Canadian food prices are expected to rise between 2.5 and 4.5 per cent in 2024, according to a new report.
“It is probable that Canadians will continue to experience the strain of food inflation compounded by increasing costs of housing, energy and various other expenditures,” according to Canada’s Food Price Report 2024.
Canadian food inflation to slow through 2024, report says
More certainty has brought an uptick in grocer promotions, but consumers are struggling
Editor’s Note: Sugar shortage makes for sticky business
How can a strike involving 138 workers at a single refining operation in Vancouver affect the availability of sugar for 11 million Canadians in the four western provinces — and what does this situation tell us about our national food system as a whole? It certainly suggests that our sweet tooth has become too dependent
Editor’s Take: Setting research priorities a complex puzzle
[UPDATED: Nov. 24, 2023] It’s often observed that from tiny acorns, mighty oaks grow. Nowhere in the western Canadian agriculture scene is this truer than in the canola sector. When one pauses to reflect, one can only marvel at what has happened. A relatively obscure crop, grown largely as a machine lubricant, was transformed into one of
Editor’s Take: The dark side of data sharing
Data is a big part of our lives. It is built into the cell phone plan we pay for every month, our credit score and every part of every supply chain that brings us the things we use and consume. It can be used to spot patterns, optimize operations, save money and create better end
The roadblocks to digital agriculture
What’s it going to take for agriculture’s ability to use data to catch up to its ability to gather it?
You’d be hard-pressed to find a farmer who has bought into digital agriculture more than Rick Rutherford has. The seed grower and owner of Rutherford Farms has spent over a decade collecting data on his operation northwest of Winnipeg near Grosse Isle. He’s partnered with digital ag accelerator EMILI (Enterprise Machine Intelligence and Learning Initiative)
Storage strategies change with bigger bins
As storage systems have grown, more attention is needed to keep crops safe
In the 1970s, a standard bin was 14 feet in diameter with a capacity of 1,350 bushels. High rollers might add an extra ring to stretch that another 300 bu. There were bins 19 feet in diameter, with a 2,700 bu. capacity, but few farmers bought them because they were hard to shovel out and
Editor’s Take: Removing barriers
My Glacier FarmMedia colleagues and I have been contemplating how to mark Canada’s National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on Sept. 30. One idea was a special edition of our electronic newsletter highlighting some of the work we’ve done over the past year to cover Indigenous issues in the agriculture sector. If you subscribe to
Editor’s Take: The downside of TFW over-reliance
Typically, when one hears ‘Canada’ and ‘slavery’ in the same sentence, it’s because the country is fighting it internationally. For example, the country intends to implement the Modern Slavery Act in January, aimed at fighting forced labour and child labour in global supply chains. That’s why the recent words of a UN special rapporteur were
VIDEO: Making 4R nutrient management work
EMILI field day features farmer experiences, high tech systems and extension education
When Rick Rutherford starts to plan his crop, he begins at the end – the end of the last growing season, that is. The Grosse Isle-area seed grower and owner-operator of Rutherford Farms sits down, current year’s yield map in hand, with agronomist Dave Ives of Enns Brothers to plan for the following spring. “It’s
Editor’s Take: Emissions reduction needs a lifeline
Nobody likes to change, especially not when they’re comfortable and things are going well. But that attitude can lead to complacency and inertia as the world passes by. This is the delicate balance that farmers are being asked to strike, with little evidence that it’s going to pay them dividends of any kind. The issue
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
