U.S. Must Lead Fight Against Hunger — Bill Gates

Billionaire Bill Gates knows how to end the poverty and hunger that afflicts nearly one billion people worldwide – help them grow more food. At a food security conference May 24, Gates called for U.S. leadership in a global campaign to expand food production. Agriculture ministers of the Group of 20 major developing and emerging

Simple Solutions To The Food Challenge

Last month a milestone was marked in the history of world agriculture when the bovine disease rinderpest was officially declared eradicated. Though unknown in North America, rinderpest or “cattle plague” has been a devastating killer of cattle and wildlife for millennia in Europe, Africa and Asia. After smallpox, it’s only the second disease in history


Scientists Race To Avoid A Bitter Climate Change Harvest

Charlie Bragg gazes across his lush fields where fat lambs are grazing, his reservoirs filled with water, and issues a sigh of relief. Things are normal this year and that’s a bit unusual of late. His 7,000-acre farm near the Australian town of Cootamundra is testament to the plight facing farmers around the globe: increasingly

Farmers Should Be Paid For Stewardship Role

Amid the extensive coverage local and national media provided recently of high water on the Assiniboine River, one phrase kept echoing in my memory, “Never waste a crisis.” General Rick Hillier, retired Canadian chief of defence staff, uttered that profound advice and it is something Manitoba farmers should take to heart. For a moment we



In Brief… – for May. 12, 2011

Viterra opens Montreal office:Canada’s biggest grain handler, Viterra Inc. has opened a marketing office in Montreal following a deal last month to run the grain terminal owned by Montreal Port Authority. The marketing office will increase Viterra’s ability to buy crops and sell them to buyers in Canada, the United States and Europe, the company


Justifying Livestock

Every so often some research findings come along that cause an “aha” moment. An “aha” moment is not to be confused with a “eureka” moment, which is derived from the Greek expression “I have found it,” and denotes the discovery of something new and unique – like what Archimedes reportedly uttered in the 17th century

Environment Threatens Human-Animal Relationship, Scientist Says

People may have to change the way they work with animals if they want the world to have a sustainable future, a recent conference at the University of Manitoba was told. The historical relationship between human beings and domesticated animals, which has lasted for ages, may now be too environmentally burdensome to cont inue, an


Canada Needs Food Policy

More than 3,500 Canadians have tabled a document calling for a national food policy that emphasizes domestic food systems, more farmers, and initiatives such as school lunch programs. CalledResetting the Table: A People’s Food Policy for Canada, the document is the first national food policy proposal to emerge from this country’s growing food movement. The

World Needs Modern Agricultural Technology

CropLife International executive director Denise Dewar promotes pesticides and genetically modified crops from her Washington, D.C. office, but as a young, idealistic student, she dreamed of saving the world from pesticides. “At that time I was being influenced by the environmentalists’ very negative anti-pesticides environment,” she told the Canada Grains Council’s annual meeting in Winnipeg