Reading Time: 6 minutes Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably formed an opinon about NDP agriculture critic Alex Atamanenko and his doomed private members’ bill on biotech crops. The bill itself wasn’t complex. At under 100 words, it couldn’t be. But it was big, calling for “an analysis of potential harm to export markets” prior to […] Read more
BIG IDEA Paying The GMO Cost
Oooh, Aaah, Ogema (Saskatchewan, That Is)
Reading Time: 6 minutes By the time you get 70 miles due south of Regina, you know what to expect. The landscape is as open in front of you as it is behind, marked only with occasional crossroads that once in a while still struggle to maintain their names and their status as villages, showing how once, a long […] Read more
The “Urban” School Of Food
Reading Time: 5 minutes Joe Nasr (left) starts out by telling me what his course is not about. “It’s not food safety,” says Nasr, instructor in food security at Ryerson University. He explains that the concept encompasses whether people have reliable access to food, whether that food is appropriate, whether it is affordable, and whether it is nutritionally balanced. […] Read more
Food For Thought In Unexpected Places
Reading Time: 2 minutes Food for Thought at U of T At the University of Toronto, I ask Prof. Harriet Friedmann — who is in the sociology and geography departments — why there is no department of food. “Food would take care of itself if farmers just grew it,” she quips, talking about post-war views of food that played […] Read more
Organic Divide
Reading Time: 13 minutes Three years ago, organic grain farmers could have been forgiven for thinking they’d found nirvana. They were the darlings of an ever-growing environmental movement. They were swooned over by consumers eager for safe and healthy food. And they were getting paid up to three times more than conventional. With wheat at $25 and $30 per […] Read more
Lease Longer, Lease Stronger
Reading Time: 8 minutes Canadian farmers know how to rent land. In fact, in 2006, they rented close to 65 million acres, and paid an estimated $2.6 billion for the privilege. Now, however, the buzz is all about long-term leases — which can make the standard one-year rental agreement look like child’s play. Long-term leases can have lots of […] Read more
Down At The Elevator
Reading Time: 6 minutes Greg Brenneman, who farms near Salina, Kansas quickly put the question is sharp context. His home state has moved away from wheat production, as Gerald Pilger reported in last month’s issue of COUNTRY GUIDE. Instead, farmers there are growing more profitable corn. It’s a change that is putting huge pressure on the state’s grain handling […] Read more
Grower University 2011 Series – for Feb. 15, 2011
Reading Time: 4 minutes Having a solid business strategy for your operation is like air to the lungs — essential to stay alive. Yet while contemplating a calculated strategy is critical, of equal importance is finding a way to give that strategy legs. So how can you incite your strategy, taking it from paper to reality? What is strategy, […] Read more
Your Own Paradise
Reading Time: 4 minutes There are lots of great things about life on the farm, but being able to shift gears may not be one of them. The farm is always there. Every view out every window makes you think of another job that needs to be added to a list that is already too long, and the views […] Read more
Feed The Farmers
Reading Time: 5 minutes With volatile commodity prices, the finger is getting pointed at farmers for profiteering while the rest of the world starves. The facts from two internationally renowned ag scientists are completely different. In most countries, especially in the developing world, today’s higher prices may finally let farmers lift themselves out of the deepest poverty, says Clive […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
