An outline of some of the issues Alberta Beef Producers has brought forward as reasons for a potential membership withdrawal, as well as the Canadian Cattle Association’s response
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Untangling Alberta Beef Producers’ withdrawal from the Canadian Cattle Association
An outline of issues Alberta Beef Producers has brought forward, as well as the Canadian Cattle Association’s response
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
Comment: JBS ransomware attack highlights need for new internet
The growing problem points to the need for a new, more secure system
Make no mistake: We are also in the midst of a digital pandemic of ransomware attacks. The recent attacks on Colonial Pipeline and JBS USA — the world’s largest meat processor — underscore the growing brazen nature of organized, deliberate attacks on increasingly significant targets, and our chronic inability to defend against them. What we
Window open wider for comment on CGC licensing moves
Facing “requests from stakeholders,” the Canadian Grain Commission has granted them a 12-week extension on its deadline for comments on plans to license feed mills, producer car loading sites and grain agents. The deadline, previously June 3, is now Aug. 31, the commission said in a release Friday. Input is being sought from producer railway
Agriculture’s role in nutrient loss
Ultimately, storing water on the land isn’t just about flood control, it’s about capitalizing on available nutrients as well
Checking the news feeds across my conservation agriculture news, I see a common thread. Increased nutrient loads at Lake Erie, Chesapeake Bay, the ever-present “dead zone” of the Gulf of Mexico and calls for more action on the state of Lake Winnipeg. The human contributions are relatively constant, albeit constantly increasing, so when things go
Educational systems for 2050 — lessons from history
An essay from Moving Toward Prairie Agriculture 2050 an assessment of Prairie agriculture’s readiness for climate change
“Education is what survives when what was learned has been forgotten.” (B.F. Skinner 1964, New Scientist, 21 May) “(Education) has produced a vast population able to read, but unable to distinguish what is worth reading, an easy prey to sensations and cheap appeals.” (G.M. Trevelyan 1942, in English Social History) Taken together, these quotes are
Ecological farming has bright future
Natural systems agriculture offers a practical alternative to ‘command and control’ production models
Industrialized countries use a “command and control” model in agriculture — where we try to control many of the biological processes in farming. But, problems like herbicide and antibiotic resistance, water pollution and loss of wildlife and biodiversity demonstrate that no matter how hard we try, the most diligent “command and control” approach cannot keep
The grain market needs a dose of ‘good cholesterol’
More regulation is not the solution to improving grain transportation
Just as there is both good cholesterol and bad cholesterol, there are both good and bad regulations. The CWB single desk was an example of a bad regulation — it clogged the arteries of western Canadian grain commerce by burdening farmers with high costs and no evidence of premium prices. Markets are efficient and effective
Yule logs and wheat
The following was written by J.T. Hull, editor of the Scoop Shovel, in December 1929. The proper place to celebrate Christmas is on a farm because in its natural history, it began on the farm. Let me explain. From about the fourth century of the Christian era, Christmas has been observed as the birthday of
Say NO to UPOV ’91
Ottawa is moving quickly to implement the UPOV ’91 plant breeders’ rights convention with first reading in Parliament of the Agricultural Growth Act, an agricultural omnibus bill. The proponents for this move say that doing this will keep private plant-breeding money in Canada and stop us from somehow immediately turning into Luddites. What is never
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
