When AGT Food and ingredients’ Murad Al-Katib mentioned the expected growth in world population at Grain World last week, I got curious. I’ve heard the number several times, but I wondered what more there is too it. Understandably, Al-Katib sees tremendous opportunity for Canada’s agricultural sector. Indeed, it’s not just the growth in population that […] Read more
Brian MacLeod
Stories by Brian MacLeod
Farm groups delighted as CPTPP ratified
When the House of Commons ratified the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership last week, followed quickly by royal assent, many farm groups reacted with glee. Canada is the fifth country to ratify the agreement — Mexico, Japan, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand are the others — which encompasses 11 countries and almost 500 […] Read more
Pot puns need to be nipped in the bud
If you’re curious now that marijuana is legal in Canada, there is no shortage of news articles for your edification. Several media outlets have had fun with the whole thing, which actually is quite a thing, because a Toronto-Dominion Bank paper says legalized cannabis will add $8 billion annually to the economy. Noting the marijuana […] Read more
Border divides trade deal opinions
It’s interesting to take a quick look at how the Canadian and U.S. media viewed the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement in the immediate aftermath of its announcement. In Canada, it was mainly relief. In the U.S., it was mostly, “did we win?” The Toronto Star noted that it “came down to making a few acceptable concessions […] Read more
Canada’s governing dilemma
Running a large country like Canada is to surge from one dilemma to another. While negotiating a United States-Mexico-Canada trade deal, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was also dealing with the Trans Mountain Pipeline issue. He’s taken the middle ground — not appealing the Federal Appeal Court ruling halting the pipeline, in part because of inadequate […] Read more
Our coverage of chemicals worthwhile
Discerning readers will notice that we’ve been writing a lot about farmers’ use of chemicals lately. There are four stories in this week’s Western Producer: one about the low thresholds used by Health Canada for neonicotinoids, one detailing how beekeepers in Western Canada are worried that a ban on neonics will result in farmers using […] Read more
Producer staff earn awards
Each year, the American Agricultural Association’s award contest identifies great content supplied by writers, designers photographers and digital presenters from across the continent. Once again this year, work from the Western Producer’s staff has been recognized as among the best. In the “Issues” category, Calgary-based reporter, Barbara Duckworth, won first place for a special report […] Read more
CETA proving hard to ratify in Europe
If Canada hadn’t already negotiated the CETA trade deal with the European Union, would we make such an attempt to do so today? Certainly, there would be skepticism. It took seven years and a lot of high-level energy to get the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement negotiated. The deal reduces 98 percent of the tariffs […] Read more
Tractor show goes time travelling
Many visitors to Farm Progress like the antique tractor and truck show because they remember driving them
Nostalgia is a powerful draw for antique vehicle shows, but it works even better when visitors can say, “hey, that’s my tractor.” Well, sort of. The John Deere 5020 tractor owned by Adriaan and Justin Lievaart of Estevan, Sask., was one of the stars of the antique tractors and truck show at Canada’s Farm Progress […] Read moreOnline stories an eclectic mix
It’s time for our semi-annual look at our most popular stories. I always enjoy this column because it gives us some insight into what readers like to see at producer.com. As we can see, our most popular stories so far are an eclectic mix of mayhem, farming culture, breaking news and agricultural issue oriented stories. […] Read more
