The statistical portrait

So the federal government wants to get out of community pasture management and producing shelterbelt trees. Fair enough. There’s nothing saying those pastures can’t continue under local management or that trees can’t be produced by private nurseries. Manitoba already has two locally managed community pastures, which appear to be functioning well. And judging from the

Is it really true that CN and CP need more money?

Recently the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) announced that Prairie grain farmers will pay 9.5 per cent more to ship their grain. Based on the 2011 total freight bill under the revenue cap of $952 million, a 9.5 per cent increase means another $90 million straight out of the pockets of Prairie farmers. Based on 31


The Brand X elevator and corporate control of the food supply

The potential for contracted acres to be linked to herbicide and fertilizer purchases as well as point of delivery was already there

When Manitoba Pool Elevators and the Alberta Wheat Pool amalgamated in 1998 to become Agricore, I joked at the local watering hole that we really needed to invent an elevator sign that was Velcro backed. Even then, it was apparent that there was a lot of work involved in rebranding trade names on very tall

OUR HISTORY: 1800s — 1940s

Getting around in the early days The Manitoba Agricultural Museum is opening a new transportation display on Manitoba Day May 12. The display tells the story of transportation in rural Manitoba from the Red River cart of the 1800s right through to the vehicles of the 1940s. It uses real artifacts from the various eras


Flooding: The rule or the exception?

You may find yourself feeling a little unsettled with the absence of major flooding this spring. Could this be a sign that we expect floods in the Red River basin to be more rule than exception? If one looks at the last century or two, it appears that flooding has been the rule in the

The challenge of civility

Awareness days, weeks and months are a rapidly growing phenomenon in the modern world, a bid by groups with a special interest to flag down our fast-moving society for just a few moments to consider their cause. They can be altruistic, as in World Food Day, observed by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization every


Our history: Thomas Bunn House

River Lot 97, Bunn’s Road, RM of St. Clements Begun in 1862, the former Thomas Bunn House is likely the oldest continuously occupied dwelling in all of Manitoba and one of its oldest surviving stone structures. It is also a superb example of a modest-size “Georgian-style” house, popular at the time in Scotland and England,

Innovation report raises potential of traditional industries

Traditional industries are a major economic driver yet they are largely ignored in public policy making

The agri-food sector should consider joining forces with the fisheries, mining, forestry and energy industries to remind Canadians how important the country’s original economic building blocks remain. The forestry, mining and energy sectors generate about 11 per cent of the national Gross Domestic Product, says a new report from the Public Policy Forum. Add in


Letters, May 10, 2012

“Use it or lose it” comments tactless In the April 5 Manitoba Co-operator story “CWB offering new crop prices, contracts now,” by Allan Dawson, Grain Growers of Canada executive director Richard Phillips tactlessly comments that farmers need to use the CWB or lose it. This idea coming from Phillips is ironic and quite frankly foolish.

Travel, trade and local markets

It was no surprise to learn last week that our federal minister of agriculture has racked up $271,000 in travel expenses since March 2011, the most of anyone in the federal cabinet. But unlike some of his colleagues, whose expense accounts have raised eyebrows among Canadians and howls of protest from opposition critics, we expect


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