It's time for the province to commission an independent review of Manitoba's vegetable marketing board.

Editorial: Time for a review of Peak

Peak of the Market is back in the news, not that it’s ever very far from it. For example, week in, week out, every issue of the Winnipeg Free Press has a large advertisement with a daily recipe from Peak, each prominently featuring a photo of CEO Larry McIntosh. However, those ads often feature vegetables

man at desk with paperwork

Editorial: Paperwork versus field work

Many readers may find themselves shouting out a hearty “heck, yeah” to this week’s release of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business annual survey of what farmers think of paperwork. In a nutshell, not much, which isn’t surprising. After all, who among us does the happy dance at tax time or when Statistics Canada calls


Doug Chorney

Five years lost as farmers wait for better default protection on grain sales

Leaving feed mills exempt from coverage under existing licensing and bonding leaves farmers vulnerable to losses

In 2009, western Canadian farm groups submitted a report to the Honourable Gerry Ritz, minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, outlining options for a program that would provide security to producers when grain buyers defaulted on payments. The main options were fund-based, insurance-based or bond-based programs. It was not that there wasn’t already a form