Cinderella crop is the child of immigration

Much of the attention focused on newcomers to Canada these days is laced with fear that they will bring change. What is often overlooked however, is that change can bring good things to a country — including economic growth. Canada’s canola story — a stunning success by any measure — is a case in point.[...]

Radical transformation of food system needed

From its offices overlooking centuries-old ruins of the fallen Roman Empire, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is grappling with an issue many consider a threat to modern civilization. Global rates of malnutrition are growing at an unprecedented pace, despite progress that has been made reducing hunger and poverty. Sandwiched between the two extremes[...]


This week on 'Between The Rows'

To hear the latest episode of Between The Rows, CLICK HERE. The show is also available to you each week through Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts -- and you can also find our episode archive on YouTube.  

Editorial: Hedge your risks: go underground

The dust is settling in the wake of last week’s U.S. election but it will be a while yet before we understand what the results mean for Canadians, including farmers. It’s an understatement to say Donald Trump’s election win came as a surprise, quite possibly even to him. The fact that his opponent received more[...]


Malnutrition has many faces

The issue of malnutrition makes feeding the world decidedly more complicated than boosting the amount of grain farmers grow or the number of calories in people’s diets. Undernutrition affects nearly 800 million people, accounting for approximately 12 per cent of deaths worldwide. In developing countries, 60 per cent of deaths in the under-five age group[...]



Editorial: Withering trade

Former senior U.S. trade negotiator Joe Glauber could see the “Stop CETA” banner draped from a Brussels overpass as he travelled through the EU city on his way to Winnipeg to deliver the 8th annual Daryl F. Kraft lecture late last month. Within days, that is exactly what happened as Wallonia, a tiny regional government[...]

Editorial: Big crops on the horizon

There are some among us who plan their drive across the Canadian Prairies so they do most of it under the cover of darkness, ostensibly to avoid the tedium of vast horizons on which there is “nothing” to see. To each their own. I’ve taken that drive twice this spring — with the help of[...]


Remembering fallen soldiers closer to home

Members of the Royal Canadian Legion in Holland, Man. are asking why a provincial program that honours fallen soldiers by naming a geographical landmark after them can’t remember them closer to home. Les Ferris, who heads up the local branch, said they have been working with the local municipality and the provincial government in recent[...]

Editorial: The nothing strategy

This week, President Obama is expected to sign legislation that will require labels on foods produced using ingredients from genetically modified crops — a notion many in food and farming circles once considered unthinkable. That is, until they were confronted with the potential for something much worse — multiple labelling laws. In the absence of[...]