OTTAWA – A boom in Latin American soy production and increased concentration in the oilseed crushing sector threaten growth in the Canadian canola industry, says a Rabobank International official. Canada and Australia are the major exporters of canola. But oilseed and vegetable oil buyers increasingly want to source from a wide variety of regions to […] Read more
Stories by Roberta Rampton
Wet spring in forecast
WINNIPEG – Most farmers on the Canadian Prairies can look forward to normal to above-normal spring showers and relief from two years of crop-stunting drought, says Canada’s senior climatologist. Environment Canada’s forecast for the planting season in March, April and May calls for above-normal precipitation for the driest region of Saskatchewan, and normal levels for […] Read more
U.S. must rein in subsidies for WTO limits
WASHINGTON, D.C. – American policy makers will be looking over their shoulders in the direction of Geneva as they develop a new package of domestic subsidies. For the first time, Congress must write a farm bill that fits within limits it agreed to during the last round of World Trade Organization negotiations. Paying attention to […] Read more
U.S. Farm policy – special report (about)
When the American government unveiled a new style of farm subsidy in 1996, it was wrapped in the rhetoric of free trade. Nicknamed Freedom to Farm, the program was to wean producers from subsidies and make them more aware of world market prices. Instead, the opposite has occurred. American farmers depend more than ever on […] Read more
U.S. Farm policy – special report (main story)
A small bale of cotton, a red cowboy boot with a miniature lariat: these are the little bits of Texas brightening up the somber legislative offices of Democratic representative Charlie Stenholm. They are testament that this influential member of United States Congress never forgets the ranchers from the sprawling district who sent him to Washington. […] Read more
Canada feels shake of elephant’s weight – special report (story 1)
There is no doubt the next slate of American farm subsidies will have a big impact on the prices and incomes of Canadian farms from 2002 onward. “What was it Pierre Trudeau said?” quipped Alexandra Lamont, policy analyst at the Canadian Wheat Board, referring to his famous analogy. “Living next to you is in some […] Read more
The Grinch who stole grain prices
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Chomping on his trademark unlit cigar, Barry Flinchbaugh holds court in the lobby of a Holiday Inn a few blocks from Capitol Hill. Flinchbaugh, an agricultural economist who has had the ear of many key architects of American farm programs past and present, remembers being in Saskatoon shortly after the 1996 farm […] Read more
U.S. farm policy – Special Report (main story)
Michael Coates sits at his kitchen table, an inch-thick legal document before him, a pile of transcripts from trade hearings stacked by his feet. The papers describe how American subsidies that encourage overproduction and depress grain prices have hurt Coates and fellow corn growers. Back in 1996, Coates was blissfully unaware of the messy details […] Read more
U.S. Freedom to Farm sees opposition at home – Special Report (story 1)
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The billions of dollars in bailouts the United States Congress has sent to American farmers since 1998 have added insult to injury on Dan Specht’s farm. Specht grows organic crops and raises grass-fed beef on 700 acres in northeastern Iowa, 280 acres of which he owns. Because he diversified in the 1980s, […] Read more
Rail turnaround goal too ambitious?
Slashing in half average turnaround times for rail cars between the Prairies and ports is a daunting target, according to grain industry observers. Last week, CN president Paul Tellier told a Canada Grains Council luncheon he thinks the industry should agree to shoot for an 11-day turnaround time for cars. In 1999, it took 21 […] Read more
