Garry Fairbairn

One quote from last week’s newspaper definitely deserves repeating. It was from a Saskatchewan farmer, reflecting on the 1995 end of the Crow Benefit transportation subsidy: “Farmers lose. Communities lose. I guess the one benefit I got out of it was to realize I can’t trust or depend on government. That’s a good lesson.” There’s […] Read more

Extremist environmental groups in Europe are mobilizing to fight genetic engineering – and are having some success. In seemingly effective publicity stunts, they have organized groups of volunteers to cut down test plots of genetically engineered crops. There was no opposition, and in at least one case local police observed without interfering. Predictably, the environmentalists’ […] Read more

It was just another quiet day in cyberspace. Then some (presumably) urban adolescent posted a message in an agriculture forum. The message title was “stupid farmers.” Needless to say, that message quickly drew a lot of mouse clicks. As it turned out, the writer was outraged at the thought of animals getting antibiotics: “As we […] Read more

There’s an interesting debate south of the border that could have important implications for Canada – and perhaps some useful insight into trade policy. The U.S. debate is whether Congress should again give the president “fast-track” negotiating authority for trade agreements. With the next round of world trade talks coming up, this will be a […] Read more

After talk-show host Oprah Winfrey raised a scare about the safety of U.S. hamburger, outraged Texas cattle producers struck back with lawsuits, claiming that her program cost them $11 million through a drop in cattle prices. The television program in question featured a guest who claimed the U.S. was threatened by an epidemic of mad-cow […] Read more

When the House of Commons ended debate last week on new wheat board legislation, it left a floor figuratively littered with unanswered questions. Some were questions that the farmer-elected advisory committee has been trying for months to get the government to answer. (See opposite page.) Others were more rhetorical, as when Reform MP Jake Hoeppner […] Read more

One thing you have to admit about the Canadian Farm Enterprise Network is that it is enterprising. So creatively enterprising, in fact, that it has developed a strange new form of logic in which today’s wheat marketing system can be likened to racist oppression of Japanese Canadians a half century ago. How does one get […] Read more

What does economic globalization mean for millions of hungry people and poverty-level farmers? There are both opportunities and dangers, says a recent report from the Bread for the World Institute. The Institute, whose membership consists mainly of religious organizations such as the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, is plainly nervous about the emergence of a global marketplace […] Read more

Although the Canadian Wheat Board tends to attract the majority of headlines, it is not the only government agency working to develop wheat export markets. A case study by Jim Dexter of the Canadian Grain Commission provides some interesting insight on how he and other CGC officials spent 10 years encouraging wheat sales to Colombia, […] Read more

What will the new year bring for Western Canadian agricultural producers? It’s safe to say that many of the themes will be holdovers from the past. Debate will continue on world trade rules, Canadian Wheat Board marketing powers, income safety nets, global climate trends, genetic engineering, hog barns, the grainhandling system, rail-line closures, animal rights, […] Read more