Ag Days 2011 Set To Kick Off January 18

Ag Days organizers expect that Brandon’s Keystone Centre in Brandon will once again be packed with visitors this year. Manitoba’s largest farm show starts Tuesday Jan. 18 and ends Thurs. Jan. 20. Admission is free and organizers are promising a great event, with a strong lineup of speakers and exhibitors coming from all across North

Western Bipole III Route Will Cost More

In response to Rosann Wowchuk’s last letter to the editor dated Nov. 4, no one is disputing the need for a Bipole III transmission line. It is Wowchuk’s total disregard for common sense and expert professional advice that is clearly the issue. The rambling western route is almost 500 km longer, which translates to almost


Urban Agriculture Growing In Winnipeg – for Sep. 23, 2010

The tomatoes are ripe, the salad greens have been sold and another growing season is nearly done at Almost Urban Vegetables in St. Norbert. Despite a fourth consecutive harvest under their belts, Bruce Berry and Marilyn Firth are reluctant to call their business a farm. It sounds a bit ostentatious. They prefer the term market

Caution: Reforms Packaged Under Pressure

The new “Product of Canada” guidelines came into effect on Dec. 31, 2008 and have been published as the new paragraph 4.19 in the Guide to Food Labelling: “a food product may claim ‘Product of Canada’ when all or virtually all major ingredients, processing and labour used to make the food product are Canadian.” The


Letters – for Jul. 8, 2010

Urban chickens a healthier option I was very interested by the article “Winnipeg group seeks backyard chicken option” (Manitoba Co-operator June 18, 2010). I am actually surprised that there are not more urban and rural people interested in raising their own chickens. There are tremendous benefits, such as much healthier eggs, free from antibiotics and

Hogs Neglected, Barn Destroyed Near Notre Dame

An air of mystery hangs over a small southern Manitoba community following the deaths of hundreds of pigs and a fire which later destroyed their barn. Provincial authorities are investigating a case of animal neglect in which approximately 2,200 feeder hogs were found starving in a barn near Notre Dame de Lourdes. About 400 pigs


Strategy The Topic At EG&S Panel Discussion

Adecade ago, the notion of paying landowners for the services they provide in maintaining wetlands and critical habitats was so radical that few thought it would ever gain traction among the public or politicians. Now, with the concept firmly established, the only obstacle going forward is funding. “Ten years ago we could barely get people

The Jacksons – for Mar. 18, 2010

Brady Jackson turned his shiny black Firebird onto Main Street. “Watch this,” he said to Amanda who was in the passenger seat as usual. Brady jammed the accelerator hard against the floor and the nose of the car lifted as the rear tires squealed on the sun-warmed blacktop. By the time they reached the speed


Homegrown “Fiction” Charms Crowd

You’ve heard about local food. How about local laughs? For three years now, Anna Glover and Ellen Martens have been harvesting small town anecdotes and yarns from local people, and creatively processing them into a comedy routine called the “Ellen and Anna Show.” At the recent Farm Focus 2010 in Boissevain, the pair sat in

Eat Local To Sustain Farmers, Conference Told

Lori Stahlbrand is on a 96 per cent mission. It’s estimated only four per cent of the food Canadians consume is grown and sold through local farmers’ markets, community-supported agriculture projects and the like. The rest comes from mainstream retailers, mostly supermarkets. As a result, there’s a huge potential market for the local food economy