Nearly every farm conference agenda these days contains one or more speakers talking about consumer attitudes to farming, food and the agricultural sector’s “social licence.” The titles are often provocative, as in, “Will farmers be allowed to benefit from new technology?” or, “Don’t let your silence take away your licence to farm,” or, “Don’t let
Editorial: Cultivating trust
Editorial: Social change is never easy
January 28, 2016 marked a significant milestone in the history of this province. A century ago Manitoba became the first government in Canada to allow women to vote. Many of us with roots in Prairie settlement have our own family stories to tell. In my own case, it was learning through distant relatives recently that
Organic producers could see net profit levels range from $100 to $300 per acre
Know your cost per bushel, not just per acre, says farm management specialist
Organic production is one way for small farmers to improve their viability, an analyst told a seminar at Manitoba Ag Days in Brandon. Roy Arnott, who does annual cost-of-production budgets for MAFRD, said the gross revenue over operating costs in conventional agriculture leaves a margin of 20 to 40 per cent. That margin is what
Editorial: Paying for improved varieties
Having witnessed the Canadian government’s softening commitment in recent years to research that develops improved varieties for farmers, we’ve been reluctant to let taxpayers off the hook. Historically, publicly funded research has been the cornerstone of Canada’s reputation as one of the world’s best when it comes to producing cereal crops. Over the past century,
Editorial: A whole-farm approach
If you think the future of government support for agriculture lies in doing more of the same but only better, you’ll get little comfort from Manitoba’s Agriculture Risk Management Review Task Force report released last week. The 25 recommendations and the supporting appendix report should also make you a little uncomfortable if you think the
What’s hot and what’s not for 2016 crops
Margins are expected to be a lot tighter in the coming year, but the major crops are still showing a potential for profit
Manitoba farmers are facing some tough choices when it comes to squeezing a profit out of the crops they grow in 2016. But the Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Development annual crop production guidelines indicate there are still profits to be made in both conventional and organic production systems. These estimates serve as useful reference
Editorial: A place of refuge
The news, including our own front page story this week, is full of stories these days about the preparations for and arrival of Canada’s newest citizens, many of them refugees from wartorn Syria. The stories are heartwarming and hopeful: Toronto schoolchildren learning to sing a welcome song in Arabic, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau personally greeting
Need for more disaster planning in rural Manitoba
A seminar Jan. 14 in Portage la Prairie will look at how the risk environment is changing in rural Manitoba
Just as it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a community to prepare for disaster. The Association of Manitoba Municipalities (AMM) and the Manitoba governments Emergency Measures Organization (EMO) want input from municipal leaders, emergency co-ordinators, rural businesses and ordinary citizens on how best to prepare for climate change in the face
Editorial: Conservation connections
Thoughts on the Manitoba Conservation Districts Association annual convention
The kids were heading for their buses as I arrived at the 40th Manitoba Conservation Districts Association (MCDA) annual convention in Brandon last week, just in time to help hand out plaques to the district award winners. There were hundreds of them, students brought in for the day by the association with support from community
Canada’s trade relationship with China built on wheat
Canada offered to sell China food when no one else would do business with a Communist regime
Canada played a major role in helping overcome the famines that stalked the Chinese people through the late 1950s and early 1960s. It sold wheat to the People’s Republic of China at a time when other countries refused to deal with the Communist regime of Mao Zedong, which had seized control in 1949 after a