Barry Wilson

An Alberta Reform MP last week suggested that in light of the barley plebiscite result, his province should declare it will refuse to accept the authority of the Canadian Wheat Board. Vegreville MP Leon Benoit said in an interview that using the political system to try to convince the Liberals to give grain farmers a […] Read more

If Health Canada ever approves the dairy growth hormone bovine somatotropin, the agriculture department will try to convince the industry to clearly label the resulting products. In a document presented to the House of Commons in March, agriculture minister Ralph Good-ale noted Health Canada still has not approved the drug for use in Canadian dairy […] Read more

It was a chicken morsel best savored at the theatre of the absurd. At the front of a room full of chicken farmers feeling the heat over low prices, the president of Kentucky Fried Chicken in Canada, Colin Moore, was intoning the corporate mantra that if farmers cut their prices, the business would grow and […] Read more

What a difference a year has made in the financial fortunes of the Canadian Egg Marketing Agency. A combination of two levy increases for farmers in late 1995, an increase in table egg sales last year, some agency cost-cutting and a higher-than-expected price for eggs sold to food processors turned last year’s large deficit into […] Read more

How about making Jan. 10 National Egg Day? No? Then how about cooking a giant omelette on Canada Day as a sort of “egg producers crack up for their country” event with all the accompanying publicity? Maybe they could call it the “egging on our politicians to keep the country together” event. Yoke, yoke, yoke. […] Read more

& Reuter News Agency news Canadian wheat sales to processors in the United States are 70 percent higher this year than last year and American officials have taken note. Last week, responding to pressure from midwestern grain states, U.S. agriculture secretary Dan Glickman warned that Canadian grain volumes are being watched. “We are monitoring it. […] Read more

When directors of the Chicken Farmers of Canada meet this week in Ottawa, they will hear a blunt message from Quebec. The attempt to change the national chicken quota and pricing system, launched in 1995, has been a failure, Quebec industry leaders are expected to tell the national group in a closed-door session. Fix it […] Read more

Abbotsford, B.C. chicken producer Frank Flokstra figures his industry, with its marketing price-setting system, has fallen under the control of processors. As president of the British Columbia Chicken Growers’ Association, he believes the national group Chicken Farmers of Canada has ceased to be an effective national instrument for growers facing lower prices. “I think farmers […] Read more

The federal Progressive Conservatives last week proposed to eliminate Agriculture Canada as a separate department, cut $600 million more from government agriculture spending, end all farm supports and increase user fees on the industry. It all led national farm leader Jack Wilkinson to shake his head in bewilderment. “If that is what they are running […] Read more

It has become something of an article of faith among Canadian farm lobbyists that American farmers now receive more government help than do their Canadian counterparts. Last week, a federal spokesperson told the House of Commons that is not true. Responding to criticism from Bloc QuŽbecois MP Jean-Guy ChrŽtien about falling government support for dairy […] Read more