The battle for acreage in the United States, usually limited to soybeans versus wheat, now includes a new category: crops versus ducks. Rising crop prices persuaded hundreds of Midwest farmers to pull out nearly a million acres from the Conservation Reserve Program in 2007. With that land going back into production, U.S. environmental groups are […] Read more
Robert Arnason
Stories by Robert Arnason
Politicians rally around CWB
Opposition MPs from Winnipeg have launched a joint attack on the Conservative government’s handling of the Canadian Wheat Board. At a news conference held at the Manitoba legislature last week, Liberals Ray Simard and Anita Neville and New Democrats Pat Martin and Judy Wasylycia-Leis characterized the Tories’ CWB policy as reckless, ill advised and a […] Read more
Defend yourselves, producers advised
Jay Lehr was born to talk and he wants you to follow his lead. Lehr, an enthusiastic and pragmatic defender of the environment, has a message for western Canadian farmers – get out there and tell people that conventional farming is sustainable. “I’m charging you with making an effort. You’ve got to give up some […] Read more
Biomass an energy option: firm
John Bottomley wants people to know there’s more to renewable fuel than ethanol. “As a society we seem to get hung up on specific technologies …. There is no silver bullet,” said Bottomley, president of Outlook Resources, an alternative energy company with its head office in Selkirk, Man. “This whole thing with renewables, it’s not […] Read more
Wheat surge leaves victims
The squeeze in the March wheat contract in Minneapolis may have long-term consequences for the grain trade, say U.S. market analysts. “You’re going to have some country grain elevators that are really, really going to get hurt,” said Duane Lowry, a market commentator and analyst based in Maynard, Indiana. “It’s a black eye to the […] Read more
Wheat board suspends price contract for a day
The owner of a farm marketing company reacted with disbelief and then fury Feb. 12 when the Canadian Wheat Board suspended a contract linked to future prices on the Minneapolis Grain Exchange. Brenda Tjaden-Lepp, co-owner of Farm Link Marketing Solutions in Winnipeg, was about to execute a contract with the CWB Feb. 12 by pushing […] Read more
Processor follows heart, finds business success
It all begins with a passion. That’s the message Mike Fata, a Manitoba hemp entrepreneur, has for anyone starting a specialty food business – follow your passion and money will follow. “Our business is everything that we do,” said Fata, president and co-founder of Manitoba Harvest, a hemp food company based in Winnipeg. “It’s more […] Read more
Ag sector needs urban recruits
Clinton Jedel and Dustin Krahn are part of the solution – but also part of the problem. The agribusiness students at Assiniboine Community College in Brandon are preparing for careers in agriculture, but they, like most students in their class, grew up in rural Manitoba. “Ninety-nine percent of them (classmates) come from a farm background,” […] Read more
There’s a new guy in Winnipeg – Editorial Notebook
Apparently, they’re right: the only constant is change. In the winter of 2005, one of my first stories for the Nipawin Journal was a piece on the price of canola. I had just moved to northeastern Saskatchewan from my hometown of Winnipeg, and I reported on how the oilseed was stuck around $5.50 per bushel […] Read more
Grain firms expect lower prices
The big three are in agreement – crop prices are due for a fall. Executives at Cargill, James Richardson International (JRI) and Viterra all believe the record prices for oilseeds and grains will not last because a market correction is inevitable. “I think there is a general pullback required,” JRI president Curt Vossen said after […] Read more
