Owen Roberts speaks at the University of Manitoba.

Diversity of opinions OK

If you want to reach urban audiences, ditch the email and pick up the phone

Whether you’re in the house, the combine or the barn, it’s something that rarely leaves your side — your phone. But while farmers are using their devices for everything from surfing the Internet, to purchasing fertilizer and checking weather forecasts, producers, farm organizations and commodity groups are overlooking the basics of communication when it comes



The challenge of raising informed consumers

One hundred years ago when Canadians often butchered their own meat and pulled vegetables from their own gardens, they did not need to contemplate the source of their food. They could see it with their own eyes. Today, our access to food is so easy that we need not contemplate the source either. There are

“Pink slime” pushes processor into bankruptcy

Ground beef processor AFA Foods filed for bankruptcy protection April 2, citing the impact of the uproar over a meat filler dubbed “pink slime” by critics. Meat processors have faced a backlash over the use of an ammonia-treated beef filler they call “finely textured beef.” Food activists have campaigned to have it banned, but supporters

Sights, sounds and smells in a far-off land

The sun was just peeking above the horizon as the Boeing 777 banked south just over Cairo, Egypt and headed for Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital that serves as the hub for all of Africa. We’d been travelling ahead in time, losing a night as we left Washington, D.C. at around 11 a.m. on Saturday,


Recipe Swap – for Sep. 29, 2011

Here s something to think about next time you re adding sugar to your daily cup of joe; the total amount of sugar consumed daily by most Canadians adds up to about 26 teaspoons per day. It works out to about one in every five calories consumed coming from sugar, or 21 per cent of

Study Finds Strong Arts Presence In Rural Canada

“It just sort of verifies what we knew. We know we’re one of the largest arts centres in Western Canada.” – CINDI PATRICK REMPEL, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR STEINBACH ARTS COUNCIL If, as they say, art is “the knocking from the soul that gets answered,” rural Canada has opened its doors. Canada’s small and rural municipalities are

Loonies Not Lucky For Livestock

Ca t t l e prices at the auction yards in Manitoba during the week ended Sept. 4 held relatively stable, although the continued appreciation of the Canadian dollar was viewed as a bearish price influence. Marketings of cattle were down a bit in comparison to the previous week’s level. Continued poor demand from U.


“Prairie Pedal” Reaches Home Turf

With a third of his 3,500-km ride from Calgary to Toronto behind him, and already well halfway towards his fund-raising target of $35,000 for myeloma research, Shane Saunderson stopped to rest his weary legs for a couple of days at the family farm near Souris. It was a welcome change after 10 days of cycling

Survey Finds Public Willing To Pay For EGS

“Manitobans are willing to pay $294 per household over a five-year period for wetlands, according to the survey results. If 100 per cent of wetlands are restored in the province, the public is willing to pay $358 per household over five years. This is even after those polled were told this money would come out