In November Syngenta celebrated its 10 year anniversary. I’ve been President for nine of those years, and have seen first hand the rapid pace of change taking place across the agricultural landscape in Canada. And change, while often feared, can be a good thing – it can bring with it opportunity. Since 2000, the Canadian... Read More
Category: Canadian Agriculture Policy
As most of you know, I am from Western Canada but as I learn more about Ontario agriculture it seems that many of the concerns are the same. There are differences between the east and the west but overall things like income stabilization, risk management and government lobby tend to always come forward first no... Read More
< p style="text-align: center;"> You Need to Be Concerned About Bill 36 - The Land Stewardship Act By Shaun Haney I have to admit that I have missed the boat on this one. I have been hearing many different people talk about the Land Stewardship Act and why as a farmer you should be concerned... Read More
Managing risk is a major part of running any farm or livestock operation. Alberta recently tried to aid it's provincial livestock producers by launching the Cattle Price Insurance Program (CPIP). Recently Ontario Provincial Ag-Critic, Mr. Ernie Hardeman, MPP, questioned why the Ontario government was stalling in implementing a similar program to ensure Ontario producer competitiveness.... Read More
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
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