Persistent poverty and environmental degradation in developing countries, changing global climatic patterns, and the use of food crops to produce biofuels, all pose new and unprecedented risks and opportunities for global agriculture in the years ahead. Agricultural...
Agriculture
Set Their Catches Free
‘Fresh’ approach to fish marketing long overdue
China Bars Corn Ethanol Due to High Food Costs
China has just banned further expansion of its corn ethanol industry, after a radical 43-percent increase in pork prices over the past year. Xu Dingming of the Chinese National Energy Leading Group told a recent seminar that “Food-based ethanol fuel will not be the...
Board Costs Farmers $1 a Bushel: Report
A new report analyzing the value that the Canadian Wheat Board insists it delivers to Prairie farmers offers “instant absolute proof” to the contrary, says its author. Far from maximizing returns back to producers, the board is actually leaving an “astounding” amount...
Featured News
The Renewable Part of Hydrogen is the Hype
Once again, the world is staging ClimateFest 26, aka the United Nations Conference of the Parties, where peddlers of alternative energy schemes try to plunge their dippers into the river of climate change funding that flows around the world. This funding is generated...
Small Gestures Speak Louder than Great Deeds
The age-old expression that actions speak louder than words conveys an important insight: character is best judged through action. Anyone can say or promise anything but doing requires ability and skill, discipline and commitment. So, the simplest test of character is...
Ethanol: The Promise And The Peril
Policy Notes – On balance, ethanol subsidies will harm the Manitoba economy
Should Manitoba Expand Ethanol Subsidies?
Rural Renaissance Notes commentary – ethanol subsidies will harm the livestock industry
Ethanol: The Promise And The Peril – Report
Manitoba has an established ethanol industry, and the Government of Manitoba is exploring whether to expand it. Ethanol is produced from wheat, in Manitoba, by means of fermentation. The ethanol is then blended with gasoline to produce ethanol-blended gasoline (EBG).
Low Farm Prices Won’t Go Away
Continued low grain prices, bad weather and more farm subsidies evoke visions of tractors in the streets and more farm aid concerts on TV.
*U.S. Farm Bill Cultivates A Crop of Grief*
The [new US] farm bill is so over-the-top that even some members of the Senate — a body that rarely shows enthusiasm for reining-in government expenditures — are showing signs of embarrassment. Senator John McCain called the legislation “an appalling breach of federal spending responsibility.”
*Farmers earn great return on their quotas
Feeling burned by the stock market and looking for a solid long-term investment? Not a gold bug, you say? Have you considered farming?
European Farm Reforms Conservation-Oriented
A wise man once said, “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there.” The corollary to that one is, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it!”
Begin Canadian Wheat Board Reforms
Just say the words “Canadian Wheat Board” to three Prairie farmers and you’ll quickly hear four different opinions. What should be done about this “single desk” grain-selling agency, if anything?
Biotech Advances Boost Agriculture
The march of high-tech agriculture continues in spite of the spurious obstacles thrown in the way of progress by the anti-trade and anti-globalization crowd.