By Shaun Haney With the Conservatives getting a majority last week it would appear that the CWB single desk is cooked. One of he more controversial parts of the speculation was created by Gerry Ritz who said that there would not be a farmer vote on the issue. Groups like the NFU have been snorting... Read More
Category: Agriculture Policy
Alberta Pork is taking unprecedented steps to help its producers deal with the economic hardships faced over the past years. Two million dollars collected by the organization will be refunded back to producers. The Organization made the move after it was unable to find a partner with which to leverage its funds to create programs... Read More
By Shaun Haney With the Conservatives winning a majority it took very little time for the speculation to begin on how long it will take the Canadian Wheat Board's single desk responsibilities on wheat to be extinguished. It was interesting to watch the live discussion on twitter while the election results were being posted on... Read More
By Stewart Skinner, (@modernfarmer) I found watching the election progress on Twitter exciting on Monday night (you could argue I should get out more) and I got caught up a bit in the overwhelmingly negative reactions to the Conservative majority. I’m guessing that most of the pessimism stemmed from the younger, more liberal community that... Read More
The following is an organic farmers response to the comments made on this site by Mischa Popoff, criticizing the Canadian Organic Certification System. By Rob Wallbridge, Songberry Organic Farm In 2008, organic food represented a $50 billion industry world-wide, with sales of $2 billion in Canada. Organic products account for 3.5% of all food and... Read More
Hog farmers across the country have had it bad for a while. Market crashes, disease and deteriorating consumer confidence have been major issues for pork producers for quite some time. Running a hog farm is not easy or glamorous. They require an incredible amount of hands on management from farrow to finish. Hogs are hard... Read More
It is maybe the most unpopular election in the history of Canada but elections provide opportunities. For groups or industries trying to get their message communicated to politicians and the general public, elections provide the opportunity to make quick progress. Will agriculture even make the debates? If agriculture does get discussed, what will be the... Read More
"Those dairy farmers print money!" That's what a friend of mine says every time the subject of dairy farms comes up. Drive down many roads in Canada and it's easy to see how that perception was born. Huge brand new facilities, multi-site operations with finely manicured yards and milking parlors with nicer tile most people's... Read More
The Land Stewardship Act has become a very controversial topic within the borders of Alberta. In December, Realagriculture.com posted an interview with Keith Wilson discussing the potential hazards of the law and why farmers and ranchers should be very concerned. We received many emails on this original story and interview from around North America. It... Read More
By Dr. Cami Ryan, University of Saskatchewan Currently on hiatus in Perth and working on a research project with the Institute of Agriculture at University of Western Australia (UWA), I had the opportunity to the attend Crop Updates 2011. Crop Updates 2011 is Western Australia's premier agronomic event and is sponsored by the Department of... Read More