Reading Time: 3 minutes Somali refugees seeking shelter in Kenya from extreme drought and hunger are the poorest of the poor and the most vulnerable in the world, the head of the UN refugee agency said. Increasing numbers of malnourished young children are dying after trekking for weeks to receive emergency aid in what has become the “worst humanitarian […] Read more
Somalia Is World’s Worst Humanitarian Disaster — UN
The Real Story Blowing In The Wind In Southern Alberta
Reading Time: 3 minutes One has to admire the business and political skills of the wind turbine industry if the endless march of steel towers across prominent ridges in southern Alberta is any indication. Their powerful lobby has browbeaten any critics and has governments at every level bowing at their feet. It seems politicians can’t offer subsidies, tariff incentives, […] Read more
In Other Words, Throwing A Dart Is Just As Good
Reading Time: 2 minutes Enormous resources are now being poured into commodity price forecasting but a thoughtful paper by the New York Fed casts doubt on whether it is likely to be successful. In a 2010 working paper on “Commodity prices, commodity currencies, and global economic developments” and now featured on the New York Fed’s website, Jan Groen and […] Read more
The Wheat Board Debate — It’s Time To Move On
Reading Time: 4 minutes Allen Oberg, chairman of the Canadian Wheat Board, spoke about the future of the CWB at the Western Canadian Farm Progress Show in Regina recently. While reading and listening to his presentation online, I was struck with just how much this debate is now focused on the plight of the reformed CWB, and not about […] Read more
Farmers And The Climate Change Conundrum
Reading Time: 3 minutes With the crop insurance deadline now past, farmers and their crop insurance agents across much of the Prairies are pulling on their galoshes to assess the damages from yet another spring with too much water. Cattle producers are worrying about winter feed supplies as they watch floodwaters inundate their hay fields. We are told this […] Read more
Traceability Needs More Accountability From Regulators
Reading Time: 3 minutes I first started covering the cattle business in 2007, at the start of the fall run. Prices were in the tank and the new specified risk material (SRM) rules to combat BSE had just been introduced. A couple of months later, the U.S. finally opened the border to over-30-month (OTM) cattle, even as the country-of-origin […] Read more
Another Month, Another Government Report
Reading Time: 3 minutes Perhaps it has something to do with Premier Stelmach’s resignation, but government reports on the future of Alberta seem to be coming out of the woodwork. First it was the premier’s Council for Economic Strategy report, and now it’s the Alberta Competitiveness Council report. In a previous column I noted that the premier’s council report […] Read more
Australia Offers Research Model For The Prairies
Reading Time: 2 minutes Excerpts from the agriculture section of the Moving Alberta Forward report by the Alberta Competitiveness Council. It refers to the Australian Grains Research and Development Corporation, which collects a levy of .99 per cent from growers of 25 crops, with contributions matched by the national government. The Australian Grains Research and Development Corporation experience offers […] Read more
Don’t Get Carried Away By The Farmland Hype
Reading Time: 3 minutes Parallel stories quoting the same leading economist appearing to say contradictory things about investment in farmland bring a wry smile and provide a lesson in the importance of psychology and behavioural approaches to finance. Investment News,which describes itself as the leading news source for financial advisers, has renowned Yale Professor Robert Shiller advising investors to […] Read more
Federal Election Is Over…Now What For Agriculture?
Reading Time: 3 minutes It was hard to notice in Alberta, but there was a federal election. That probably had to do with the usual universal prediction that there would be no change to the political landscape in Alberta, which proved to be true. Such a prediction usually results in being ignored by federal political parties, which also proved […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
