By Shaun Haney Did you know that the Canadian Wheat Board Elections are winding down in the next week. I really like elections because they tend to provide debate and strong conflictive view points on many different issues. The current CWB election is not conflictive, confrontational or interesting at all. There are no candidates talking... Read More
Category: Canadian Agriculture Policy
By Dick Haney At the risk of sounding like the Saturday Night Live character Debbie Downer, there is a potential evil that lurks among us; it is how we leverage equity in our operations to buy more agricultural farm land. I think it would be useful to examine the similarities between Las Vegas and financial... Read More
Earlier this week we ran a story on solar energy project in Ontario taking place on many farms from the perspective of Saturn Power (a manufacturer). In the summer I visited the farm of Steve Twynstra who has invested in solar power and is selling it back to the power grid in Ontario. Steve... Read More
The American market is very important to the Canadian cattle industry. Domestic policies in the United States can greatly impact the Canadian industry. Just think about Country of Origin Labelling (COOL) and the discussion in Canada in terms of mitigating its impact. There are some proposed changes to GIPSA potentially coming and questions and several... Read More
Residents of Rural Alberta, Forget those feelings of Entitlement - You're nowhere near as important as you once were but MAYBE the Times are a Changing I had the privilege of being a resident of rural Alberta in the heady days of the Peter Lougheed era. At the risk of sounding nostalgic, those were the... Read More
After last weeks two posts on the Canada / EU free trade agreement I received several emails from people saying that they believe that this deal will provide limited benefit to the farmer or livestock producer in Canada. The NFU has been very vocal but I find it hard to take much that they say... Read More
Not since the early 2000's have Canadian feedyards imported US feeder cattle in great numbers. Rumours are swirling that 2010 may be the year that this practice becomes popular again. There is no doubt that this will not sit well with Canadian ranchers due to the possible extra supply dragging down the current healthy calf... Read More
The National Farmers Union (NFU) has been throwing stones at Federal Agricultural Minister Gerry Ritz this week about the EU / Canada Free Trade Agreement that should be finalized by the end of the year. In a recent Better Farming story, NFU President Terry Boehm is quoted as saying....... These measures are so draconian that... Read More
Canada has been working at increasing the access of Canadian beef into Europe for quite some time. If the EU / Canada free trade agreement is ratified later this year the benefits will be very positive for Canadian beef producers. Gaining access for hormone free beef into Europe will have large benefits for the industry... Read More
Farmers markets have exploded into the mainstream with the public's increased attention on the supply of food. Traditionally this has been where farmer's that are interested in direct marketing their production can gather with consumers to due business. Dr. John Kelly, VP of Erie Innovation and Commercialization discussed his study to improve the distribution of... Read More