World Food Day on Oct. 16 shed light on some confusing twists around global food security. The annual UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) event dating back to 1945 now falls five days after another big day — World Obesity Day, established by the World Obesity Foundation in 2015 to highlight the growing epidemic expected
Editorial: Food solitudes
Farmers’ focus must shift from yields to soil health
But looking after the land doesn’t have to result in a ‘yield penalty’
A funny thing happens whenever talk turns to how to make farming more sustainable. As various options for improving how agriculture treats the natural environment are discussed, someone inevitably brings up the “yield penalty” farmers and society would pay. That penalty is seen as the gap between conventional methods using tillage and high rates of
Degraded soils cost farmers billions annually
Yet soil care remains a low priority for policy-makers as well as farmers
Farmers have reduced the amount of soil they lose through annual cropping practices, but they continue to carry a costly legacy of degraded soils, a University of Manitoba soil scientist says. David Lobb used crop production data and computer models to estimate how much lost productivity has occurred over the past four decades due to
Editorial: Preparing for an uncertain future
It’s a hot, dry summer on the Prairies, so much so that farmers farther west have started to harvest their cereal crops for livestock feed. A heat wave nicknamed “Lucifer” is scorching much of Europe this summer and climate change experts are suggesting these are a greater threat to human life in the short term
Editorial: Changing times, changing tastes
It’s not unusual for grownup kids to call ahead before coming home to give the resident cook time to prepare their special requests, usually for the likes of apple pie that fill the house with delicious aromas and the heart with warmth. But this time, the request was unusual. “If you’re bored this weekend, could
Farmers watch markets rally as crops wither
Weather and market analyst Bruce Burnett took a first-hand look at crops across the West
If Glacier FarmMedia weather and market analyst Bruce Burnett had to pick one word to sum up the state of the Prairie crop this summer, it would be “variable.” Burnett logged a 4,500-km crop tour across the Prairies in mid-July and reported in at the third annual Ag in Motion farm show about what he
Not just a driverless tractor, but no tractor at all
A global launch at Ag in Motion could change the way you farm
While farmers have been waiting impatiently for equipment designers to commercialize the driverless tractor, Prairie inventor and entrepreneur Norbert Beaujot has found a way to ditch the tractor altogether. And he’s rolling it out for the first time in July 18 to 20 at Ag in Motion (AIM), Western Canada’s outdoor farm show now in
Studying the benefits of grass-fed livestock
It’s unlikely that University of Toronto researcher Richard Bazinet will include on his resumé the fact that he had a whole room of farmers holding their noses. But it was actually an effective demonstration of good taste, not smell. Bazinet passed around jelly beans and asked people to plug their noses as they placed one
Cinderella crop is the child of immigration
Early Polish settlers were the first to grow rapeseed, near Shellbrook, Sask., spawning the multibillion-dollar industry of today
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.
Is Ag in the Classroom a corporate shill? Far from it
What one group sees as education, another views as propaganda
Classrooms across the country were getting some special visitors in March as volunteers for the non-profit organization Ag in the Classroom Canada (AITC-C) did their bit to promote Ag Literacy Month. In this province, those volunteers included Manitoba Agriculture Minister Ralph Eichler and fellow cabinet minister and Portage la Prairie farmer Ian Wishart, who took turns