at Noel Yarrow's bakery. Decide with a classmate, think like business people and give each thing the old thumbs up or thumbs down.

1. Early starts to the working day.

2. Long hours of work.

3. Heaps of bakery work as a young lad - like digging up the spuds for the yeast and delivering bread to pubs before school.

4. Heading straight into the bakery for your first fulltime job.

5. Bringing expert bakers in from England and Holland to work in your bakery.

6. Always buying modern machinery.

7. Trying out new ideas.

8. Spending money to extend the factory.

Shutterbug

Check out this photo of Manaia in 1923. That's the year Alf Yarrow began his bakery in Manaia.

Minimise (click in the minus sign in the top right of your screen)  to answer the questions and click on the bar below when you need the photo back.

Try this with a classmate again. The photo has all the clues:

1. Has electricity hit Manaia?

2. Is there a shop that is sure to use Yarrows bread?

3. Are cars taking over from horses as the main form of transport?

4. What essential shops and businesses would this town have?

5. What was there then that you know is still there today?

Word Wise

A poem tells the Taranaki story this week. Decide on the likely meaning of these words or sayings before you read the poem. You'll find them later as you read.

1. renown (a)anonymous or (b) famous

2. stately (a)dignified or (b) loud

3. empire (a)territory or (b) kingdom

4. VJ Day (a) the day people celebrated the coronation of King George the Fifth or (b) the day people celebrated victory over Japan

5. Oxford (a) a university in England or (b) a dictionary.

6. The saying, "to learn the ropes" (a) to learn the skills that let you do a new job or (b) to learn how to tie knots and use the right rope for the job

7. silo (a) a laboratory test tube used for testing yeast or (b) a huge container used for storing flour

8. investing (a) buying something that will help a business make a profit or (b) when the Queen makes someone a knight

9. The saying, "for the long haul" (a) staying around for a long time to make sure the job is done right or (b) doing all the jobs nobody else wants to do

10. maintain (a) neglect or (b) look after

Read on!

This poem tells the story of Yarrows the Bakers. Read with purpose and find out:

Who started Yarrows the Bakers.

If baking has always been a job that needs lots of people hours.

What jobs young Noel had to do.

What the Yarrows brothers did to build the business.

Good idea!

The young man and his brother Hec

Turned to equipment so high tech

You'll find more details about this high tech equipment in this story.

Practice scanning - with your eye not the scanner. It's a good skill to have.

Flick between the story and the activity by minimising. (The little minus sign in the screen's top right corner) 

Scan for the words "taste of technology." Now scan for the names of six examples of high tech equipment and the revolutionary ideas. List them one under the other.

What makes them good ideas? Think, pair and share your ideas for each thing on your list.

High Five

Now they supply croissants to America

Subway rolls to Australasia

Yarrows the Bakers

Are movers and shakers

Scan the story again for "Worldly ways" and find out where the dough for one million subway rolls goes to.

Match one of these cities to each of the five countries you found.

Tokyo, Adelaide, Singapore, Dunedin, Taipei.

Visit this site for a high five computer research speed test. Find out how many subway restaurants are in each of the cities above. Just add the city and country on the locator. Ready? Set? GO!

My Card Son

Design and make two business cards. One will be a card that could have been used by Alf Yarrow in his early years at Manaia and another for Noel Yarrow to use now.

• In the middle put their names and the names of their bakeries.
• In the top left-hand corner write a phrase that best describes the person's job.
• In the top right-hand corner list a success that person had in their lifetime.
• In the bottom right-hand corner list three words to describe that person.
• In the bottom left hand corner write one difficulty that person had to overcome.
• Cut your cards into interesting shapes!

Fast forward to 2003

Naked protesters have been seen in Parliament Grounds and Wellington's weather can be quite cold.

They're upset about the Government lifting the moratorium on genetically engineered material. This means people can now apply for permission to use GE material outside a laboratory. Big protest marches have been held up and down New Zealand and while most people left their clothes on, they were still quite angry.

Genes determine the characteristics or traits a living thing will have. Humans with the gene for blue eyes will have blue eyes. Scientists can take a human gene and put it in a medicine. Thousands of New Zealanders for example, rely on insulin that has a human gene in it.

Genes in plants can be changed or modified too. Carrots have been grown in Australia that could make possums sterile. Possums are a pest so that could be quite helpful. Lifting the moratorium could see these carrots growing here.

Many people worldwide disagree with gene science. They don't believe a scientist should modify the genes a living thing has and say while it may lead to improvements in one species we don't really know how these changes might affect others.

Many more people may not know a lot about gene science but try to eat GE free food, just in case. And this is why Yarrows the Bakers have been in the news.

Dough Scare

• More than 90 Subway stores in Japan stopped selling sandwiches after a microscopic enzyme in the ingredients of the bread dough was found to be genetically engineered.
• The bread dough came from Yarrows and the ingredients came from a supplier overseas. All ingredients including the enzyme had been passed safe by the Food Safety Authority.
• Yarrows didn't know the enzyme had been genetically modified. They removed it immediately and flew new dough straight to Japan.
• Noel Yarrow says he's a bit sour. He thinks his company's bad luck has been grabbed by anti GE people who pushed the issue into the news.

Impact Levels?

Yarrows staff worked extra shifts to get two new containers of dough to Japan. A lot more work has gone on behind the scenes to keep the Subway contract safe. What if nothing was done? Decide on the impact level for each of these groups.

• Would it be low, medium or high?
• The 60 to 80 employees who work on Subway products.
• The rest of the Yarrows workers.
• Manaia and Hawera retailers e.g. shopkeepers.
• The 100 sales people throughout New Zealand and Australia.
• Subway restaurant staff in Japan.

One Stay, Three Stray

Decide on this question in a group of four. What should New Zealand farmers do?

• A - Use gene science that could lead to better wool, meat and dairy products.
• Or B - Stay GE free if the rest of the world goes the GE way.

When all groups have made their decision send three group members to three other groups to share ideas.