Market Access Oversold

The benefits of free trade and unfettered access to world agricultural markets are being oversold to farmers, according to Daryll E. Ray, an agricultural economist at the University of Tennessee. Economic principles such as supply and demand and comparative advantage don’t work the same with food as other commodities. Food, like insulin to a diabetic,

Moving From Supply To Value-Driven Business Models

The following is excerpts from the report “Characterizing the Ideal Model of Value Chain Management and Barriers to its Implementation” recently released by the George Morris Centre at the University of Guelph. Many attempts have been made to describe what differentiates a supply chain from a value chain. What lies at the heart of the


GM Closures Hit Rural Manitoba Hard

“It’s going to be a big blow to the community, that’s for sure.” – KEN GREAVETT, ERICKSON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE The long arm of the North American automobile industry crisis has reached beyond Detroit and Oshawa to affect small-town Manitoba. General Motors will shut down at least half a dozen of its dealerships in Manitoba,

The Oligarchs Of Ag

Former General Motors boss Rick Wagoner evidently did not understand the meaning of the biblical admonition of those who live by the sword often die by it. It’s easy to see why. Detroit has owned Washington, D. C. for, well, forever: no increase in car mileage standards since the Pinto; no new fuel technologies since

Ethanol Seen Taking Third Of U. S. Gasoline Market

The United States could replace nearly a third of gasoline consumption with ethanol mainly made from plant waste and special energy crops in about 20 years, according to a study released Feb. 10. Some 75 billion gallons of ethanol per year could be made from non-food cellulosic feedstocks, like wood waste and fast-growing grasses, and