Reading Time: 2 minutes In an era when food inflation has become a contentious political issue, it’s tempting for politicians to target the grocery industry. Sadly, that’s exactly what transpired in our country this year, and it was both absurd and embarrassing. The government and Parliament relentlessly hounded grocers, drowning out the opportunity for Canadians to truly comprehend the […] Read more
Opinion: Let’s give the grocery theatrics a rest in 2024
Grocers made convenient punching bags, but that’s not how solutions are found
Opinion: Setting research priorities a complex puzzle
Could the canola story happen today in an era of ‘research clusters’?
Reading Time: 3 minutes Glacier FarmMedia – It’s often observed that from tiny acorns, mighty oaks grow. Nowhere in the western Canadian agriculture scene is this truer than in the canola sector. When one pauses to reflect, one can only marvel at what has happened. A relatively obscure crop, grown largely as a machine lubricant, was transformed into one […] Read more
Opinion: I grew this food for you …
Limiting waste respects the efforts of farmers and helps limit food insecurity
Reading Time: 3 minutes As the sun set and the dust lingered over the freshly harvested fields, I gave thanks for the abundance. Walking through the orchard with the sweet smell of ripening fruit and the warmth deep on my back, I gave thanks for the diversity. Picking my way home, the sidewalk strewn with chestnuts and hazelnuts, I […] Read more
Opinion: Eliminating bird flu in chicken barns
Bird flu could be eradicated by editing the genes of chickens and one study shows how
Reading Time: 3 minutes Glacier FarmMedia – Recent advances in gene editing technology could potentially help create disease-resistant animals. In a recent study, my colleagues and I showcased the potential of gene editing to protect chickens from the threat of avian influenza. This disease is caused by an ever-evolving virus that gets around numerous biosecurity measures such as good […] Read more
Schoepp: From beyond meat to the return of meat
Climate-based policies frequently ignore consumer preference and economic reality
Reading Time: 3 minutes As I walk by a storefront that once housed the city’s largest ‘plant-based butcher’, the irony hits me. The new sign announces that this will soon open again – as a beef burger cafe. It brings to light the complexity of understanding Canadian consumers and their varying wants and needs. Protein in all sources is […] Read more
Letter to the editor: AgriRecovery too limited for cattle sector
Reading Time: 3 minutes Thank you for the recent article about feed assistance in Alberta Farmer Express. I would like to add to this. I am a cattle producer in northern Alberta. We did receive some rain in late August, but too late for our first and often only cut of hay. Our area does not qualify for the […] Read more
Opinion: Fighting for low grain prices
One bushel of barley can make 500 bottles of beer, but the Wheat Growers are asking for help to make it cheaper
Reading Time: 3 minutes It used to be that if you wanted to raise a farmer’s blood pressure, you only had to suggest that an increase in bread prices was due to a change in the price of wheat. That started in the 1970s after wheat prices skyrocketed to the $6 per bushel range after the “Great Grain Robbery,” […] Read more
Fake meat is mostly a fake-out for now
Meat alternative companies have made big boasts, but the numbers are on the side of real animal products
Reading Time: 2 minutes Beyond Meat, Inc. has had almost 15 years to build a product lineup that is, as its name claims, beyond meat. By some business metrics, it has. The company, whose market capitalization was pegged at US$1.3 billion when it went public in 2018, recently reported April-to-June 2023 sales of $102 million. That sounds like a […] Read more
COVID-19 isn’t over for white-tailed deer
The virus mutates rapidly in white-tailed deer, but here’s why we don’t need to worry – for now
Reading Time: 3 minutes Glacier FarmMedia – At some point during the pandemic, Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, spread from humans to white-tailed deer in North America. In 2021, scientists revealed that 40 per cent of white-tailed deer sampled in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Illinois and New York state in the U.S. had antibodies for the virus. Surveillance of these […] Read more
Soil biodiversity deserves protection
Reading Time: 3 minutes Soil is the most biodiverse habitat on the planet. According to recent research, it’s home to 59 per cent of all life on Earth, from an insect feeding on the soil surface to a tiny microbe nestled in a soil pore. The same paper estimates that around two million species of arthropod (think insects and […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
