It’s a story that’s sending a collective shudder through the farming community — and a powerful message. A four-year-old boy died of head injuries last year after he fell out of the skid-steer bucket he was riding in with his brother while their father was using it to move wood chips on their Ontario farm.
Comment: Combining work, life and farm safety
Keeping kids safe on the farm is a complex balance
Organic farmers don’t get a pass on clubroot
Clubroot can also infect mustard, radish and other brassicas
Organic farmers are mistaken if they think they will be spared from the clubroot infestation making its way across the Prairies because they don’t grow canola, a crops extension specialist with Saskatchewan Agriculture says. Brent Flaten warned growers attending the SaskOrganics annual conference March 29 the disease affects all cruciferous plants, and that includes brassica
Opinion: Liability hampers autonomous ag
For farmer and inventor Brian Tischler, the question isn’t whether autonomous tractors are cool, possible, or useful — it’s how to overcome the liability risk. Tischler told farmers attending CropConnect in Winnipeg recently it’s possible to build your own self-driving vehicle for around $1,000. He’s done it. That’s made the Manville, Alberta farmer a popular
Editorial: The changing faces of agriculture
Roaming the hallways and meeting rooms of this week’s CropConnect conference in Winnipeg offered an interesting snapshot of the state of farming in this province. Kudos to the organizers: the two-day conference put on by a consortium of nine commodity groups has proven itself a success on numerous fronts. With all the commodity groups out
Editorial: Meeting in the middle
Health Canada has delivered some reassuring news for people worried about glyphosate in their food and the environment in the wake of some of the controversial reports and court rulings last year. The much-publicized jury ruling in favour of a California plaintiff claiming long-term exposure to the weed killer caused his cancer, has touched off
Editorial: The meat industry has a lot on its plate
Predictably, the Canadian Meat Council doesn’t take kindly to the suggestion that consumers are showing increased interest in plant-based proteins at the expense of meat. The council came out swinging at the Canadian Food Price Report released earlier this month, calling the report misleading and noting that demand for meat is “only” set to fall
Comment: A more transparent regulatory system is key to public trust
The deepening controversy over glyphosate is only the tip of the iceberg
My parents decided in the mid-1980s that they wanted to do a better job of caring for the soils on our southern Manitoba farm — and tillage had to go. However, eliminating tillage meant coming up with another way of controlling weeds that would otherwise choke out a fledgling crop. One of the tools they
Editorial: Volatility likely to linger
When you are as dependent on exports as Canadian farmers, the ability to weather volatile markets has to be part of the business plan. The Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance says Canada exports half of the beef and cattle produced, 70 per cent of its soybeans, 70 per cent of its pork production, 75 per cent
Editorial: Feeding the world — but with what?
It’s commonly believed that the world is at risk of running out of food and enough land to produce it. It’s true that the world’s population continues to grow and an emerging middle class in developing economies is increasing the demand for a higher-quality diet. It’s also true that the number of hungry people on
Comment: Expect the unexpected in push to build plant protein sector
Demand will rise, but new pulse supercluster will have to be nimble to seize opportunity
Pardon the pun, but the agricultural industry’s pulse was palpably high in the downtown hotel ballroom earlier this month as 300 leaders gathered to officially launch the Protein Industries Canada supercluster. The ‘Thought Leaders Summit’ was designed to get stakeholders in the plant-based protein value chain singing from the same song sheet, albeit in four-part
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
