Editorial: Cultivating trust

Nearly every farm conference agenda these days contains one or more speakers talking about consumer attitudes to farming, food and the agricultural sector’s “social licence.” The titles are often provocative, as in, “Will farmers be allowed to benefit from new technology?” or, “Don’t let your silence take away your licence to farm,” or, “Don’t let

Editorial: Social change is never easy

January 28, 2016 marked a significant milestone in the history of this province. A century ago Manitoba became the first government in Canada to allow women to vote. Many of us with roots in Prairie settlement have our own family stories to tell. In my own case, it was learning through distant relatives recently that


Editorial: Paying for improved varieties

Editorial: Paying for improved varieties

Having witnessed the Canadian government’s softening commitment in recent years to research that develops improved varieties for farmers, we’ve been reluctant to let taxpayers off the hook. Historically, publicly funded research has been the cornerstone of Canada’s reputation as one of the world’s best when it comes to producing cereal crops. Over the past century,

Hand and harvester

Editorial: A whole-farm approach

If you think the future of government support for agriculture lies in doing more of the same but only better, you’ll get little comfort from Manitoba’s Agriculture Risk Management Review Task Force report released last week. The 25 recommendations and the supporting appendix report should also make you a little uncomfortable if you think the


Doggerel 2016

The tree is took down, there’s no more left of the turkey It’s a new year in farming, and for many, the future’s quite murky But not for our readers, who know that from time immemorial That we clearly predict the future in the new year’s editorial But first we look back at the past

Editorial: A place of refuge

The news, including our own front page story this week, is full of stories these days about the preparations for and arrival of Canada’s newest citizens, many of them refugees from wartorn Syria. The stories are heartwarming and hopeful: Toronto schoolchildren learning to sing a welcome song in Arabic, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau personally greeting


Editorial: Conservation connections

Thoughts on the Manitoba Conservation Districts Association annual convention

The kids were heading for their buses as I arrived at the 40th Manitoba Conservation Districts Association (MCDA) annual convention in Brandon last week, just in time to help hand out plaques to the district award winners. There were hundreds of them, students brought in for the day by the association with support from community

Editorial: GHG-reduction policy not a bad deal

Editorial: GHG-reduction policy not a bad deal

The chart in last week’s Winnipeg Free Press article on the Manitoba government’s new policy to reduce greenhouse gas neatly illustrated some of the interesting but complex implications for agriculture. It listed Manitoba’s top GHG-producing facilities, and No. 1 by a wide margin is the Koch nitrogen fertilizer plant at Brandon. The No. 2 emitter


Editorial: Posturing or reality?

Editorial: Posturing or reality?

Pssst! Want to buy a port? It comes with your very own railroad. Take your time. Think about it. We don’t expect a bidding war. In the wake of its smallest shipping season in recent history, there are now reports that Colorado-based OmniTrax wants to sell the Port of Churchill and the rail line that

Opinion: What’s the futures market telling us?

Opinion: What’s the futures market telling us?

“Listen to what the futures market is telling you.” That came up in our news feed again last week, and it’s one of those phrases for which you’d like to have a dollar for every time you’ve heard it. It ranks slightly below the frequency for which you’ve heard a grain market adviser tell you