The Canadian Farm Writers Federation recently named Ed White its Farm Writer of the Year, and we couldn’t be happier for him.
Ed, one of our Winnipeg reporters, has been writing for the Producer since 1994, and during that time his eclectic interests have made themselves readily apparent.
He is as at home covering the hog industry as he is writing about agricultural economics. Grain markets are a specialty, but so is rural and farm culture.
He takes his craft seriously — so seriously, in fact, that he spent 12 years working his way through a series of courses offered by the Canadian Securities Institute so that he could better understand the intricacies of agribusiness and grain marketing. He eventually ended up with a derivatives market specialist designation.
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Ed also has a solid presence on social media, tirelessly interacting with readers.
This all sounds impressive, and it certainly backs up the decision to name him farm writer of the year.
But any musings about Ed must go beyond an editor’s admiration for a reporter’s journalistic dedication.
In the late 1990s Ed became fascinated with elk farming and decided to go to where the action was in an attempt to better understand the sector.
He spent a week in early December 2000 driving to Kalispell, Montana, to interview a prominent elk farmer, and to Laramie, Wyoming, to talk with a renowned researcher in the field.
When I caught wind of Ed’s whirlwind road trip, I asked if he wanted company and spent the week with him driving across the U.S. Great Plains as Americans agonized over who would be their next president — Al Gore or George Bush.
We had a blast and Ed got a great story.
It also turns out that Ed and I were scared of each other before we knew each other.
In 1992 I had made an appointment to visit the local newspaper in Grenfell, Sask., and was told the reporter there had a master’s degree in journalism.
I found this quite intimidating, but I later learned that Ed was equally nervous about meeting someone from the “big time” Western Producer.
We never did get a chance to meet during that trip, but we had quite a laugh about it later.
Congratulations, Ed.
