Back in the days when Prairie farmers were still in the experimental phase of adopting what is now known as conservation agriculture, I remember interviewing a farmer who had gone all the way and embraced zero tillage. He said it was an exercise in frustration bordering on failure until he realized the transition involved more
Editorial: Changing how we think
Editorial: The real deal to watch
There has been quite the media hullabaloo lately over rumours that a large multinational based in the U.S. might be closing in on a deal with CWB, the much abbreviated version of the former Canadian Wheat Board. Whether this rumoured deal is a partnership or acquisition depends on who’s talking, but in reality, it doesn’t
Editorial: Foraging for a national voice
Just four years since its inception, the Canadian Forage and Grassland Association is struggling after losing the support of the sector that arguably benefits the most from its activities. Eighty per cent of Canada’s beef production depends on forages as the main feed source. Of the $5.1 billion of economic activity forages contribute to the
Editorial: The ‘Bonanza’ farm
Serious thought needed about who will do the work, how will they be paid, and where the investment capital will come from
I’ve seen a man on one of our big farms start out in the spring and plow a straight furrow until fall. Then he turned around and harvested back.” This anecdote dating back to the late 1800s was shared by Sam Moore in the 2010 article “Bonanza Farms of the Red River Valley,” found on
Editorial: The information age and agriculture’s footprint
University agronomist says estimates of how much food needed to feed world's population by 2050 are too low
The latest global supply-and-demand outlooks make it a little difficult to get too excited over worries the world will run out of food any time soon. World grain prices are weakening under what are characterized as burdensome supplies of staple commodity crops. Most of the pundits are now predicting we’re in for a prolonged period
Editorial: Remembering the fallen
Remembrance Day came early for Canadians this year. A full century since the start of the First World War, the events of Oct. 20 and 22 which claimed the lives of Canadian servicemen Patrice Vincent and Nathan Cirillo became painful reminders that war is not something we can relegate to our society’s fading collective memory.
Small-scale farming at a crossroads
Is small beautiful or should the new motto be ‘move up or move out?”
As director general of the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington, D.C., Shenggen Fan has come a long way from his roots in rural China, where he shared a one-hectare farm with his parents and two brothers. The agricultural economist, honoured earlier this year by the World Food Program’s Hunger Hero Award for his
Editorial: Winning at the WTO for real
Canadian livestock producers won something to crow about but little else in the latest WTO ruling to support their claim that the U.S. mandatory country-of-origin labelling rules are unfair and discriminatory. The ruling was accompanied by the now-familiar volley of press releases from Canadian livestock and meat producers, and more sabre-rattling by federal politicians about
Ebola has become famine’s new friend
Hunger and displacement caused by the crisis could have long-lasting effects
The global campaign to end world hunger came face to face last week with famine’s powerful new ally: the Ebola virus. “It could lead to a hunger crisis of epic proportions,” Kanayo Nwanze, president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) told delegates attending the Borlaug Dialogue, an annual event held in honour of
Editorial: Getting out to vote
Eleven municipalities in rural Manitoba will have no election on Oct. 22
Newcomers to rural communities are occasionally shocked at how longtime residents seemingly pay lip service to the democratic process in the name of “getting the job done.” You know the scene. There is sometimes no election at all at the annual meetings to elect an organization’s officers, simply an affirmation through a show of hands