A metaphorical bombshell exploded this week over the corner of Portage and Main, the historic heart of Canada’s grain trade. Richardson International, Winnipeg’s largest homegrown grain trader, is pulling its financial support out of the Canola Council of Canada, Soy Canada and the Flax Council of Canada. As a result, the flax council has already
Editorial: Divided we fall
Editorial: Meeting season
As this column is being written, Brandon’s Keystone Centre is a flurry of activity, with this being Ag Days week. It’s no small feat, transforming a hockey arena and recreation complex into one of the premier winter agriculture shows in North America. The sheer amount of large farm machinery that will enter (and later exit)
Editorial: Future farms
What will the farm of tomorrow look like? There’s certainly no end of opinions on offer when that question gets asked. Will the average Prairie farm become a massive undertaking, measured in tens of thousands of acres, wired in every corner to harness the power of big data? That’s certainly one possibility, and if history
Editorial: Happy Christmas
Here in the heart of winter, those of us living north of the equator find our days drawing ever shorter until reaching their nadir; we must find comfort where we can. Societies through history have dealt with this by having a mid-winter celebration as a centrepiece of their calendars, be they written, celestial, lunar or
Editorial: Building bridges
Earlier this month the A&W restaurant chain may have taken a significant step towards rebuilding its battered image with the nation’s cattle farmers. The company has been the source of much controversy in recent years after it introduced a marketing strategy branding the beef in its burgers as free of hormones and other growth promoters.
Editorial: Green tape
Hipsters and hippies across the country are set to celebrate cannabis legalization this coming Canada Day. The Trudeau government is on track for legalizing this recreational drug by that date, one of the highest-profile promises made during the last election campaign. That’s likely a good thing. While any recreational drug, alcohol included, is a problem
Editorial: On a (rail)road to nowhere
The Port of Churchill and the rail link to the south has been much in the public eye of late, most recently with word a Toronto financial group is partnering with local First Nations groups to buy the line. The tantalizing promise of Churchill has always been just over the horizon, it would seem. On
Editorial: Wheels within wheels
Canada’s current debate over carbon pricing, and Manitoba’s response to the federal requirements, highlight the complexities of making public policy. The federal government wants Canadian businesses, households and individuals to emit less carbon. That’s going to mean burning fewer fuels, using what we do use more efficiently and many other changes large and small throughout
Editorial: On remembering
Canada has a long history of respect and remembrance for citizens who served and fell in war. In fact it was a poem by Canadian physician John McCrae that first made the poppy an enduring symbol of remembrance, with the moving opening line: “In Flanders Fields the poppies grow, between the crosses row on row.”
Editorial: Guidance needed
You’d be hard pressed to think of a document that could be more innocuous and apolitical than Canada’s Food Guide. The modest booklet has the distinction of being the federal government’s second-most-requested document and is available in a dozen languages. This staple of home economics classes and cooking schools should simply be a straightforward recitation
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
