Mary MacArthur

Workers at Maple Leaf’s hog slaughtering plant have voted to reject a mediator’s report despite threats by the company owner he’ll close the plant if the workers strike. “The company is saying they’re going to shut down the plant anyway so what do the workers have to lose,” said John Ventura, business representative for United […] Read more

Two Montana ranchers hope cattle producers will donate one good cow to those whose herds were lost from winter blizzards and spring floods. “We really just want to keep those people in business,” said Lisa Schmidt, Montana extension agent and one of the program organizers. The One Good Cow program was thought up by Montana […] Read more

STETTLER, Alta. – An engine pulls cars of grain slowly past Don Gillespie’s window. A rhythmic clackety-clack and rumble hammers through the walls and fills the office. “That’s the last train carrying grain from the south of Big Valley,” he said, not even turning to look out the window at the train about three metres […] Read more

Most people have already forgotten the minister of agriculture’s announcement of more money for the federal government’s infrastructure program. This is phase three of the job creation program and Lyle Vanclief’s announcement seems like old news. For the people of Vilna, Alta. it’s a very big deal. “This kind of thing really helps out,” said […] Read more

ARDROSSAN, Alta. – Shirley Alton has a warning for people wanting to make the leap from selling jam at farmers markets to marketing it in stores. Make sure your jam won’t go rancid. Alton was forced to pull all her jam off store shelves after customers complained their unopened jars had spoiled. Last year the […] Read more

A dispute at one of Alberta’s largest hog slaughtering plants is no closer to being settled after the company agreed to a mediator’s recommendations to pay the workers more money. The recommendation calls for a three-year contract, retroactive to Dec. 16, 1996, that would include wage increases of 28 cents an hour in each year […] Read more

EDMONTON – It has been 14 weeks since the Heart River slipped into the town of Peace River and flooded Helen Hodgkinson’s two-story rooming house and ruined her business. It still isn’t clear if the 77-year-old business person will reopen. A water main break a week before the flood forced her tenants to move out. […] Read more

ST. MICHAEL, Alta. – At a time when Mike Rudko would normally be putting his seeding equipment away, he was flying over his farm looking at the fields. What he could see for miles around was water. “It looked like northern Manitoba or northern Saskatchewan. It looked like one large lake with little islands,” said […] Read more

More than 350 Peace River area farmers turned off their tractors to come to a series of meetings on how to apply for the Alberta government’s disaster relief money. “We had good response,” said Ken Moholitny, director of central planning support with Alberta Agriculture. Most of the farmers were pleased the group of provincial officials […] Read more

Canada’s canola industry is outraged over claims the Cinderella crop is not so good and pure as its devotees claim. The canola industry was busy debunking statements made in a Globe and Mail newspaper article last week that canola oil and margarine are made from plants loaded with herbicides and the result is a product […] Read more