climate change Archives | Country Guide

To claim that the carbon tax will put farmers out of business is simply feeding a political firefight. – Gerald Pilger.

The carbon tax and how farmers can truly mitigate climate change

Take a deep breath. The real numbers don’t come close to justifying the anger of groups like APAS

By Gerald Pilger March 27, 2020

Reading Time: 7 minutes “If the treatment doesn’t kill you, the disease will!” I can’t remember when I first heard this saying, or who said it but given the recent carbon tax costing by the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan (APAS), it seems an apt analogy. First, some background. In 2017, APAS hosted the Prairie Agricultural Carbon Summit, where […] Read more

Crops, Markets, Reuters, Weather

Wheat in Whitehorse: How climate change helps feed Canada’s remote regions

Newfoundland and Labrador also pushing to expand arable land base

By Kelsey Johnson, Rod Nickel March 23, 2020

Reading Time: 3 minutes Winnipeg/Ottawa | Reuters — After failing to grow wheat in the Yukon territory 15 years ago, farmer Steve Mackenzie-Grieve gave it another shot in 2017. Thanks to longer summers, he has reaped three straight harvests. This spring he plans to sow canola on his family’s 450-acre farm near Whitehorse, a city not much further from […] Read more

Crops

New Brunswick postpones pesticide use hearings

Deadline extended for written submissions

By GFM Staff March 18, 2020

Reading Time: 2 minutes The New Brunswick government’s planned public hearings on the use of glyphosate and other pesticides are postponed, and more time is being granted for the public to file written briefs. The provincial legislature’s all-party standing committee on climate change and environmental stewardship on Feb. 5 announced it would hold hearings in Fredericton March 24-27 “on […] Read more

General, Machinery, Weather

NFU paper lays out solutions for climate, farming challenges

By MarketsFarm December 13, 2019

Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — The global climate crisis is interlinked with the financial crisis on Canadian farms, according to a new discussion paper from the National Farmers Union (NFU). The paper proposes changes to agriculture practices that could help the sector become part of the solution to both major issues. Compiled by Darrin Qualman in collaboration with […] Read more

General, Markets, Weather

Canadians to spend more on food in 2020, report predicts

By MarketsFarm December 4, 2019

Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — Canadians will spend two to four per cent more on food in 2020, according to the latest Canada Food Price Report from researchers at Dalhousie University’s Agri-Food Analytics Lab and the University of Guelph. The average family in the country will see its total food bill for groceries and restaurant meals rise by […] Read more

Many major trends experts foresee are already underway and will continue to play out in the ag sector over the next decade and beyond.

Features, Guide Business

What the future farm could look like in 2030

Future farm: Maybe it seems more like fiction today, but every year brings this picture of the future closer

By Angela Lovell November 27, 2019

Reading Time: 6 minutes Big change is coming. In the words of Shrek, “Change is good, Donkey!” It’s also inevitable, which farmers probably know more than anyone else. There are, of course, differing opinions about what farming will look like 10 years from now. Will farms be larger? Probably. Will weather be more unpredictable? Almost certainly. Will technologies like […] Read more

The best advice one University of Lethbridge professor can give farmers when it comes to accounting for unpredictable weather is to be flexible.

Guide Business, Weather

How farmers can adapt to the new weather abnormal

The stable weather patterns of the ’80s and ’90s are gone, so we ask three climate scientists how to farm when the weather is unreliable

By Gerald Pilger November 13, 2019

Reading Time: 6 minutes For many western Canadian farmers this is the fourth consecutive year with harvest progress seriously stymied by weather issues. Fall rains and snows have resulted in significant loss of crop quality and/or an increased reliance on costly drying of crops in each of those years. For some farmers, inclement weather has even resulted in crops […] Read more

Barley, Crops, Weather

University’s ‘Beefier Barley’ billboard binned

By GFM Staff October 1, 2019

Reading Time: 3 minutes A billboard about Alberta barley’s prospects under climate change in the University of Alberta’s ‘Truth Matters’ promotion — a series of ads meant to spark discussion about its researchers’ work — has been winnowed out of the campaign. Jacqui Tam, the Edmonton-based U of A’s vice-president for university relations, announced Sunday it would withdraw the […] Read more

General, Reuters, Weather

UN flags need to reduce meat consumption to curb land use impact on global warming

By Nina Chestney, stephanie-nebehay August 8, 2019

Reading Time: 3 minutes London/Geneva | Reuters — Global meat consumption must fall to curb global warming, reduce growing strains on land and water and improve food security, health and biodiversity, a United Nations report on the effects of climate change concluded. Although the report stopped short of explicitly advocating going meat-free, it called for big changes to farming […] Read more

General, Machinery, Weather

Tories’ climate plan focused on green investment

By GFM Staff June 20, 2019

Reading Time: 4 minutes The federal Conservatives’ proposed replacement for the Liberal government’s framework on climate change offers several shout-outs to farmers, in a document focused on green investment rather than current consumption patterns. The lead opposition party’s plan, launched Wednesday by leader Andrew Scheer, proposes to scrap the Trudeau government’s current carbon pricing plan, which imposes levies on […] Read more

Ontario to insure for crop loss due to lack of labour

U.S. livestock: Ham prices lead lean hog futures higher

Newfoundland farmers may shoot problem moose at night

GFM Network News