Editor’s Take: Removing barriers

My Glacier FarmMedia colleagues and I have been contemplating how to mark Canada’s National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on Sept. 30. One idea was a special edition of our electronic newsletter highlighting some of the work we’ve done over the past year to cover Indigenous issues in the agriculture sector. If you subscribe to

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When right to repair is not right to repair

I’ve had a hard time getting my morning coffee lately. The culprit is the multi-buttoned, digital-screened, expensive coffee maker taking up way too much space on the kitchen counter. Instead of pressing a button, walking away and coming back to a cup of joe, I’m instead greeted with the message “Fill H20,” despite the brimming


Opinion: Keep balance in research funding

Opinion: Keep balance in research funding

Many ingredients went into the mix that resulted in the extraordinary success of agriculture in feeding a growing population. There’s the ability of farmers to constantly learn and increase their management skills. There are also vast improvements in technology – mechanical, digital and biological – that have come from researchers in both private companies and

Editorial: My beef with fabricated beef

I’m a bit confused by all the saving-the-planet hullabaloo over that $330,000 hamburger manufactured in the laboratory — the one the people tasting it said was ‘almost’ like the real thing. It was animal protein all right, fried in butter no less, not one of those concoctions of soy, brown rice, black beans or quinoa

Being right can feel wrong

There are times in life when you like to be proven wrong, like when you take your wailing newborn to the hospital emergency ward in the middle of the night fearing something is terribly amiss. In that situation, it’s a huge relief to be told you are mistaken. And there are times when any pleasure


People make the quality

It had been a long day for the 35 people working for the Canadian International Grains Institute, and it was far from over. But as the last tour of the day made its rounds at the open house celebrating the institute’s 40th anniversary, there was nothing to indicate that the presenters had done this many,

Organic research achieving critical mass in science

The modern organic agriculture movement started 100 years ago. Sir Albert Howard was an English mycologist who served as the imperial economic botanist to the government of India between 1905 and 1924. He was fascinated by the indigenous practices of Indian farmers, whom he called his professors. His 1940 book, An Agricultural Testament, has become

The economics of animal welfare

Back in the early 1990s, when University of Manitoba animal scientist Laurie Connor first oversaw local research into hoop-housing systems for hogs, animal welfare wasn’t really even on the public radar. The key questions of the day were whether keeping pigs outdoors through a Prairie winter compromised production efficiency. Connor told a seminar last week


Whither the weather?

If this is global warming — bring it on! That was a common response to last week’s record-setting temperatures across southern Manitoba —at least initially. Who could complain about a daytime high of 11 C the first week of January? But at the same time few could deny a sense of unease over a less-than-white

Doggerel 2012: Freedom, Edam…?

Yes, with the first issue of the year, it’s once again surely Time to review the events of the past one, in verse that rhymes poorly Then if there’s some time, and to the end that you’ve stickted We’ll look ahead a few months and see what I’ve predicted I don’t want to brag, but