Reading Time: 2 minutes Birthday parties are usually more fun. Instead, Western Canadian wheat and barley farmers are capping off 68 years of being treated like second-class citizens. On October 12, 1943, the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) monopoly was born and imposed on Western Canadian farmers when Canada was committed to supplying cheap wheat to Europe during World War […] Read more
Farmers Will Finally Get Their Wish
Feeding The World — But Doing It Sustainably
Reading Time: 3 minutes When you have nearly 300 agricultural journalists representing 31 countries gathered together for a conference, it s only fitting that discussion would turn to the feed the world debate. While it s arguably one of the biggest issues facing global agriculture today, the challenge put to participants in the recent International Federation of Agricultural Journalists […] Read more
LETTERS – for Oct. 24, 2011
Reading Time: 2 minutes While I appreciate receivingAlberta Farmer,I must call you to task for some aspects of the opinion column of the Sept. 26 issue in which you support the sale of public land north of Bow Island for irrigation farming. You blame the urban media and their lobby group allies for the debate, and I wonder whether […] Read more
LETTERS – for Oct. 10, 2011
Reading Time: 2 minutes Concerns Remain Unanswered Producer Car Shippers of Canada Inc. (PCSC) represents producers who shipped 12,840 producer cars in the 2010-11 crop year, which was the second-highest number in recent years. PCSC was formed to raise concerns producers had in moving their grain to market. We have a concern now, in that PCSC has been ignored […] Read more
Low Wheat Prices Will See History Repeat Itself… Again
Reading Time: 3 minutes If crop reports and market forecasts from the major wheat-growing areas of the world prove to be true, we will soon be in the midst of another wheat surplus. This includes the big production areas of Australia, South America, North America and the Black Sea countries Ukraine and Russia. Even traditional wheat-import areas like India […] Read more
Can Ritz Deliver On His Promises?
Reading Time: 2 minutes The federal government has promised western Canadian farmers they can have the Canadian Wheat Board and an open market too. Most farmers assume the only major change to the wheat board will be the loss of its monopoly over the sale of western Canadian wheat and barley destined for export or domestic human consumption. The […] Read more
Readers Respond About The Urban/Rural Divide
Reading Time: 3 minutes I heard from several readers who wrote to me in response to my column about the widening disconnect between urban and rural life. I was informed about pickles that were made all the way in India and told of a nephew who believed there were three grain harvests every summer. The stories are both amusing […] Read more
Critics Of Land Sale Need To Look In The Mirror
Reading Time: 3 minutes The urban media and their lobby group allies are once again mounting a PR assault against the sale of government land for agricultural development purposes. It s an old story filled once again with hypocrisy by those who are the least involved. The government can t win the PR battle no matter how transparent and […] Read more
If The CWB Goes, Is Supply Management Next?
Reading Time: 2 minutes The Conservative government s decision to end the Canadian Wheat Board s monopoly has supply management s critics in the media, business and academia sharpening their knives. Not surprisingly, the detractors are saying it s also time for an open market in milk, eggs, chicken and turkey. If marketing freedom and open markets are good […] Read more
Bridging The Rural-Urban Culture Gap
Reading Time: 3 minutes If rural and urban Canada were a married couple, they d have moved to separate bedrooms decades ago. That frigid disconnect is one of the problems sustainable, grassroots Canadian agriculture faces in the immediate future. Maybe I m old-fashioned, but I ve made it a priority to support Canadian producers and manufacturers whenever possible. I […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
