Respected agricultural economist Al Loyns is being remembered for his work on agricultural marketing and his dedication to his students.
Loyns, a retired member of the University of Manitoba’s department of agribusiness and agricultural economics, died on Feb. 15, 2025.
Barry Prentice, now of the University of Manitoba’s Transport Institute, was an early colleague of Loyns’. Prentice recalled Loyns’ desire to see students return to the farm with a sound understanding of marketing principles. He also told a University of Manitoba publication of attending farm meetings with Loyns and observing how Loyns was respected in the commercial agriculture community.
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Loyns’ speciality was market regulation in the agricultural and food industry, especially in the Canadian grain sector. He was an expert witness in the Charter challenge on the Canadian Wheat Board in 1996 and in the Charter challenge in 1998.
Loyns left the University of Manitoba in 1998 to consult and farm, but remained focused on policy issues for many years.
In 2011 he was author of a brief on the CWB, for the CD Howe Insitute, and was named a Fellow of the Canadian Agricultural Economics Society.
He leaves behind son Alain Loyns and grandaughter Alarey (Ally) Loyns.
