Editorial: Less water, more grass

A few hundred thousand here, a few million there. Manitoba’s PC government is rightly or wrongly getting plenty of attention for its trimming of the health-care and education systems. But it’s time for this government to start saving some real money. The Red River Basin Commission recently held meetings to mark the 20th anniversary of the

Editorial: New opportunities

Editorial: New opportunities

Agriculture is often viewed, especially by outsiders, as a staid and conservative place where things are done by tradition. To be fair, it’s often true. After all, you’re practising a craft that’s 12,000 years old and the foundation of human civilization. Without farming we’d all be hunting and gathering our next meal with no time


Ag in Motion, 2016.

Editorial: Midpoint

It’s that point of the summer when the crops are really getting their legs. They’re growing, stretching and filling and now success or failure is largely between themselves and Mother Nature. As a farmer, you’ve done what you can to set them up for success, and that’s no doubt made for some hard work, long

Editorial: Food for thought

The federal government has suddenly taken an interest in food. It is about much more than growing agriculture and food exports, although that’s certainly one of the stated goals. It is beginning discussions toward a national food policy for the country. As Glacier FarmMedia staff writer John Greig outlined in a recent article (“Farm and


Editorial: Our country

It’s long been a national pastime, fretting over “Canadian identity.” Does it exist? What is it? How do we define it? What does it say about us? With Canada Day set for this weekend, and a milestone 150th birthday party celebration for the nation set to run all summer, we’re no exception here at the

Editorial: On your watch

The recent images from poultry operations in B.C.’s Fraser Valley are fresh in the minds of many Canadians. That’s not good news for the livestock sector. What they’ve revealed is unflattering, shocking and immoral. Contract ‘chicken catchers’ were caught on video stomping on birds, simulating sex acts on them and ripping limbs from living animals.


Editorial: The science of marketing

There’s an old truism from the world of marketing that goes, “the customer is always right.” Too often these days it’s used by bad customers to justify their even worse behaviour. They seem to feel it excuses all sort of boorishness, from yelling at the wait staff to making insulting low-ball offers. But its original

Editorial: Punching above their weight

Anyone who feels farmers are a spent political force in Canada need only consult the results of the recent Conservative Party of Canada federal leadership race. Farmers may make up less than two per cent of the national population, but that Saturday night, as delegates voted for a new leader, a relative handful of farmers


Editorial: Thanks coach

What seems like a lifetime ago now, I was a reporter with a small rural weekly in northwestern Saskatchewan. As one does when staffing a small media outlet, I wound up covering a bit of everything, including the local senior hockey team. They were a fun bunch of mill workers, mechanics and local farm kids,

Editorial: But what about the farmers?

The statistic does give you a bit of a jolt: In 2015 tiny Netherlands was No. 3 in world agri-food exports, with Canada way behind in No. 12 spot. That statistic is highlighted in the second report by the Advisory Council on Economic Growth, which was established by Minister of Finance Bill Morneau and led