The current list:
Ruth Brinston has a simple desire. She wants to be able to buy irradiated beef at her local grocery store in Ottawa. The semi-retired scientist and consultant has been studying and promoting irradiation for 30 years and has no qualms about its ability to improve food safety by killing E. coli and other dangerous bacteria. […] Read more
Barb Glen
Stories by Barb Glen
It’s an exotic life
TWIN BUTTE, Alta. — There’s a wooden bench beside a small stream and tiny pond in Donna Cromarty’s chicken run. Some folks might be inclined to sit there and admire the green foothills and imposing blue Rocky Mountains a scant distance away from that perch. Cromarty sits there to watch her chickens. And sometimes the […] Read more
Lights out for better bird health
Changes to lighting requirements in chicken and turkey barns are among the most significant updates to the Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Hatching Eggs, Breeders, Chickens and Turkeys, says a chicken farmer who helped update the code. Vernon Froese of Manitoba was chair of the code development committee, which posted the […] Read more
Alta. feedlot owners take on county
Five owners of large feedlot operations in southern Alberta have filed a court challenge to new Lethbridge County business tax plans. The cattle feeders object to a $3-per-animal-unit tax passed by county council in April, which it imposed to help pay for road and bridge improvements. They also oppose a special tax on farmland passed […] Read more
Hard to kill
Seventy-one Celsius is the recommended temperature for cooking hamburgers to kill any bacteria they might contain. Now research indicates 71 C is not enough to kill some forms of E. coli, including some that are dangerous to humans. It opens the door to new worries about food safety. Lynn McMullen, a food biologist and professor […] Read more
Algae thriving under heat threaten livestock, pets
Summertime, and the living is easy, as the old song goes, but heat can make living all too easy for blue-green algae in farm dugouts and ponds. Temperatures in the high 20s and low 30s C last week in parts of Western Canada were ideal for algal growth. The algae, also known as cyanobacteria, is […] Read more
Alberta farmer survey to focus on sustainability
The phones in Alberta farmhouses will be ringing later this month as a survey gets underway on behalf of Alberta crop commissions. The Alberta Barley, Alberta Canola Producers, Alberta Pulse Growers and Alberta Wheat commissions want to learn more about their members’ sustainability and best management practices so they’ve commissioned a survey through Ipsos Reid. […] Read more
AFSC board of governors dismissed
The six-member board of Agriculture Financial Services Corp. (AFSC) in Alberta has been dismissed by the provincial government following an investigation that showed some senior executives under its oversight had acted improperly. Agriculture and Forestry Minister Oneil Carlier said today that an investigation was launched in January, a few months after his department received an […] Read more
Alberta dismisses Agriculture Financial Services Corp. board
The six-member board of Agriculture Financial Services Corp. (AFSC) in Alberta has been dismissed by the provincial government following an investigation that showed some senior executives under its oversight had acted improperly. Agriculture and Forestry Minister Oneil Carlier said today that an investigation was launched in January, a few months after his department received an […] Read more
Why farmers should care what consumers think
Barb Glen reports from the farm & food care conference in Ottawa about public opinion and agricultural policy OTTAWA — Cherilyn Nagel, a grain farmer and agricultural advocate from Mossbank, Sask., used to dismiss consumer concerns about farming practices. She thought earning public trust was unimportant and there was no value in providing credible information […] Read more
