Mary MacArthur

PONOKA, Alta. – Minutes after government officials learned that a cow in Alberta was infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy, its history in the province could be traced on computer, said the man who developed the computerized identification system. An animal can be traced through a brand, owner’s name or the livestock yard where it was […] Read more

MORINVILLE, Alta. – Black soot, insulation, charred wood and twisted rebar lie in a long, narrow bunker outlined by concrete that once served as the walls of two hog barns. Men and women from the Morinville Hutterite Colony northwest of Edmonton, have worked long hours to clean up this site, where a May 13 fire […] Read more

An Alberta grain broker says the decision to feed corn or barley to cattle this fall will come down to price. Dave Guichon of Ag Value Group in Calgary advises producers to work out the decision on pencil and paper rather than basing it on emotion or history. “It’s all based on price.” Most of […] Read more

Scientists are hoping a new research facility will allow them to create a safer meat supply by making food-borne pathogen research possible. “Until now we could not work with food-borne pathogens in meat products,” said Lynn McMullen, a food microbiology professor at the University of Alberta who will lead the meat safety research team at […] Read more

Each summer Lorraine Thompson looks out her window at the patio around her house. It would be a great place to enjoy the summer, if it wasn’t for the mosquitoes. Thompson and her husband hope an $800 trap called the Mosquito Magnet will attract enough mosquitoes to allow them to enjoy the patio in peace. […] Read more

Owners of a northern Alberta feed company mired in debt have refused to take the easy way out of their financial problems by declaring bankruptcy. Instead, the three brothers are putting together a plan to slowly pay back the $3.8 million to farmers, banks and suppliers. Their staunch Mennonite background won’t allow Ron, Cal and […] Read more

An Alberta cowboy’s fight to ride his horse through the streets of Grande Prairie has proven to be a rude awakening for those who believed the horse had a permanent place in the towns and cities they helped establish. “Nobody realized how quickly urbanization caught up to western heritage,” said Joe Gill. His fight to […] Read more

Small towns and cities across Alberta are threatening to withhold money for the RCMP who patrol them unless the province comes up with a more equitable solution to help pay for policing costs. “We’re trying to bring this to a crisis,” said Don Weisbeck, mayor of Brooks, which is one of 30 municipalities threatening to […] Read more

The chair of Alberta’s labour code review says the province must quickly act to satisfy a Supreme Court ruling, while also respecting the unique working conditions on farms. Alberta and Ontario are the only provinces that don’t extend collective bargaining rights to agricultural workers. In 2001, the Supreme Court of Canada said it is unconstitutional […] Read more

EDMONTON – Consumers in Canada and abroad will drive the future direction of agriculture, says an American agricultural economist, and food safety will be one of their major concerns. David Kohl of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University of Virginia told an audience in Edmonton that consumers must have the ability to trace food […] Read more