As one tour comes to an end, another one begins. Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Lawrence MacAulay has ended his cross-Canada tour dubbed “Growing Canadian Agriculture." For the duration of the second part of the tour, MacAulay went from west to east meeting with various farmers, processors, and industry leaders. He also took part in... Read More
Category: Ag Policy
What a week in Wisconsin. When I arrived at the annual World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin, early last week, farmers across the U.S. were still trying to understand the potential impact that the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) could have on their farms. Early television reports featured emotional farmers sharing tearful thanks for a new... Read More
Ontario's Premier Doug Ford began his western tour Thursday by visiting a kindred spirit, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe. Moe clearly indicated he’s glad to have Ford on his side on several issues, but particularly Saskatchewan's long-standing opposition to the carbon tax. Ontario announced it is intervening in the Government of Saskatchewan’s reference challenging the federal... Read More
If you have a piece of low land, shallow soil, or a stream bank that you've thought about taking out of production, the ALUS concept may be of interest to you. ALUS Canada pays farmers to establish and maintain permanent cover on their farms, contributing to cleaner water and air and to wildlife habitat. ALUS... Read More
During a recent trip to Washington, D.C., Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland wore a t-shirt that read: “Keep calm and negotiate NAFTA.” To farmers looking at the result, the shirt could just as easily have read “I renegotiated NAFTA, and all I got was this lousy t-shirt.” Canada came to the table with very little... Read More
Increased access to the Canadian dairy market through the newly minted United States Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA) will not be a boon for U.S. dairy farmers. That's the early verdict from Mark Stephenson, director of dairy policy analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "I think the dairy producers are not going to look at their... Read More
It looks like the Manitoba government will join the fight to oppose the federal carbon tax plan by sticking with its own Made-in-Manitoba Climate and Green Plan that does not specifically put a price on carbon. Other provinces already moving ahead with their own plan include Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Ontario. In a news release, Manitoba... Read More
Soybeans have been on a wild ride the last few days, riding news of high stocks, news of the U.S./Mexico/Canada trade agreement (USMCA). What's a farmer to do? RealAg Radio host, Shaun Haney spoke with Arlan Suderman, chief commodities economist at INTL FCStone Inc., to talk soybeans' recent woes. “I think that there's a lot... Read More
The long, drawn out NAFTA negotiations really weighed heavily on the nerves of agricultural exporters. The fear of losing the U.S. market or the real threat of the border possibly becoming thicker was a huge stress for beef, pork, oilseed, and cereal producers. The news, then, that there is a trilateral deal to be ratified... Read More
The 25-year-old trade deal known as NAFTA is no more. As of Sunday night, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement know as USMCA was born. So what does this mean for producers? Let us break it down for you... Increased market access for American dairy farmers So far, market access into the Canadian dairy sector has been... Read More