Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring, published over half a century ago, lent itself for organic activists to “cherry-pick” from her writings and to adopt the prevalent view that anything synthetic is bad and everything natural is good. A mere handful of organic...
Agriculture
Media Release – Rachel Carson and Organic Cherry-Picking: The Anti-science Wing of the Organic Movement
Rachel Carson, the author of the influential book Silent Spring receives all the credit for the rise of the organic movement, but Carson’s work is barely scientific. Carson’s book provides organic activists with exactly what they want to hear.
The Environmental State of Canada: 2013 Update
Executive Summary Canadians view the protection and preservation of the natural environment as one of the most important functions of their governments. This paper provides an overview of the major developments in Canada’s environmental performance over the past...
What We Can Learn About Open Markets From Wine and Wheat
Canadian history is filled with tales of protected industries destined for oblivion because of free trade, foreign threats or lost subsidies. But the worst-case scenario rarely plays out as predicted. Consider two prominent examples from the past quarter-century: the advent of free trade for Ontario’s wine industry and the end of the subsidized freight rates for Western grain farmers. In both cases, disaster was predicted. Yet both sectors adapted and emerged stronger.
Featured News
Our Health Ministers Need to Take a Lesson from Hockey Coaches
Those of you who are tired of my rants about the demise of our once great health system will be pleased to know that this is my last editorial. I am retiring from the BCMJ Editorial Board; currently, I am the longest-serving member (more than 20 years). I have been a...
Zinchuk: Oilpatch Only Spending Half What It Spent in 2014
Back in the lofty, pre-Justin Trudeau government days of 2014, back when oil was booming, pipelines were planned to east and west coasts, and Alberta and Saskatchewan were swimming in money, around $81 billion was spent in capital expenditures (CAPEX) in the Canadian...
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.
Removal of the Canadian Wheat Board Monopoly: Future Changes for Farmers and the Grain Industry
This study looks ahead and assesses possible consequence scenarios to the eventuality that the Canadian Wheat Board is removed in 2012 as many expect.
NDP Needs to Look Forward, not Back: Time to reform wheat board
Rather than use taxpayer-funded ads to fight change, Manitoba should join the rest of the West, as well as other advanced countries, in supporting farmers making their own marketing decisions separate from the Canadian Wheat Board.
Heads Up Government – Ag Assistance Will Be Asked For
Ag Risk Management is Working for Me
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?
Canadian Federation of Ag on the Election
The CFA calls for all federal parties to make agriculture a platform priority in 2011.
Farmer Knows the Land
A Saskatchewan Farmer writes about the role of wetlands on sask farm land over the last century, as a sink and a source of water in wet and dry years. With the advent of larger equipment, farmers of that time did a more complete job of land development. When you read...
GM Foods on Alberta Prime Time
Frontier Research Associate Cam Dahl debates the merits of genetically modified foods on the popular show Alberta Prime Time.