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Shopping cart full dairy grocery
Guide Business, Opinion

Selling our consumers

While farmers strive to educate consumers, marketers bend the rules

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Reading Time: 5 minutes On January 7, the New York Times covered the news that Campbell Soup would become the first major U.S. food company to come out in support of mandatory GMO labelling. It was the same day that Campbell’s CEO Denise Morrison sent a letter to her employees, saying the policy change came from the company’s focus […] Read more
Paris and Eiffel Tower
Guide Business, Opinion

The farm voice in Paris

Maybe we really can have an effective voice in global climate-change talks, even if we can’t agree whether climate change is real

By
Reading Time: 5 minutes Climate change is a divisive topic. People either believe man-based climate change is real and that action must be taken immediately to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, or they reject the premise that mankind is responsible for climate change and they argue passionately that action is not only not warranted or needed, but that it also […] Read more
Tom Button
Opinion

Editor’s Desk: Strategic thinking about farm media

Canadian agriculture is incredibly well served by farm media. Only a couple of countries can rival us. But that has to be a foundation to build on, not an excuse to say the job is done

By
Reading Time: 2 minutes As you turn the pages in our March 1, 2016 issue of Country Guide, you’ll notice some changes. The pages look different, the type seems somehow different, the “feel” of the stories is different. You might even think this is what the changes are all about, i.e. a skin-deep bit of cosmetic surgery rather than real innovation. I […] Read more
Tom Button
Opinion

Editor’s Desk: Writing the book on Canada’s farmers

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Reading Time: 2 minutes I don’t quite mean what you might think by the headline above. I don’t mean writing the book about farmers FOR farmers. I mean writing it to inspire, encourage and empower other business owners and managers across the country. It’s a thought that comes to me almost every time I sit down to write this […] Read more
A rally of 200 people at the legislature on Nov. 27 voicing their displeasure with Bill 6. A second demonstration three days later drew 1,000 people, prompting the NDP government to amend the bill.
Guide Business, Opinion

The national cost of Alberta’s Bill 6

Farm outrage at the Enhanced Protection for Farm and Ranch Workers Act may have already backfired

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Reading Time: 5 minutes As 2015 came to a close, Canadians watched Alberta farmers hold massive rallies against legislation intended to improve farm safety. They listened to farmers raging against the costs Bill 6 would impose on their operations, with farmers saying the legislation will destroy family farms. They heard farmers complain they hadn’t been consulted in the drafting […] Read more
Tom Button
Opinion

Editor’s Desk: Is this the last generation?

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Reading Time: 2 minutes The above title caught my eye as I was thumbing through some 2011 back issues of Country Guide. Hmm, I wondered, have the last five years changed what I think about whether young people can successfully take over enough of our family farms to actually comprise a “generation?” Or will they even want to? In […] Read more
Tom Button
Opinion

Editor’s Desk: Stacking the odds

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Reading Time: 2 minutes Increasingly, the science that has the greatest potential to make a difference in agriculture is psychology. In recent years, we have come to appreciate the role of psychology in commodity markets, and in land markets too. We also think we have learned a lot about the psychology of succession planning, and even the psychology of […] Read more
Guide Business, Opinion

The great debate of our lives

I plant GMO crops, but I’m alarmed at how little we listen to the concerns of the anti-GMO lobby. The risk is huge

By
Reading Time: 8 minutes The biggest threat to farming as we know it in North America isn’t low commodity prices, high input costs or the lack of skilled labour. It isn’t even climate change. Instead, our worst threat is the growing perception that the food we produce is not safe. This fall, the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network (CBAN) released […] Read more
Tom Button
Opinion

Editor’s Desk: That hard as nails truth

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Reading Time: 2 minutes Every neighbourhood has its own stories of farmers who had to be hard as nails to survive, but who turned out to also be fired by a vital spark that could not be extinguished even by the heaviest, most wearying toil. It’s this combination — the toughness and the humanity — that makes them such […] Read more
Tom Button
Opinion

Editor’s Desk: It wasn’t my best week

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Reading Time: 2 minutes I had been invited to speak to some accountants and lawyers who work largely in agricultural practices, and while it was clear we wouldn’t agree on everything, I thought we’d share support for one theme that I’ve been banging away at for as long as I’ve held this position. I showed them a list. I’ll […] Read more

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