Fair Food, Circus Fare – for Aug. 19, 2010

As the county and state fair season spreads across America, farmers, ranchers and producer groups from Maryland and Montana will cook rib-eyes, whip up omelettes, grill chicken, barbecue pork steaks, butter sweet corn and pour thick milkshakes for their non-farming customers from Baltimore to Billings and nearly everywhere in between. This fresh, wholesome goodness will




Bees Need Diverse Landscape To Thrive

If you’ve ever complained about there being too many bees around, consider yourself lucky. Pollinators – such as bees, butterflies and bats – are responsible for the continued existence of more than 70 per cent of the world’s flowering plant population. But they are significantly decreasing in number. By carrying pollen from the male to


The Best Farm Support Program

Scholarly types come up with different numbers when they set about quantifying the returns on public investment in agricultural research, but they are all, without fail, extraordinarily positive. University of Guelph agricultural economist George Brinkman summed it well in a 2004 paper by saying agricultural research is one of the highest payback uses for public

Grasshoppers Important To Migratory Birds

May 8 is International Migratory Bird Day. Created in 1993, International Migratory Bird Day focuses attention on the remarkable migration of 90 per cent of Canada’s birds back from the southern United States, Mexico and Central America. Unfortunately, many of those bird populations are in decline. The reasons are varied and sometimes uncertain, but mitigated


Study Finds Chemicals Threaten Honeybee Health

“It’s one more arrow in the quiver.” – HEATHER CLAY, CHC Anew U. S. study has detected a number of pesticides in North American honeybee colonies at far higher levels than previously known. Scientists have found “unprecedented levels of miticides and agricultural pesticides in honeybee colonies from across the U. S. and one Canadian province,”

Agriculture Can Meet Long-Term Food Demand

Agriculture has the scope to meet soaring global demand for food by exploiting potential for higher yields and expanded farmland in certain regions, a Societe Generale analyst told Reuters March 18. Achieving large gains in farm output would however take several years and this time lag could bring renewed tensions in food supply in the


Cattle Producers Call For Predator Bounties

“The populations have just gotten way out of hand.” – SHEILA MOWAT, MCPA Acall by Manitoba cattle producers for a province-wide bounty on wildlife predators looks like a non-starter with the NDP government. “We’re not about to introduce a general provincial removal program for coyotes and wolves,” said Barry Verbiwski, Manitoba Conservation’s head of problem

Producers Need To Participate In Their Organizations

A National Food Strategy is required to ensure that we have a vibrant contributing agriculture sector in Canada. As the Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) celebrates its 75th anniversary, the future of Canadian agriculture is at a crossroads and the future of food in this country is uncharted. Currently, Canada has no comprehensive strategy for