Agriculture

We Should Remain Open to All Food Choices

Although everyone should have the right to buy the food they want, whether or not those decisions are healthy or environmentally friendly, individual preferences should not be forced on others or be turned into regulations that restrict the choices of farmers and consumers.

Regulating GMO Seeds

Tom Philpott over at Grist has written a post complaining about the USDA allowing proponents to fund environmental assessment studies required to satisfy Environmental Impact Assessment regulations.

In early April, the USDA made what I’m reading as a second response to Judge White, this one even more craven. To satisfy the legal system’s pesky demand for environmental impact studies of novel GMO crops, the USDA has settled upon a brilliant solution: let the GMO industry conduct its own environmental impact studies, or pay other researchers to.

His complaint makes for a nice sound bite.  However, if he is going to prevent
GMO technology developers from sponsoring environmental impact analysis, is he proposing to prohibit that practice in the pharmaceutical sector?  Should new drugs be held off the market until government researchers get around to conducting their own research on the safety of new medications?

Featured News

57 Policy Proposals for Future Leaders to Help Make the Canadian Economy Soar

Executive Summary The various federal political parties are all promoting the policy agendas they believe will foster a sustainably high quality of life for all Canadians. It remains to be seen whether they will attain the success that they aim to achieve. In some...

The Grain Industry Restructures

In an unexpectedly daring bid, SaskPool recently offered 1.35 of its shares for each of Agricore’s common shares. Although the takeover bid was labelled as “hostile,” – in other words, not sought or welcomed by Agricore – it does indicate that the grain industry is...

Show Me the Money

Cross-border sampling results agree with most of the studies that have been done. Farmers just south of the border get paid more for identical wheat and barley crops. The Wheat Board’s so-called price advantage is a chimera.

Airing Out the Wet Blanket

The outdated monopoly power of the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) sits like a wet blanket over the entire Prairie economy. From plant breeders through to the farm gate and on to our rural communities, into our cities and right to our ports, the dampening effect is widespread, pervasive and tangible.