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: Meeting in the middle
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
Editorial: Right questions, wrong answers
Reaction from farmers was swift to last week’s announcement by the Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) that it plans to phase out most uses of neonicotinoids in Canada over the next three to five years. Shock, confusion and anger pretty much sum it up. Some said that if this relatively new class of products is
Editorial: Bringing innovation to life
The annual Ag in Motion outdoor farm show hosted by the Manitoba Co-operator’s parent company, Glacier FarmMedia just west of Saskatoon every July has evolved into an event that attracts more than 30,000 farmers from all over the world. This year’s AIM featured 459 exhibitors on the 320-acre show site that included 32 acres of
Editorial: CAPI report focuses on quality of export growth
There was heady excitement last year when the federal government’s Advisory Council on Economic Growth, led by Dominic Barton, identified agriculture as one of six sectors that could lead this country’s economy over the next decade. The prevailing response from within the sector was that ‘finally,’ agriculture is being acknowledged for the economic powerhouse it
Editorial: Reimagining leftovers
Sometimes deciding what to feed the family after a long, arduous day juggling daycare, jobs and traffic seems overwhelmingly complicated. If the May 31 press release from the U.S.-based Tyson Innovation Lab is any indication, deciding what we’re going to put into our mouths next is about to get more cluttered with new products, new