Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard attends a joint news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron after a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France March 5, 2018.  Photo: REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes

Tariff relief for Canada’s farmers at issue in Quebec election

Reading Time: 2 minutes Montreal |Reuters – Quebec farmers want further relief from a global tariff dispute ahead of Oct. 1 elections in the mostly French-speaking Canadian province, which has seen a recent rise in nationalist sentiment. Quebec’s ruling Liberals, centrists but separate from the federal Liberal party, launched their campaign on Thursday. They trail in polls behind the center-right Coalition Avenir Quebec […] Read more

Scientist examining plants in greenhouse

Where are investments in Canadian agricultural research headed?

2018 has been a great year with agriculture attracting acclaim as an economic powerhouse in Canada. But is there enough money in research to score on the opportunity?

Reading Time: 6 minutes “Sunny today but with clouds on the horizon” is how Serge Buy describes Canadian government investment in agricultural research. “There was more willingness for the federal government to invest in budgets 2016 and 2017, and some of the provinces are following suit,” says Buy, who’s the CEO of the Agricultural Institute of Canada (AIC). “That’s […] Read more


Whether you were for it or against, a proper study has never done to measure the impact of the end of the Canadian Wheat Board.

Why don’t we know?

Whether you were in favour of changing the CWB or against it, isn’t it time we get clear, unbiased answers about what the impact has been?

Reading Time: 6 minutes Ask any western grain farmer what is significant about August 1, 2012, and most will tell you it was the day the federal government eliminated the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly on the sale and export of wheat and barley from Western Canada. Some farmers will refer to it as the “grain marketing freedom day.” Others […] Read more

Farm in South Africa?

Farm in South Africa?

The land is there, and so is the climate. But this may not be the land of milk and honey for you

Reading Time: 5 minutes In many ways, South Africa is an agricultural success story. Its produce and its wines are enjoyed in many countries around the world, and the country isn’t plagued by famines or food shortages like others on the African continent. And yet beneath the apparent prosperity and stability, risks await farmers in a country still struggling […] Read more


About 34 per cent of corn produced in Ontario already goes to ethanol production.  Photo: John Greig

Ontario proposal aims to double ethanol blend in fuel

Government move would boost corn market in the province

Reading Time: 3 minutes An Ontario government proposal could dramatically increase the amount of Ontario corn going into ethanol production and help bring consistency to the basis price for corn in the province. The government has posted its proposal to increase ethanol content in the province’s gasoline from five to 10 per cent to the Environmental Bill of Rights […] Read more

After growing up on a ranch in the BSE era, Echlin looked for a path that would give her much more control. That meant studying political science before starting to farm.

A different school

For Vance Lester and Sue Echlin, getting a non-agricultural education proved a big help when they returned to the farm

Reading Time: 6 minutes Graduate degrees in ecology and international relations don’t seem the kind of education that would be likely to help on a Canadian farm. But that’s where we might be wrong. For Sue Echlin and Vance Lester, that kind of schooling has been instrumental in their launching a fruit-growing and winery business, and in keeping it […] Read more


Tom Button

Editor’s Note: They’re wrong about our farmers

Today’s agriculture is proof that farmers are a resource you can grow a country on. So why would you want to stymie them?

Reading Time: 2 minutes I rarely talk politics in this space, and I like it that way. But as we put this issue together, I find I’m trying read the facial gestures of federal cabinet ministers, I’m scrutinizing their word choices, and I’m asking everyone I know what they’re hearing in the back corridors. It isn’t exactly how you’d […] Read more

Tom Button

Editor’s Note: Even in the East, it’s good the West won

Five years after Ottawa put the last spike in the Canadian Wheat Board, farmers are showing they’re more than sharp enough to do their own marketing

Reading Time: 2 minutes Of course the optics might have been much different. If commodity prices had sunk far below the average cost of production, the West’s cartoonists would have had a field day calling for Ottawa to throw a life ring to farmers who had lost their pool. Even so, as Country Guide field editor Lisa Guenther reports […] Read more


After the CWB

After the CWB

Whether you farm in the West or East, looking at how Prairie farmers are managing their sales after five years on their own will make you a better marketer

Reading Time: 9 minutes Maybe you mourned its demise, or maybe you danced on its grave. Either way, five years after the federal government put the Canadian Wheat Board’s single desk six feet under, it’s clear there will be no resurrection. How have farmers adapted to marketing wheat without the single desk? Where are they excelling, and where not? […] Read more

Photo: iStock

U.S. senators seek ban on pesticide chlorpyrifos

Reading Time: 2 minutes New York / Reuters – A group of Democratic senators hopes to ban a pesticide the U.S. government has greenlighted for use, according to a bill unveiled on Tuesday in a challenge to Republican President Donald Trump’s push to loosen environmental regulations. The bill, introduced by Senator Tom Udall of New Mexico, would outlaw chlorpyrifos, […] Read more