Prince Edward Island, caressed in the arms of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, is a lovely place to visit in June. Its sparkling red sand beaches, miles of white-blossomed potato fields, and rolling carpets of lush pasture form a colour-soaked postcard for tourists and locals alike. U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue caught a glimpse
Comment: When Trump starts tweeting, Sonny starts packing
The U.S. ag secretary has lately been America’s apologist-in-chief
Opinion: Age no guarantee of wisdom
We’re apparently no smarter than the ancient critics of what we now accept as established science
In May 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus published On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, a book that used mathematics and astronomy to postulate how the earth and the then-known planets rotated on their own axis as they orbited a stationary sun. Within days of its printing, however, Copernicus died. His theory of “heliocentrism,” the first scientific
Opinion: The winning losers
The U.S. Farm Bill has kicked off a new spirit of bipartisanship — everyone hates it
There’s something fundamentally wrong with a legislative process that delivers a Farm Bill so deeply flawed that groups as politically diverse as the ruby red Heritage Foundation and the ocean blue Environmental Working Group (EWG) join forces to publicly condemn it. And yet on May 8, EWG’s senior vice-president of government affairs Scott Faber moderated
Comment: What’s the matter with rural Kansas?
Mostly the current model for agriculture, according to one writer
For over 100 years, some Kansans have either built or added to their journalism reputation by asking this simple question: What’s the matter with Kansas? The answer, however, is far from simple. The first to ask was William Allen White, the publisher and editor of the Emporia Gazette. White, a mainstream Republican, posed the question
Comment: Rest in peace
Hard work and life’s trials left little time for happiness
By default, obituary writers get the last official word on everyone. They tell the deceased person’s story through births, marriages, and deaths; add to it with names of parents, siblings, and children; and round it out with an anecdote or two about hobbies and professional achievements. Maybe that’s why my father had a hand in
Opinion: The long, sustainable view
High inputs (and high costs) have passed most of the value of farm production back to input companies
Who knew that the best view of 21st-century agriculture would be from Darrin Qualman’s farm office near Dundurn, Saskatchewan? And yet, there it is, charted by Qualman, a data bloodhound who thinks graphically but writes plainly. The longtime researcher for Canada’s National Farmers Union appeared on my radar in Feb. 2017 with a blog post
Seventy crops
A life of farming has taught this farmer some valuable lessons
Shortly after he turns 86 on April 10, Eugene Glock will begin planting his 70th corn crop on the Butler County, NE farm he operates with his son. “He runs the place,” explains Gene by telephone, “and I’m the hired hand. I plant all the corn, though.” And, the Lord willing, he adds, he will
Opinion: America alone
Softly falling snow makes it evident that winter’s early end was just a rumour. The season is back and will remain awhile, predicts the National Weather Service. Frozen, also, are the immigration standoff, NAFTA talks, infrastructure plans, the dicamba debate… Congress is moving as slow as molasses, too, as seen in the recent budget shutdown.
Opinion: The anti-science of ‘sound science’
For more than 20 years, farm and ranch groups, Congress, and Big Agbiz have used the phrase “sound science” like a sharp shovel to bury or undermine agricultural policy. Ask them to define “sound science,” however, and you’ll get no clear explanation. That’s because “sound science” is a political weapon, not a branch of knowledge.
You’re getting warmer…
In a White House Rose Garden ceremony June 1, President Donald J. Trump announced he would pull the U.S. from the Paris treaty on global climate change. As he colourfully noted, “I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.” True, but he was elected to represent Paris, IL; Paris, KY; Paris, ID;
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
