Even with Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz saying that the CWB plebiscite will have no impact on the Federal governments decision and will to end the single desk in Western Canada, the Canadian Wheat Board is pushing ahead with a plebiscite. I spoke with John De Pape, The CWB Monitor about this whole situation. John and… Read More
Category: Canadian Agriculture Policy
With all of the controversy surrounding the recent decision of the federal government to possible end the single desk in Western Canada the CWB is trying to present a case for a plebiscite. At the Farm Progress Show in Regina, I participated in the media scrum with Allen Oberg, CWB Chairperson to try and… Read More
At the Farm Progress Show in Regina this week we asked farmers several questions. On day one we asked farmers whether or not there should be a vote on the future of the CWB. As we have discussed before, one of the controversial issues surrounding Gerry Ritz announcing the end of the single desk has… Read More
With change coming for the Canadian Wheat Board this weeks board meeting would of been very interesting. To only be a fly on the wall in Winnipeg this week. How the CWB reacts in the short and long term has everyone speculating and guessing. I talked to Jeff Nielsen, CWB Board Member from District 2… Read More
Over the past few years, rural Alberta has seen some expansion. Some are people from other provinces or abroad who found work here, some are children of farmers going into business for themselves, and some just want out of the city. Many of those people dream about a quiet country life, away from the noise… Read More
If you thought that the Land Stewardship Act (Bill 36) was crazy well you have to check out what Keith Wilson, Wilson Law Office is saying about Bill 50. In an effort to export power to the United States the Alberta government is going to over build the transmission infrastructure inside this province. Also note… Read More
By Kevin Serfas, Farmer in Southern Alberta Its one of those moments in time where you say, “where were you when Princess Diana passed away?” Recently we had another where you moment when the Federal Conservatives were re-elected with a majority government. I can definitely tell you where I was…… It was May 2 and… Read More
The G20 may be dealing with one of the most universally concerning issues its ever faced as it attempts to address the wild swings in food prices across the globe. The developing world is most urgently in need of help as the prices of basic staples have reached levels previously unheard of. Political unrest, malnutrition… Read More
The food versus fuel debate seems to be alive and well according to Kevin Grier from the George Morris Center. Kevin also believes that some of the people that should be the most update are livestock producers in Canada. As Kevin mention in the below interview, with 40% of the US corn crop being burned… Read More
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
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