Comment: Balancing production against pollution

Comment: Balancing production against pollution

POLICY Focus should be on hunt for solutions that are a win for farms and the environment

The federal government has set a national reduction target for emissions coming from the use of nitrogen fertilizer to 30 per cent below 2020 levels by 2030. It is currently consulting on recommendations for how best to achieve this goal, but not on the goal itself. Many agriculture ministers were hoping this goal was open

Comment: Extremes make bad food policies

When ideologues at either end of the spectrum stifle debate, we’re all worse off

Not a day goes by without seeing a group, or even a government, changing rules for farmers. In the name of the planet, animal welfare or our own health, rules are changing despite our farmers’ knowledge and experience. It’s an interesting phenomenon and it’s happening all around the world. Farmers have long been regarded as


Soldier fly larvae like these can convert waste food into high-protein feed.

Comment: Bugs for cows

Feeding insects to cattle could make meat and milk production more sustainable

The world’s population is growing, and so is the challenge of feeding everyone. Current projections indicate that by 2050, global food demand could increase by 59 per cent, which is 98 per cent above current levels. In particular, there will be increased demand for high-quality protein foods such as meat and dairy products. Livestock producers

Editor’s Take: A return to normalcy

What a long, strange trip it’s been, to quote the old song. Back in March 2020, most of us were probably expecting a brief interruption — a few weeks at most — to our lives. Needless to say, that’s not how it played out. It’s been more than two years of cancellations, delays and shelved


Climate change requires all net CO2 emitters to cut output.

Opinion: Real GHG emissions solutions need open mind

First steps in ag climate fight are honesty and courage, not offsets and credits

[UPDATED: May 19, 2022] Last May, the Canadian National Farmers Union (NFU), submitted a detailed response to the Canadian government’s earlier “Draft Greenhouse Gas Offset Credit System Regulations.” The response, like the government request, went relatively unnoticed in U.S. ag circles. It shouldn’t have because the 23-page reply by the NFU was as shocking in

Canada will be fine when it comes to food access, but food will cost more which will make things difficult for some consumers.

Opinion: Is Ottawa aware the world is on the brink of a food shortage?

Canada needs to boost its food security and its sustainable agriculture trade

Food supply chain issues have enticed many to question the global nature of our food systems. Some are suggesting we need to deglobalize and refocus our energy into making most economies around the world food sovereign. Given what the world is about to face this year, with major famine among millions experiencing acute hunger, it’s


Global wheat prices hit record levels in March after war broke out among top exporters Russia and Ukraine, and that came on the heels of an already-tight supply situation.

U.S. winter wheat health among worst ever, yield prospects dicey

Reuters – The U.S. winter wheat crop has emerged from dormancy in miserable condition following a historically dry winter in key production states, almost guaranteeing that the harvest will not rank among the country’s better ones. The timing is not great since tensions in the wheat market are running high. Global wheat prices hit record

The U.S. Department of Agriculture pegged 2022 U.S. corn plantings at 89.49 million acres based largely on producer surveys conducted in the first half of March.

Analysts blow U.S. corn acreage predictions again

The trade could redeem itself in June when the next estimates drop

Reuters – U.S. planting intentions kept their unpredictable reputation alive March 30, as corn acres fell outside the range of analyst estimates for a fourth consecutive year. The trade reversed its overestimation trend on soybean area, but the miss was still substantial. Market participants have recently come a little closer to the reported corn and


In 1981, before anyone knew how to spell ethanol, U.S. wheat acres hit a record-high 88 million.

Opinion: The coming war for U.S. crop acres

Ethanol might be a sacred cow for now, but expect a renewed food-versus-fuel fight

Farmers are long familiar with acre wars. This late-winter scrum is a showdown over how many acres of which crop farmers will plant. Most years these fights are decided by a variable — and oftentimes volatile — combination of three elements: what market prices are calling for, how government farm programs could affect prices, and

Opinion: A broken system

Supply chain fragility reveals overall economic fragility of globalization

One of the most beautiful – and inexplicable – aspects of economics is how its practitioners never seem to be wrong. Indeed, almost every school of economic thought, from John Maynard Keynes’ demand-driven economics on the left to Arthur Laffer’s supply-side economics on the right, is crowded with disciples defending their leader’s theories and just


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