More questions from readers

Hi Reena, Year after year, mildew develops along the caulking/sealant around my windows. In past years, my husband has regularly used bleach and much elbow grease to clean it. We don’t mind the normal amount of work a house takes but this is ridiculous, not to mention probably harmful to our health — both the

Report calls for new soil vision

Our soil is a great resource, and we need to change our vision of how we manage it.” This is one conclusion from a roundtable held by Gord Miller, the environmental commissioner of Ontario, which brought together experts and stakeholders to discuss the opportunities and challenges of increasing soil carbon and building healthy soils. The



2012 was a year of clear results: CCC president

Canadian athlete and competitive rower Marnie McBean told last week’s Canola Council of Canada convention delegates that being a true champion means continuously pursuing improvement, even when you’re already at your best. The three-time-gold Olympian and epitome of focus and unflinching drive was just 24 when she and teammate Kathleen Heddle first rowed to a


Teeth show origin of European farmers

Farmers, look after your teeth. Someone in a few thousand years might be checking them out. That’s what archeologists have been doing to learn more about how farming spread to Stone Age Europe, setting the stage for the rise of western civilization. “One of the big questions in European archeology has been whether farming was

Got bald patches on eroded knolls? Ammonium sulphate may be the cause

If you’ve always assumed canola emerges poorly on eroded knolls because the soil there is poor, think again. Toxicity from ammonium sulphate fertilizer could be the real reason behind those bald patches, especially on Newdale-type soils with high amounts of calcium carbonate in the subsoil zones, according to University of Manitoba student Laryssa Grenkow. “The


Expert panel identifies gaps in water management

A better understanding is needed of how climate change could affect the availability for water in agriculture

An expert panel convened by the Council of Canadian Academies is urging more research into the potential impact of climate change on water available for agriculture. In a newly released report commissioned by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the panel concludes that water and land resources in Canada can be more sustainably managed by developing forward-thinking

WHO issues its first guidelines for sodium intake for children

Reuters / The World Health Organization (WHO) has for the first time recommended limits on children’s daily consumption of sodium, which it hoped would help in the global fight against diet-related diseases becoming chronic among all populations. In advice to its 194 member states Jan. 31, the UN agency noted high sodium levels were a


Dietary shifts driving up phosphorus use

Rising meat consumption, and calorie intakes are 
complicating efforts to conserve essential resource

Dietary changes since the early 1960s have fuelled a sharp increase in the amount of mined phosphorus used to produce the food consumed by the average person over the course of a year, according to a new study led by researchers at McGill University. Between 1961 and 2007, rising meat consumption and total calorie intake

Manitoba government defends oilpatch oversight

Companies caught dumping oilfield waste in ditches are responsible for cleaning it up, a Manitoba government official said in an email to the Manitoba Co-operator last week. The official was responding to Cromer farmer Carlyle Jorgensen’s complaint, reported in the Nov. 1 Co-operator, that the province’s Petroleum Branch isn’t doing enough to discourage improper waste