Reading Time: 2 minutes A recent marketing campaign by the A&W hamburger chain has seen the beef industry express some exasperation with what seems like misleading advertising. The chain is promoting its burgers as not having any added hormones or steroids, which implies competitors’ burgers do have such added products, and so there may be a health risk. Industry […] Read more
All’s fair in the burger war
Biotechnology — whose voice should be heard?
Biotech pioneers won this year’s World Food Prize, but the ‘Frankenfood’ debate still rages on in North America
Reading Time: 3 minutes It was hard not to smile when one of our African colleagues on a CropLife International tour at the World Food Prize event in Des Moines, Iowa asked a presenter to address rumours that clothes made from genetically modified (GM) crops will make a man bald and impotent. After all, after nearly 20 years of […] Read moreIs farmer ownership of the CWB a reality, or another smokescreen?
Reading Time: 3 minutes The appointed board of Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz’s CWB (formerly the Canadian Wheat Board) has finally made a move in this saga known as a transition towards privatization. It says it will give farmers a $5 stake in the “new company” for every tonne of wheat they sell through the CWB in the 2013-14 season. […] Read more
Beef industry sees some rays of hope in two areas
Reading Time: 4 minutes One thing for sure about the cattle and beef industry — you don’t have to wait long for news on some issue or other, and it can vary from hopeful to depressing. For months, the industry has been troubled with fallout from the country-of-origin labelling (COOL) law battle with the U.S. The market consequences are […] Read more
Are plant size limitations a reality in biotechnology?
Perhaps the future of biotechnology is not focused as much on increasing yields but on continuing to reduce production costs
Reading Time: 3 minutes We have all heard the popular cliché about size being important but it’s a question that seems missing in the ag biotechnology debate — specifically plant size limitations. Speakers at a recent agriculture biotechnology conference spoke at length about how GM plants and other high-tech agronomic practices had increased yields for many crops by up […] Read moreAnger and advocacy don’t mix
Reading Time: 2 minutes “Safe” is such a sticky word in agriculture these days. More and more, it seems consumers want to know that their food is “safe” (whatever that happens to mean at any given moment), and producers want consumers to know their food is safe, regardless of how it’s produced. For consumers, though, it’s all about perception, […] Read more
Industry is taking action to protect bees
Reading Time: 2 minutes We would like to respond to the many articles in the media recently regarding the use of pesticides and their interaction with honeybees. While most media to date has been bringing a clear message that nothing is being done or not enough is being done, we would like to commend a few stakeholders on recent […] Read more
Indian Head tree nursery program rooted in uncertainty
This opinion piece by Gord Howe, a former manager of the Agroforestry Development Centre at Indian Head, first appeared in the Oct. 3 Manitoba Co-operator. Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz’s response appears at the end of the piece
Reading Time: 3 minutes In April 2012, the federal government announced that it was axing the very popular Prairie Shelterbelt Program. To date, the government has received more than 20,000 letters, phone calls and hundreds of petitions from upset tree planters. MPs have received numerous complaints as well. Tree planting on the Prairies has always been a joint effort […] Read moreEditorial: Social licence issue affecting technology development
Reading Time: 3 minutes A recent agricultural biotechnogy conference in Calgary has again brought forth the seemingly boundless opportunities in this field of high-tech research and development. The Agricultural Biotechnology Conference has been held for several years and has started to expand its presentations into other biotech perspectives such as forestry, energy, industrial considerations and others. That’s been a […] Read more
Lack of communication, not research, to blame for consumer perceptions
Reading Time: 3 minutes The Facebook posts started sometime last year: “Orange Juice may soon contain pig genes. Monsanto curing hunger with cancer. GMO fact of the day.” The exact wording has varied, but some version of these sensationalized stories — complete with disturbing images and a cry for someone to please think of the children — has appeared […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
