It’s Wednesday at 1:30. Time to round up the team. After a verbal prod from the ringleader, the ink-stained wretches who make up The Western Producereditorial board gather their papers and slouch into a frigid room to begin cogitations on the coming week’s editorial topic.
One says tom-ate-o, one says tom-ah- to, but we don’t call the whole thing off until we’ve come to agreement on a topic and a stance.
The result is the weekly editorial, which appears opposite this page, that is designed to inform, to question and to suggest. Do we afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted, as John Kenneth Galbraith suggested? Our readers are the judges.
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At last week’s Canadian Farm Writers Federation conference, two members of our editorial board won awards for opinions written in 2009- 10. D’Arce McMillan, editorial board member and markets editor, won gold for an editorial about Bill C-474. That’s the proposal that would add market acceptance analysis to any approval of new genetically modified crops.
McMillan also won silver in technical writing, for a special report on genetic research into canola.
Terry Fries, editorial board member and news editor, won silver for an opinion piece about conflicting data on greenhouse gas emissions, which makes it difficult to assess the scope of the problem.
Saskatoon-based reporter Sean Pratt won silver in weekly press reporting for a special report on Triffid flax, which wreaked havoc with the Canadian flax market last year.
Web editor Paul Yanko won gold in the website category for his work on www.producer.com.
William DeKay, theProducer’sphotojournalist, won the gold award in both of the photo categories, news photo and feature photo. You can see the winning feature photo below, which was taken last fall. A larger version of the news photo, of a boy sharing lunch with his father while in a combine, can be seen on my blog at producer. com.
So can Camrose reporter Mary MacArthur’s photo of a child and a chicken riding a bike, (yes, you read that right) that won bronze in the feature photo category.
