Changed Even critics admit ALMA is a different agency than during its difficult birth
Reading Time: 3 minutes It’s now been three years since the Alberta Livestock and Meat Agency (ALMA) was established by the minister of agriculture. Since that time we have seen three different ministers, and ALMA has endured. Perhaps there is a message in that. Also since that time, cattle, hog and sheep prices have all either stayed strong or […] Read moreALMA has proven an asset to the livestock industry
Finding the balance on the scales of animal happiness
Reading Time: 3 minutes It’s been relatively quiet on the animal welfare front lately, at least as it pertains to livestock production. That’s a good thing, but it doesn’t mean the issue has gone away. In fact, two economists with Oklahoma State University believe animal welfare has moved from the fringes to the forefront of discussions over the future […] Read more
Africa needs a brown, not green, revolution
Reading Time: 2 minutes Two Canadian Foodgrains Bank-supported projects that promote conservation agriculture in Zimbabwe and Zambia have been featured in a new book about food security in Africa. The projects, operated together with the United Church of Canada and Christian Reformed World Relief Committee, are included as case studies in The Hungry Continent: African Agriculture and Food Insecurity, […] Read more
Agriculture budget small relative to larger departments
Reading Time: 3 minutes The political tradition is that just before an impending election, governments present a highly optimistic good-news budget, deny that it is an election budget, and then promptly call an election a few weeks later. This time around the exercise has lost some of its drama since the Redford government passed legislation to establish a fixed […] Read more
Finding ways to make group housing for sows work
Reading Time: 2 minutes Back in the early 1990s, when University of Manitoba animal scientist Laurie Connor first oversaw research into hoop-housing systems for hogs, the key questions of the day were whether keeping pigs outdoors through a Prairie winter threatened their welfare and/or compromised production efficiency. Connor told a recent seminar she was initially mortified at the thought […] Read more
Creating a stronger voice for Alberta’s wheat producers
Reading Time: 2 minutes In the past 150 years, wheat has played a significant role in the settlement of the Canadian Prairies and the development of western Canadian agriculture. Canada became the “breadbasket of the world” because of the quality and quantity of wheat it supplied to countries around the globe. In more recent years, western Canadian wheat producers […] Read more
Can we justify our soil-management practices?
Reading Time: 2 minutes Don Lobb, a farmer from Huron County, Ontario was recently awarded the L.B. Thomson award for his long-standing commitment to soil and water conservation in Canada. An early adopter of no-till farming, Lobb has been widely recognized as both an innovator and a leader in soil and water conservation locally, nationally and internationally. L.B. Thomson […] Read more
Alberta Agriculture meetings underline value of the CWB
Reading Time: 2 minutes Although the Government of Alberta is putting forth a celebratory mood regarding the end of the Canadian Wheat Board’s (CWB) single desk, its public meetings being held in January and February across the province are taking place in an increasingly negative context for farmers who must deal with the fallout from the government’s long ideological […] Read more
Policies give lie to farmers’ mantra
Reading Time: 2 minutes Some people believe in tillage, others in no till. Some people believe in planning, others in fate. Ask an American farmer if he believes a big part of his destiny includes feeding the world and he’ll likely say, “Yep.” The answer is quick and sincere because somewhere in every farmer and rancher’s makeup is a […] Read more
Do Calgarians need a study to find where their food comes from?
Reading Time: 3 minutes Some of us in the agriculture and food business like to amuse ourselves about the naiveté of city folks who have no clue where their food comes from. We chortle when they seem to assume that food magically appears at the local grocery store. As amusing as that may seem, those assumptions may be close […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
