I would like to wish everyone a happy new year and thank you for taking the time to visit this site.  The traffic on the site continues to grow on a daily basis which is very encouraging.   Thank you to everyone for all the feedback and help in developing the content of the site…. Read More

In the short life of RealAgriculture.com, by far the most interest has been in the fertilizer stories. Fertilizer prices are a very hot topic in newspapers, on the Internet and in the coffee shops across North America.  Due to the volatility of the fertilizer market over the past 12 months, the spread in pricing from one… Read More

Last week, Mexico cut off the imports of US pork and beef from 30 US plants owned by Tyson, Smithfield Foods, JBS and Cargill. This is in addition to Mexico joining Canada on December 19th to file a complaint with the WTO regarding COOL. Reportedly, the ban had to do with technical and sanitary issues… Read More

Yesterday on Call of the Land, an Alberta Radio Show, there was an interview with the Honorable George Groeneveld, the Alberta Agriculture Minister. Known for his straight forward answers Mr. Groeneveld discusses the highlights of 2008. In the interview he discusses trade with Asia, the implementation of ALMA and ongoing issues with the WTO. This… Read More

I stumbled across this today while I was scanning my news feeds. This video is several years old because it was taken when Tom Vilsack was the Governor of Iowa. I really hope that the new Agricultural Secretary learns some truths about Canada before he meets with Mr. Ritz in the coming year. There is… Read More

It is official, Tom Vilsack is the new Ag Secretary in the United States. Vilsack is the former governor of Iowa and Presidential candidate. Iowa has the second largest agricultural output value in the country, second to only California. If you want to intimately get to know the new secretary, check out his My Space… Read More

Sometimes when you are trying to get a point across you stretch the fabric of reality to invoke thought.  Many speakers and writers do this everyday in order to make a point.  Well I think the NFU has crossed the line this week as Darrin Qualman made statements regarding Canada’s focus on trade to better agriculture… Read More

There are signs developing which indicate much higher fertilizer prices come this spring. The biggest being last weeks announcement to halt production at Agrium’s Ft. Saskatchewan production facility. As expected the pipeline is full due to lower purchases by farmers this fall as they waited for lower prices. It really feels like the perfect storm… Read More

Bill Bullard, CEO of R-Calf, was in Washington earlier this week trying to mold the future of the USDA and US trade policy. The meeting was with the Obama-Biden transition team. Based on the shenanigans that R-Calf pulls and showcases how they believe in not letting the facts distort a good story, I am concerned… Read More

Jay Whetter, Editor of Grainews, wrote on his blog this week about some recent announcements from the Growing Forward administration. I think that it is important that you read it and make sure you are abreast with the current stability programs. The post is entitled “More Time to Repay CAIS Overpayments.” I also encourage you… Read More

I met a very knowledgeable grain merchant yesterday that discussed the grain markets with our management group. The main thing that I took out of the conversation is that in the short term the barley markets may be worse than I thought. There seems to be a growing consensus that the only thing holding prices… Read More

Several years ago, farmers debated the possible benefits that Round up Ready wheat would or would not bring to the market place. Based on the result of the industry debate at the time the idea was shelved. One of the negative fall outs from this has been that transgenic wheat in general has been held… Read More

The formation of a Liberal / NDP coalition government is going to shake the political foundation of Canada. Between the fact that a man that is getting ousted by his own party may become Prime minister and party that has only one concern but to protect the interests of one province is the glue holding… Read More

Recently I did an interview with the Owner of Germination Magazine, Robynne Anderson. In terms of my writing interests, Robynne has been a strong mentor for me. I was quite honored to have Robynne ask me to participate in her GIANT VIEWS program. Robynne’s company Issues Ink is the North American leader in covering the… Read More

IBM has developed a system to fully track a steaks movement through the supply chain. This really is the ultimate in providing information to the customer. Whether or not someone is willing to pay for that sort of information I think is still in question. I still think that this sort of information is more… Read More

 

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