Reading Time: 3 minutes With several large agriculture co-ops facing the same issues at roughly the same timeframe, one has to ask – are these isolated events or are they part of some larger pattern? Co-ops are one of our shopping options– Co-op Marketplace grocery stores, credit unions, Co-op Gas Bars and C-stores, Mountain Equipment Co-op – and they […] Read more
Dissecting The Demise Of Agricultural Co-Operatives
The Russian Grain-Export Bear Is Out Of Hibernation
Reading Time: 3 minutes The former Soviet Union may not have been a model of economic efficiency, but there was one thing that it did very well, and that was import grain. In the grain trade heyday of the 1980s, the Soviets would import up to 50 million tonnes a year and distribute it far and wide across the […] Read more
Long-Gun Issue Just Never Seems To Go Away
Reading Time: 3 minutes People have come to accept that they have to get a licence to buy a gun, no different than having to get a driver’s licence to drive, so be it. It’s a topic that has been kicked around ad nauseam, but it seems our federal politicians can’t resist waking up this old dog. The long-gun […] Read more
More Deregulation Is Not The Solution
Reading Time: 3 minutes We’ve all heard tales of the inefficiencies that have plagued centrally planned economies in far-off places. How about this one? A shipper books a train to clear out some of its inventory so it can continue accepting deliveries from its customers. The train is supposed to come on Saturday. So the shipper makes sure it […] Read more
BIC Is Not Silent On Saturated Fats
Reading Time: 3 minutes In “Consumers misled about vegetable oil” (April 26), Trevor Jones says the animal industry has always been silent about stating that saturated fats are maligned. “I have waited for years for the CCA, Alberta Beef Producers, the Beef Information Centre and Alberta Lamb Producers to defend our animal products against such blatant misinformation. But to […] Read more
Government Action Needed To Protect Horse Breeders
Reading Time: 3 minutes Professional horse breeders have been the most neglected group of agricultural producers by government. We have no representation and have for years been losing massive amounts for every foal produced. The horse industry in this country is entering crisis status. The policies and practices set in place have started breeders down the path to annihilation. […] Read more
Rights groups and their tactics have moved to Canada
Reading Time: 3 minutes What better way than to use scenes of alleged horrendous horse cruelty to shock gullible citizens into some sort of reaction? The state of processing horses for meat in Canada has again become a sensational headline in the mainstream urban media. Video scenes of alleged cruelty were recent feature news on national TV networks. No […] Read more
The growing urbanization of farm policy
Reading Time: 2 minutes It has been difficult over the past decade or so to find the word “farmer” or “agriculture” in the avalanche of policy statements put out by federal parties during election campaigns. Oh sure, there’s been the hot-button issues such as the Canadian Wheat Board, listeria and more money for hard-pressed farmers, but getting the political […] Read more
Albertans looking east to Saskatchewan for farmland
Reading Time: 3 minutes The purchase price on most of the land is in the range of $900 to $1,000 an acre. That’s a bargain compared to what most comparable land is worth in Alberta. Here in Saskatchewan, here’s a lot of talk about a big land deal around Conquest, just west of Outlook. In the last couple of […] Read more
Time to remove the stigma of off-farm work
Reading Time: 3 minutes We use our off-farm income to maintain a quality of life that is important to us. The income is not earmarked to subsidize the farm but to enjoy it. Working off the farm becomes our perfect hedge. There has always been a lot of stigma attached to the idea of working off the farm. The […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
