All over the world, everywhere you look. And now bugs. They are actually serious about bugs, and when I say ‘they’ I mean the government. Justin Trudeau, the most hated prime minister in history, granted millions to yet another bug factory not too long ago. This...
I was out at the cabin, trying to trim the reeds and weeds along the water, when I came across a stark reminder of how good we have it because of fossil fuels. I was using the electric whipper snipper when the reel head decided to disassemble itself. But I...
Book Excerpt With the agriculture prices being driven up during the 1970s due to the global scare that the world was going to suffer an impending food shortage, governments rushed to flood the market with more food. This sudden increase in production caused excess...
Premier Scott Moe thinks the overwhelming mass of federal environmental programs in the name of preventing climate change is getting to be too much. So on Oct. 21, he released a white paper called Drawing the Line: Defending Saskatchewan’s Economic Autonomy. After...
For the past 14 years, Vancouver surgeon Dr. Brian Day has led the charge for health-care reform, pushing for the right of patients to pay for private care if their health and well-being are threatened as a result of waiting in a stagnant and overburdened public...
The path to net zero, based on the much disputed belief that carbon dioxide is a pollution, is more steep and impractical than most people realize. Replacing fossil fuels with clean electricity will require much more power generation and a greatly upgraded grid to...
Conservative Party of Canada leadership candidate Maxime Bernier has come out against the long standing practice of agricultural supply management for dairy, poultry and eggs. It is rare for a Canadian politician to take on this issue, but the evidence is overwhelming...
Canada’s grading system has made it a laggard and laughingstock. In heralding the end of the Canadian Wheat Board in 2012, former Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz proclaimed that Canadian farmers finally had the right to sell their wheat and barley on the open...
Tinkering with a system in clear need of an overhaul is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. In March, the Winnipeg lab of Intertek, a global commodities testing firm, received an unusual request. Manitoba farmer Paul Orsak brought in wheat samples from...
We are all genetically modified organisms (GMOs), all 7.1 billion of us and every other creature on earth produced by sexual reproduction. We are all a random combination of our mother’s and father’s genes and are therefore genetically unique modifications. Only...
Beginning next year, Manitoba will begin enforcing a province-wide ban on most uses of synthetic weed killers and other commercial pesticides. All private yards and most public green spaces, such as sports fields, will be affected by the ban. More expensive, and...
Urban sprawl is still regarded as undesirable by city planners, but the arguments against it are changing. The planners have long maintained that limited development should be allowed beyond existing urban boundaries, as long as there are areas in the core that could...
The idea of “buying local” is becoming increasingly popular among Canadians. Purchasing food from a local farmer or a product from a small business is often more gratifying than lining up at a large franchise. Sometimes local products are preferred to imports,...
“Buy local” has become an increasingly popular mantra in North America. It is often both a social statement and a matter of preference for goods that happen to be locally produced. This has often spilled over into advocacy against large retail chains and foreign made...
More and more Canadians are prepared to pay a premium to buy food that is certified-organic. They believe in good faith that an objective process ensures that the food is authentic. They might be surprised to learn that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency allows any...