Comment: The optimal land use breakdown – in theory

Comment: The optimal land use breakdown – in theory

Outside any societal factors, what would the world look like if we allocated land ideally?

What would the world look like if we could decide – globally and collectively – to allocate all our land in the optimal way? Where would we grow food and find water, and what areas would we leave to nature? Researchers in Germany have calculated optimal land use configurations that could work under future climate

Two farmers talking in a field.

Comment: Farmers the victims of food company decarbonization

Farmers are bearing the brunt of big food companies’ decarbonization efforts. Here’s why

More than a third of the global greenhouse gas emissions resulting from human activity can be attributed to how we produce, process and package food, so it comes as no surprise that many large food-producing and retailing companies are under pressure from investors, politicians and environmental groups to clean up their operations. Several leading fast-food


Now is the time to start thinking about what the next five-year partnership will look like when it begins in 2028.

Comment: ‘New deal’ does not mean good deal for Canadian agriculture

Research funding has changed a lot in the last 20 years, and not necessarily for the better

I started my career in Manitoba’s agriculture industry with the provincial government in February 2001. There I was introduced to the five-year funding structure used by Canada’s federal, provincial and territorial governments to support the Canadian agriculture industry. Early in my career, it was called the Agricultural Policy Framework. This was followed by Growing Forward,

Comment: We must respect Mexico’s food sovereignty

Comment: We must respect Mexico’s food sovereignty

Mexico has a right to determine its corn policy, even if the U.S. and Canada don’t like it

Sept. 29 was Mexico’s national day celebrating the central place corn has in Mexican society and history. This year, there is a new threat to its future. Corn as we know it today was developed from an ancient plant called teocinte by Indigenous peoples over thousands of years, making Mexico the crop’s biological and cultural


Comment: How the food subsidy system is failing northern Canada

Comment: How the food subsidy system is failing northern Canada

Grocery retailers are benefiting from food subsidies and that’s a problem

Soaring food prices, growing profit margins and record-high profits in the food industry have severely impacted the lives of many Canadians. According to Innovation, Science and Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne, Canada’s largest grocery chains recently agreed to work with the federal government to stabilize prices. But for Canadians living in remote northern communities, food affordability

It has been a tough time for beekeepers, the broader beekeeping community and the growers of crops relying on honeybees for pollination.

Comment: Australia has officially given up on eradicating varroa mite. Now what?

Australia has, until recently, held the line against the endemic headache faced by North American beekeepers

The Australian government body in charge of pest control has announced the country will abandon efforts to eradicate the varroa mite. This parasitic mite lives in honeybee colonies, feeding on pupae and adult bees. The mites spread viruses, impair the bees’ ability to fly or communicate and makes them more susceptible to pesticides, eventually causing


Comment: The rules keep changing on Crown land

Changes from the old community-based allocation system equate to flexible red tape

CROWN LAND Changes from the old community-based allocation system equate to flexible red tape

In 2018, the provincial Progressive Conservatives began instituting new regulations under the Crown Lands Amendment Act, in response to a request from the Manitoba Beef Producers who, in 2017, asked for the agricultural Crown land lease allocation system to be changed from its long-standing community and Manitoba farmer-centred points-based system to a pure auction system.

(PamWalker68/iStock/Getty Images)

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

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 deer continues, and


The Greenbelt scoops up an estimated 71 million tonnes of carbon annually. For context, the average Canadian is responsible for about 20 tonnes of carbon entering the atmosphere over the same period.

Comment: Why the proposed changes to Ontario’s Greenbelt matter

The Greenbelt is a haven for farmland and ecosystem services and it’s worth protecting

Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s government continues to be tied up in a massive scandal over its plans to remove lands from Ontario’s Greenbelt — including the integrity commissioner’s finding that the housing minister broke ethics rules. Indeed, as world leaders gathered in Vancouver on Aug. 24 to launch a “game-changing” global fund to fight biodiversity

Wrecked structures float in the water in the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona at Rose Blanche, N.L., about 45 km east of Port aux Basques, on Sept. 25, 2022. (Photo: Reuters/John Morris)

Cropping with wonky weather

It’s time to start farming in a way that can absorb weather curve balls

A farmer friend challenged me about what he considered alarming statements related to climate change. He sighed and said “a temperature bump of 1.5 C probably won’t bother me.” There is a difference between climate and weather. For example, the climate in July 2023 was 1.5 C higher on average than pre-industrial (before 1850) average