Opinion
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
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
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
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
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
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
Opinion: Up, down or sideways??
Farmland values picture becomes unclear when you delve into the numbers
It’s the choices we make in the good times, the grandson of a Kansas homesteader once told me, that determine our farming successes, not the choices we make in the bad times. Why? Because, he explained, in the good times we have the money to make big mistakes and in the bad times we’re too
Opinion: Smarm, snarl, and snark
Style can’t replace facts, honesty, and ideas in an off-the-mark New York Times video
As deep winter reasserted itself over most of the continent’s farms and ranches, the New York Times brought some real heat to the Big-Ag-Fights-Climate-Change debate. In a 14-minute, fast-paced video titled “Meet the People Getting Paid to Kill Our Planet,” the film’s subtitle not only names the killers, it convicts them, too: “American agriculture is