Travel exposes you to foods you never imagined existed

World cuisine is incredibly varied, and sometimes it takes 
an iron stomach to avoid offending your hosts

Reading Time: 4 minutes The inflight magazine in front of me was titled “The Taste of Travel.” I started to laugh because not all experiences when travelling leave a good taste in your mouth. There were some that were particularly challenging and good manners dictate that one never offends the host by passing on a dish. The setting was […] Read more

She is not lost – she is beginning

It was never meant to be this way, but now there is a need to reflect on the past, make peace with the present, and look towards the future

Reading Time: 3 minutes She sits at the old kitchen table — a cold cup of coffee in her hands. The room glows with soft morning light on the papered walls of the home she has come to love. Her heart aches for it seems impossible that she should lose or leave this sanctuary — this place she has […] Read more


These are interesting times in the cattle and beef markets

There are a number of factors in play right now, and it’s a 
good time to step back and survey the wider landscape

Reading Time: 4 minutes Packers lifted a lot of cattle in late summer and it will be interesting to see as we move through the fall if those fed cattle slaughtered in late summer left a gap wide enough to pull other finished cattle ahead. This would bring lighter fed cattle to the kill floor which could be positive […] Read more

Why I keep a pair of little yellow wellies on my desk

The small rubber boots are the symbol of a U.K. safety campaign and 
a reminder we need to do more to keep our children safe on the farm

Reading Time: 4 minutes There is a pair of little yellow rubber boots — or wellies as they are called in other countries — sitting on my desk. They are a gift from fellow scholar James Chapman, who is studying and speaking out about farm safety around the world. James lost his arm in a farm accident. The idea […] Read more


We need to count our blessings — and take advantage of them

Our vast land base is a great advantage but often leaves us stuck in the commodity mindset

Reading Time: 3 minutes Summer is a great time for me because of the many international guests I am privileged to host. I was having a lovely lunch with a family from New Zealand when one of them asked, “What are the top two issues facing Canadian agriculture today?” It is not the first time I have been asked […] Read more

food waste

It’s time to make reducing waste a top food trend

There is almost as much food thrown away in Canada as there 
is traded between us and our southern neighbour

Reading Time: 3 minutes I was walking in downtown Edmonton and stopped to chat with two masked protesters. The man and woman were trying to raise awareness of food waste, a huge issue in Canada. They had gone “binning” — eating out of garbage dumpsters and were able to feed themselves for that week. Canadians lead the way in […] Read more


Farmer in wheat field

‘Three times a day, you need a farmer’ — a phrase that says a lot

It’s not just the food we produce — farming is 
much deeper and more meaningful than that


Reading Time: 3 minutes My grandfather used to say, “Once in your life you need a doctor, lawyer, policeman, or preacher but every day — three times a day — you need a farmer.” To some this may be a catchy phrase but to others it has a deeper meaning. We were working on a school project, Grandpa and […] Read more

It’s not just the price of beef that drives cattle values

Hides are a big part of the profitability equation for packers 
and when buyers of leather cut back, producers feel the pain


Reading Time: 3 minutes There has been some great despair over cattle prices this year. Fed cattle dropped below sea level when they decided to descend. This was not entirely unexpected, but we still don’t have a lot of cattle inventory in Canada and our North American economy is OK. What is happening? Cattlemen and cattlewomen have always believed […] Read more


Schoepp: The short and sweet of who we are and what we eat

Schoepp: The short and sweet of who we are and what we eat

A survey of eating habits shows that tastes differ 
across the country, but food brings us together


Reading Time: 3 minutes We have a saying in our home that breakfast is the most important meal of the day — you should always make it home for breakfast. (When I was in my teens it was to make it home for breakfast and for the 3 a.m. milking!) Canadians do love to eat breakfast, especially in Quebec […] Read more

Studio shot of glasses of water

We think we have water in abundance, but that’s just not so

We need to start appreciating how precious each 
litre of fresh water is, and how much of it we are using


Reading Time: 4 minutes The dry spring brought to many parts of Alberta the stark reality of the importance of rainwater. But all water usage is getting stretched beyond that which falls from the sky. And although this province is technically a semi-arid climate, Albertans have often thought of themselves as “water abundant.” Are we? Alberta has 2.2 per […] Read more