It was bound to happen. After more than ten years and a couple hundred billion dollars in revenues, the American organic food sector will finally begin testing products to ensure they’re genuine and safe. But, there are no plans to do anything like this in Canada....
Agriculture
Fine for packing “unbalanced” daycare lunch demonstrates shortcomings of Canada’s Food Guide
A Manitoba mother received a $10 fine from a daycare centre for sending her kids with a meal that was deemed nutritionally unbalanced. The story caught the attention of international audiences, since the meal was, by most accounts, nutritionally balanced. The Ritz...
The Sky Did Not Fall After All: On the one year anniversary of the end of the Canadian Wheat Board’s marketing monopoly
The one-year anniversary on Aug. 1 of the removal of the 75-year Canadian Wheat Board monopoly on western wheat and barley sales was marked with celebration in some quarters. None of the consequences predicted by single -desk monopoly supporters came close to materializing.
McDouble is ‘cheapest and most nutritious food in human history’
Describing the McDonald’s double cheeseburger as “the cheapest, most nutritious, and bountiful food that has ever existed in human history” might seem beyond fanciful, but according to the author of Freakonomics, it is not as absurd a suggestion as it appears.
Featured News
Traditional Teaching is not Obsolete
Artificial intelligence has come a long way. Unlike the rudimentary software of the past, modern-day programs such as ChatGPT are truly impressive. Whether you need a 1,000-word essay summarizing the history of Manitoba, a 500-word article extolling the virtues of...
Ottawa’s Policies Defeat Its Critical Minerals Push
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a recent rush visit to the Saskatchewan Research Council’s experimental rare earth refining facility in Saskatoon. He touted his government’s efforts to promote rare earth discovery, development, and extraction, along with the...
Food Inflation and Biofuel Production: Will the Pursuit of Clean Energy be Made Off the Back of the World’s Poor?
Frontier Centre Intern Eric Merkley shows that the use of grains for biofuel production instead of feedstock can contribute to undesirable increases in the price of food.
New Voluntary Wheat Board May Struggle
The federal government is about to abolish compulsory membership in the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB). However, there are good reasons to doubt that a voluntary board will succeed. Farmers who chose not to take part in the board will likely be better off, like their counterparts in the rest of the world that do not operate under a wheat marketing board.
Supply Management isn’t all it’s Cracked Up to be
I am not convinced that most Canadians are satisfied to pay a hefty premium for their dairy products in return for price stability. But perhaps the dairy farmers are on to something.
Why should consumers benefit only from stable dairy prices when there are so many other sectors that could benefit from supply management?
NDP Stuck in the 1930s on CWB: Ideological battles must stop
Rather than engage in ideological battles and fear mongering, provincial governments ought to help wheat and barley farmers seek new markets and opportunities.
Why the Wheat Board Monopoly is Being Removed: The historical circumstances that gave birth to the Canadian Wheat Board have changed.
As Western Canadian farmers have become larger, more educated, and more sophisticated, they placed greater value on autonomy and freedom of choice, as evidenced by the Conservative sweep of the rural Western vote. Changing economics, demographics, technology, and values have left many farmers desiring “marketing choice” instead of monopoly.
Milking Our Gullibility: Many Canadians pay twice what Americans pay
Why we pay more for dairy products couldn’t be simpler: Our dairy cartel artificially restricts supply. Now, according to economic theory, industries with literally thousands of competitors, as there are in dairy, aren’t able to form cartels. It’s too easy for members to cheat by cutting prices on the sly. Even the world’s most famous cartel, OPEC, with only a dozen members, often has trouble keeping oil prices high.
What’s So weird About the Weather?: The real threat to Prairie agriculture is the cooling trend
Contrary to official temperature records, observational evidence from around the world indicates that we are in a period of cooling almost certainly caused by solar changes. This is expected to continue and deepen and poses the real threat to Prairie and Canadian agriculture, most of which is confined to a narrow strip along our southern border. Fifty percent of crops in Manitoba cannot be grown with a 0.5°C overall temperature drop and much of Canadian agriculture is eliminated entirely by a 1°C cooling.
The $25,000 Cow: That’s the average value of a milk quota per cow under a supply-management system
If it were proposed today to tax food—even at five per cent, never mind such punitive rates as these—it would be instant political suicide: consider the ruckus that erupts whenever some stray academic suggests the GST should apply to groceries. But because it is the status quo, and because the tax is implicit rather than explicit, and because “it’s to help farmers,” the policy is not only tolerated, it is impossible to remove. Or at least, it has been until now.
Wheat Board Monopoly Lost: Yet Grain Industry Will Prosper
A sober look ahead to the eventual removal of the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly shows a significantly prosperous industry and the likely emergence of a volunteer board.