Reading Time: 3 minutes A man named Louis Glickman once said, “The best investment on Earth – is earth.” And what do we, as farmers, know of this great gift? We know it is the foundation of civilization, the centre of well-being, and the giver of abundance, including joy. We know that it is scarred with the battles that […] Read more
We need to look at land in the larger context
Fear of ‘peak soil’ is driving global investment and raising questions about who will control it in the future
Science lacking in alarmist report on beef safety
The numerous misleading statements in a new report are no reason for consumers to lose confidence in the safety of Canadian beef
Reading Time: 3 minutes Consumer Reports’ Food Safety and Sustainability Center released its Beef Report last month. A number of questions, concerns and criticisms have been raised by the North American Meat Institute, the International Food Information Council, Business Insider, and others. Rather than answer the specific questions raised, Consumer Reports encouraged people to read the report more closely. […] Read more
What Consumer Reports said about beef safety
The organization claims that drug-resistant bacteria pose a serious and growing health threat
Reading Time: 3 minutes The following is excerpted from The Beef Report produced by Consumer Reports’ Food Safety and Sustainability Center. The full report can be found here. The danger of superbugs Foodborne illness caused by drug-resistant bacteria, such as the antibiotic-resistant strains of salmonella that have caused beef-related outbreaks in recent years, are also a major cause for […] Read more
Schoepp: What’s a more important sector: oil or agriculture?
Take a comprehensive look at the facts and the answer is obvious
Reading Time: 4 minutes As we drove through the blueberry fields and cranberry bogs in southern B.C., I thought of economic generators. What, I wondered, was a bigger sustainable economic generator to our nation: oil or agriculture? An environmental scan of an industry must include the long-term effects on people and the planet. The structures that we employ for […] Read more
Making room for youth — and youthful thinking — in farming
Young farmers love technology and are excited by change, but they’re often penned in by the walls of tradition
Reading Time: 4 minutes Farmers often lament the lack of youth in agriculture. I would argue that this is not true — there are a lot more baby strollers than walkers at major agricultural conferences, especially ones where technology is highlighted. There may be fewer young farmers, but the young men and women farming today have a broader reach […] Read more
Schoepp: Big picture ignored in supply management debate
Critics focus on milk powder, but the real issue is about creating valued-added products while protecting farm families
Reading Time: 4 minutes Canadians produce over 700 kinds of cheese. It makes me smile to think of all the small processors and farmers who delight in cheese making. Cheese also contributes $69 million in exports every year. Sounds like a good-news story and as Canadians we tend to focus on what we know — and we know cheese […] Read more
The time has come to rethink single-trait selection
Temple Grandin was right about animal welfare, and she’s right about respecting the dual purpose of food animals, too
Reading Time: 4 minutes I am a big fan of Dr. Temple Grandin. A long time ago we stood in a small community hall in Alberta with 60 farmers in attendance. She talked about an animal’s reaction to light, movement, and sound, and encouraged producers to see their facilities through the eyes of their livestock. I talked about shrinkage […] Read more
India is a country of two agricultures
The nation is a world player in food, but full of contrasts and contradictions
Reading Time: 4 minutes My visit to India a few years ago covered a lot of agricultural ground — a 1,500-kilometre loop starting in Ludhiana and ending in New Delhi. Our team — nine young agricultural professionals from five countries — experienced a transportation strike, a hit-and-run, watched a car slide off the road and into the jungle, and […] Read more
Ready to launch: Why pulses are the future of food
Peas, beans, lentils, and chickpeas have been around for centuries, but they are poised to enter the spotlight like never before
Reading Time: 3 minutes Can an old food become new again? Peas, beans, lentils, and chickpeas have been staples for centuries, but pulses are on the verge of becoming the next big thing. Next year, 2016, is the United Nations’ International Year of Pulses (IYoP) and there is a fistful of good reasons why these crops could become the […] Read more
An unsettling discovery via a cool summer treat
Who would have guessed that propylene glycol is a permitted ingredient in a food product?
Reading Time: 4 minutes Long warm days call for cool refreshing treats such as ice cream. One afternoon I was enjoying a milky bar — ignoring the calories and savouring the apparent goodness — when I glanced at the ingredients on the box. Sugar, fat, cholesterol in mind-numbing percentages were accepted — with a good dose of guilt. What […] Read more