If political parties are unwilling to defend modern farming — the foundation of the nation’s export-oriented agricultural economy — they should tell farmers now.

Make modern agriculture an election issue

Bill Campbell and Cam Dahl fear opponents to new technology will derail agricultural productivity, sustainability and undermine Canada’s economy

Modern Canadian agriculture faces an existential threat that farmers should be raising as an issue in the federal election. That’s the view of two Manitoba-based agricultural leaders — Bill Campbell, president of the Keystone Agricultural Producers (KAP), Manitoba’s general farm organization, and Cereals Canada president Cam Dahl. Both came to their positions independently, without consulting

Politics and a renewed vigour of nationalism are making it increasingly difficult for international trade.

Agricultural trade looms as election issue

Farmers, most of whom rely on exports know it, and so does Ottawa as both face rising protectionism

Continuing trade turmoil is top of mind for Canadian farmers and the federal government heading into the October federal election. The Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association (WCWGA) is demanding the government bulldoze barriers to Canadian agricultural exports. The Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance (CAFTA) has issued recommendations to protect and enhance Canadian agriculture and food exports.


dairy cow

Dairy market loss close to four per cent

Dairy groups told no answer is coming until after the deals are ratified

Dairy farmers are still waiting to find out if the new federal government will honour the word of its Conservative predecessor. They were promised compensation to offset market loss under two proposed trade deals, but six months into its mandate, the Trudeau government has been noncommittal. Speaking at a Dairy Farmers of Manitoba meeting here

Miriam Sweetnam remains optimistic about her family’s future in the dairy business.

Dairy farmers see CETA as a sign of the future

Glacier FarmMedia Special Report: The industry knows it must adapt and hopes proposed compensation packages will help

Glacier FarmMedia assembled a team of reporters from its network of publications, which includes the Manitoba Co-operator, to examine the implications of Canada’s new trade deal with the European Union on Canadian agriculture and food processing. In coming weeks, watch for a series of articles that zero in on the challenge Canadian agriculture faces turning

Grow Hope farmer Grant Dyck and some of the people who sponsored an acre this past growing season, at the Grow Hope field, as Grant talks to them about their crop.

Manitoba Grow Hope project has successful first year

The project raised more than $92,000 for Mennonite Central Committee account in Canadian Foodgrains Bank

What do you get when you bring together 105 individuals and families, six churches and one company with a farmer? You have the Grow Hope community growing project in Manitoba, an effort to raise funds for the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) account in Canadian Foodgrains Bank (CFGB). The project, which invited people in the province


U.S. Capitol Hill senate building

Editorial: COOL fight not over yet

U.S. legislators will soon vote to repeal, but how it will all play out remains to be clear

The WTO has made its final-final decision in Canada’s favour on U.S. labelling laws. It now appears that U.S. legislators in the House of Representatives will vote next month on a bill to repeal it. But Canada’s COOL fight isn’t over. Support for repealing the legislation is less secure from the U.S. Senate where the

Weekly livestock auction

For week ending Nov. 22, 2013

The first real snowfall of the year, seen on Nov. 17, didn’t keep the cattle away at Manitoba’s auction yards during the week ended Nov. 22. The snow made for some messier conditions and caused a few cancellations here and there, but overall didn’t interfere too much with cattle marketing in Manitoba during the week.

Country-of-origin labelling appeal gaining U.S. support

Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz has one thing to say about country-of-origin labelling (COOL): “It’s not cool.” In the midst of an appeal to quash COOL in the United States, Ritz has been working to gain supporters in the U.S. in an effort to halt non-science-based trade practices that could have far-reaching implications for Canadian


Please, let’s not win again

Traceability is a fact of life for almost every other commodity that consumers buy; yet somehow we have not embraced traceability’s potential in the world of food. I cannot buy an iPhone that does not have complete traceability back to its basic components; yet what we put into our bodies is rarely traceable to source.

KAP opposes $5,000 cap on farmland education tax rebates

The new $5,000 cap on farmland education tax rebates the Manitoba government announced in last week’s budget should be scrapped, farmers meeting here last week said. A resolution to lobby the government to reverse changes to the program passed at the Keystone Agricultural Producers’ general council meeting April 18. “If you take a look at