Reading Time: 2 minutes Board Guilty Of Ideological Bullying Today, (Oct. 26), I made the very difficult decision to resign effective immediately as the director of District 1 of the Canadian Wheat Board. In a letter to CWB Chairman Allen Oberg, I expressed my deep regret in coming to the realization that I can no longer serve my constituents […] Read more
LETTERS – for Nov. 7, 2011
New Minister Has Some Issues To Resolve Or Bury
Reading Time: 3 minutes It seems being minister of agriculture in this province is not a long-term occupation, as a recent cabinet shuffle once again proves. Newly-minted Premier Alison Redford has appointed Evan Berger, MLA for Livingstone-MacLeod to be our latest Ag Minister. He replaces Jack Hayden who has been moved, somewhat sideways, to be the new Minister of […] Read more
Farmers Will Finally Get Their Wish
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
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
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
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
LETTERS – for Sep. 26, 2011
Reading Time: 2 minutes NO BOARD VERSUS PRO BOARD In response to the letter from Ken Larsen (Sept. 12) I have long been of the opinion that no one should be able to tell me where I buy my fuel and oil, equipment, vehicles, fertilizer, seed or breeding stock, etc. By the same token, I shouldn t have the […] Read more