Mary MacArthur

There are plenty of stumbling blocks to reaching the Alberta government’s dream of a $20 billion food industry by the year 2005, says a government-commissioned study. Food safety is one of the biggest concerns facing the industry, said Jerry Bouma, the consultant who led the study. “Producers first have to recognize safety is a growing […] Read more

EDMONTON – It has been six years since dairy farmer Bill Bocock first stood at the microphone and asked the Alberta Cattle Commission to look into what seemed like a growing problem of cattle made sick from petroleum industry pollution. Cattle producers believe there is a link between the province’s frantic oil and gas activity […] Read more

Farmers can avoid developing a debilitating lung illness when they get older by wearing a small neoprene mask, says a respiratory therapist. Breathing in small amounts of dusty hay or chemical fumes doesn’t seem like much, but over the years it can eat away at lung tissue, Rick Saint told a group of farm women […] Read more

Striking workers at the Maple Leaf plant in Edmonton probably believe in Santa Claus if they still think the hog processing plant will reopen, says a company spokesperson. “That plant is closed,” said Linda Smith. “We have said for seven months if there was a strike at that plant … because of its age, that […] Read more

This fall, Ken Rempel, who farms near Tofield, Alta., listened carefully to the weather forecasts. The day he heard snow was expected he hooked up the drill and seeded 60 acres of canola. Conditions were ideal in the field and it sounded like winter had arrived for good. The following week was cold, miserable and […] Read more

Hundreds of women sit at long tables and listen attentively to the speakers during a recent farm women’s conference in Camrose, Alta. But the minute there is a break in the program, there’s a swarm of activity at the Country Roots homemade furniture display in the corner. It’s the first time Terry and Carolyn Musgrave, […] Read more

COTILLION, Alta. – Earlier this year Gwen and Cliff Travis sat their children down and told them the facts of farming. For the second year in a row they weren’t able to harvest their crop, bills were piling up and there was little money to pay them. “We made them aware of where we’re sitting. […] Read more

The Alberta government massaged existing agriculture programs but offered no new money to Peace River farmers hurt by two years of unharvested crop. “The government decided to go with a wide variety of programs that give farmers more options,” said Andrew Church, vice-president of field operations with the government’s Agriculture Financial Service Corporation. In the […] Read more

FARMINGTON, B.C. – As Bill Mazanek bounced over the frozen field in his John Deere combine he still wasn’t sure if he’d made the right decision to combine a tangled mess of half frozen grain. “It’s almost an effort in futility,” said a bleary-eyed Mazanek. The Tomslake, B.C. farmer had been combining steadily for almost […] Read more

Last week hog producer Fred Olthuis attended a public hearing for a proposed hog barn. A cattle producer opposed Olthuis’s plan for a hog barn which would be built within 1,000 metres of his house. And he wanted his views known. “At that distance you can’t even smell anything,” said Olthuis, of Neerlandia in northern […] Read more