Just as there’s good stress and bad stress, there’s good excitement and bad excitement. There’s the good excitement you get when watching the Grey Cup, especially if you’re a Riders fan. Then there’s the other kind of excitement (as in riled up) you got watching this year’s Grey Cup commercials about how the Harper Government […] Read more
Morriss: Cell companies bad, railways good?
Please, let’s not ‘win’ any more beef trade battles
While we fight an unwinnable battle against COOL, the Americans are stealing our domestic meat market
Reading Time: 3 minutes Traceability is a fact of life for almost every other commodity that consumers buy; yet somehow we have not embraced traceability’s potential in the world of food. I cannot buy an iPhone that does not have complete traceability back to its basic components; yet what we put into our bodies is rarely traceable to source. […] Read moreFighting desertification is part of Western Canada’s heritage
The lessons of the ‘Dirty ’30s’ are still valuable ones to pass on to farmers in other countries
Reading Time: 3 minutes When I went to the barber in Swift Current in the summer of 1937 to get a haircut and shave, he said the haircut was OK but he had quit shaving people. I asked “how come” and he said he couldn’t keep an edge on the razor anymore. With the terrible dust and the shortage […] Read moreThe beef industry has bigger problems than E. coli
No collaboration The beef industry is suffering from too many organizations and not enough leadership
Reading Time: 3 minutes The fallout from the E. coli contamination at the XL beef plant is bad enough, but it will be even worse if this single issue diverts the industry from looking at some of its larger long-term challenges. Farmers got cranky enough about the Canadian Wheat Board, so imagine there was a Canadian Beef Board in […] Read more“Lean, finely textured beef,” or “pink slime?”
Trimmings They’re turned into added-value products for processors, but they’re giving meat a bad name
Reading Time: 3 minutes “Laws are like sausages — it is best not to see them being made.” This quote has been widely but wrongly attributed to Otto Von Bismarck, the “Iron Chancellor” of Germany in the 19th century, which proves that misinformation was spreading long before the Internet. However, the Internet is certainly a much more efficient way […] Read moreWhat Parliament Giveth, Parliament Can Taketh Away
Reading Time: 2 minutes There are many things wrong with the way that the Conservative government has handled the wheat board issue. The decision has been made on purely ideological grounds, without even so much as a departmental review, let alone a proper study by an independent commission. That didn t need to be a review of whether to […] Read more
Editors’ Picks: Bleak message to Texas cattle producers
Just get out. That’s the bleak message from a Texas A+M University forage specialist to cattle producers who have gone through the driest 12 months in the state’s history. With little to no grazing and hay, should livestock producers continue to try to buy feed, move cattle to another state or just sell out? “It […] Read more
The Battle Is Over Why Keep Bashing The Board?
Reading Time: 3 minutes After decades of hard work, the Canadian Wheat Board’s opponents have finally won their battle. Normally, congratulations would be in order, but congratulations are deserved only by those who have courage of their convictions and are gracious in victory. We’re not seeing much of either. Instead, the winners of this debate are continuing to heap […] Read more
First Things First, Starting With The Soil
Reading Time: 2 minutes Last month a milestone was marked in the history of world agriculture when the bovine disease rinderpest was officially declared eradicated (see page 20). Unfortunately, other diseases which threaten agriculture have yet to be wiped out, and at least one affects farmers rather than livestock. That’stillage recreationalis,the desire to cultivate for no good reason. It […] Read more
The Biggest Company You’ve Never Heard Of
Reading Time: 2 minutes With the end of the Canadian Wheat Board now virtually certain following the election of a Conservative majority, it was interesting to see that news coincide with a glimpse of a company that may soon play a bigger part in the Canadian grain-marketing future. On May 4, Swiss-based Glencore, sometimes described as “the biggest company […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
