Last summer’s burst crop market bubble is still dripping off farmers’ memories, but many long time commodity bulls are still bullish. “The fundamentals are getting better for commodities. The fundamentals are not getting better for General Motors and Citibank,” said investor and commodity fund founder Jim Rogers in a recent television appearance, explaining why he’s […] Read more
Ed White
Stories by Ed White
The physique of a Volga boatman
One of my favourite professors at the University of Regina was Bernie Zagorin, who was my professor for modern Russian history and honours-level historiography. He had a grand, glowering and (to some) intimidating lecturing manner when describing periods of Russian history. I’ll never forget him looking out over his glasses at we puny students and, […] Read more
Money man
If you actually want to understand something about the kinds of financial crises and currency quagmires our world has apparently stumbled into, you should watch the four-part, four hour The Ascent of Money series that’s running on PBS starting July 8. It’s an expansion of a two hour show done with the series’ writer Niall […] Read more
What turns markets?
The American futures markets have taken a day off while yankees celebrate their unjustified and violent rebellion against lawful authority in 1776, a psychotic bloodfest that saw our decent, law-abiding and loyal ancestors forced to drag whatever possessions they had left after revolutionary persecution to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Lower and Upper Canada and to […] Read more
Market Power
How’d you like to be able to tell the customer what to pay for your product? That’s not generally the situation farmers are in, being for the most part price-takers in the marketplace, but some of the biggest food companies have semi-monopolies on some products and are sometimes able to force prices part of the […] Read more
Supporters rally around hogs
MORRIS, Man. – About 500 people gathered here for a hog industry support rally on June 22. Morris is in the heart of the Red River Valley south of Winnipeg, the area hardest hit by the hog industry crisis because it ships a large percentage of the millions of weanlings it produces each year to […] Read more
Corn could limit barley price rise
As Western Canada gets drier, feed barley prices get firmer. And they could move up further, grain brokers say. “We could see another 25 cents a bushel upside,” said Greg Hagel of Quality Grain. “We have a fair chunk of carryover, but it’s nowhere near what we’ll need for next year’s cattle on feed.” Darren […] Read more
Hog saliva test used as disease detector
DES MOINES, Iowa – Two researchers are creating tests using swine saliva to identify a host of infections. Jeff Zimmerman and John Prickett of Iowa State University have combined discoveries from human medicine with common sense hog production practicality to produce a way to test the hogs for porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, porcine circovirus, […] Read more
Oat firm rides highs, survives the lows
EDEN PRAIRIE, Minnesota – On the fourth floor of a modest office building in a leafy suburb of Minneapolis, far from the teeming city core and bustling industrial sectors, sit the corporate offices of Grain Millers Inc.. The company’s officers don’t hide from the public and will talk willingly with farmers and other parts of […] Read more
Farms may need to test grain
EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. – Consumers are demanding that food processors prove their products are safe. That means farmers should expect grain buyers to push those consumer demands back to the farmgate, says a major oat miller. “In five years from now, we may be required to have individual growers be able to do testing on […] Read more
