Editorial: Ag in a (pumpkin) shell

Some kids are just born to grow. Our front page recently featured Milan Lukes' journey into the world of giant pumpkins (see above) as he prepared for this past weekend’s 25th annual Roland Pumpkin Fair. One one hand, it’s a story about a pretty impressive 13-year-old who has converted his family’s suburban backyard into a[...]

Editorial: They brought in plows?

When a consortium of Canadian non-government organizations funded by the Canadian government arrived in the Benishangul-Gumuz state in Western Ethiopia five years ago, their primary goal was to help smallholder farmers boost productivity and food security. They came in with “modern” farming methods. In this context, that meant oxen and plows, showing farmers how to[...]


Editorial: It's time to rethink poultry production

The numbers surrounding the bird flu epidemic change each day. But they are staggering. Early this week, the USDA was reporting 197 confirmed outbreaks among poultry flocks with losses of 44.6 million fowl, many of them egg-laying hens. The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) predicts the number of birds affected will climb to 50[...]

Editorial: Agri-resilience is farmers' best defence for managing risk

No one understands risk preparedness and management better than an insurance company. The iconic insurance giant Lloyd’s laid out a stark scenario recently in a report about the potential for weather-related disasters to undermine the entire global food system. The 327-year-old insurance firm says it wouldn’t take much — just three catastrophic weather events hitting[...]


Corn and soybeans headed north and west

Earlier-maturing varieties of corn and soybeans rolling out across the Canadian Prairies will provide new cash crop options and contribute to more sustainable rotations, a senior official with DuPont Pioneer said here last week. While it is widely acknowledged that farmers are squeezing their canola rotations too tightly, setting the stage for a rise in[...]

Editorial: Beauty and the farm

The shifting sands in agricultural research were apparent last week as the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Morden Research Centre celebrated 100 years of innovation. Anyone who has visited the picture-perfect grounds on the east side of town is familiar with its reputation as one of the most beautiful in AAFC’s network. Not only has it[...]


Editorial: Increasing your farming options

Even in June, you could feel a drought in the making as we tramped across the bone-dry paddocks of Doug Wray’s ranch north of Calgary. Far from the lush, succulent feel of the pastures here in Manitoba, the grasses there rustled and crunched underfoot. Conditions haven’t improved — in fact, the situation out west has[...]

Editorial: Just print your food and eat it?

Those of us who still garden have a rather quaint view of food and technology. We plant seeds, help them grow, harvest and eat (cooking optional). Meat or other sources of protein are a bit of an afterthought compared to the taste of those first seasonal bites of melt-in-your mouth potatoes, beans, beets and carrots.[...]



Editorial: Risk management on the farm

Changes to AgriStability three years ago that were designed to limit the exposure of federal and provincial coffers appear to have been more successful than politicians and bureaucrats ever imagined. The changes implemented for 2013 reduce the potential for a payment as well as the potential size of payment. It now appears the number of[...]