A sentimental naïvety is no substitute for the hard calculation of costs and benefits. Organic farming on a wide scale would entail more environment destruction than it’s worth.
Agriculture
Breakfast on the Frontier – Sylvain Charlebois – Agriculture Sector
Listen to Sylvain Charlesbois speak at Breakfast on the Frontier - on supply management here. (36 minutes) Dr. Sylvain Charlebois is an associate professor in marketing in the Faculty of Business Administration of the University of Regina (Canada) since 2004. He is...
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The Hon. Charlie Mayer, P.C., former Minister of Agriculture
An obsessive focus on the Wheat Board’s monopoly is diverting us from a needed discussion on the future of the farm industry and on what policies we should be pursuing to maximize opportunities at home and abroad.
The Wheat Board Should Have Remained Neutral
The referendum’s over, but where does the Wheat Board go to retrieve its honour? Its interference in the process demonstrates again that it is a renegade agency willing to use the people’s money to engage in special pleading.
Featured News
Trust is the Foundation of Authority
The heartbreaking death of Nathanael Spitzer, the cancer-stricken boy from Ponoka, exposed a most callous streak in Alberta’s medical bureaucracy. There is no forgiving how Alberta Health Services appallingly used a child’s death to promote yet more COVID-19 fear. ...
Apple’s “Security” Pitch Conveniently Protects the iOS-Android Duopoly
In October, Apple Inc. warned that draft rules from the European Union that would require the technology company to open up its mobile operating system to third-party apps would pose a security risk to its users. Expanding on comments already made by CEO Tim Cook, a...
Life After Subsidies
In 1984, nearly 40% of the average New Zealand sheep and beef farmer’s gross income came from government subsidies. A year later, almost all of these subsidies were removed. New Zealand farmers were on their own, and remain so today in 2001.
The Farm Support Dilemna
What can we do about the perpetual crises that afflict grain and oilseed farmers? Prices are low and the competitive pressure from low-cost foreign producers is growing.
Adapting to New Realities
“Rural Canada: Moving Forward or Left Behind?” read the title of a recent conference in Regina.
Red Tape and Rural Life
You probably think that all of us country folk are as free as the proverbial birds, doing whatever we like, since there is no one out here to worry about it. Well, the reality is much different.
Manitoba Beef Sector Sizzles
Amid all of the bad news in the grain industry and the conflicts over expansion in the hog industry, one segment of farming, the beef business, is doing quite nicely, thank you very much.
Farm Chemicals can Benefit our Environment
This means that our soil resources will be tightly tied to the earth and our lands protected from spring floods and winds. In addition, the wholesale adoption of winter wheat may reduce flooding overall as the spring runoff is captured very early in spring by crops that have spent the winter under the snow. Throw in newer, better, and less toxic herbicides and the future looks bright.
Pay Farmers To Stop Farming
Times are tough on the land. Desperate farmers rallying on the steps of legislatures or driving combines they can't pay for in protest motorcades have become an occasional, depressing staple of the nightly news. But our governments are beginning to understand that...
Rural Areas can Grow Strong on the Information Highway
Boy, the world has changed for those of us who live in the woods. We still have clean air, open spaces, decent roads, a low crime rate, better primary health care than city folk and better schools.
Where does all this Stuff Come From, Anyway?
All of us are guilty of complacency. We expect food to be in supermarkets and wood at the lumberyard. We’d be shocked to find gas stations without gasoline.