The North American food system found itself struggling last week under the weight of news that JBS, the world’s largest meat packer, had been hacked by miscreants. The company temporarily halted some operations to deal with resulting computer network issues. Computer criminals based in Russia have been targeting North American businesses and extorting payments in […] Read more
Opinion
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![Every Canadian has a role to play in reconciliation. | File photo]()
Agriculture has a role to play as country acts on reconciliation
Canadian agriculture has a role to play in reconciliation. The important role of reconciliation was once again made painfully clear…
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![While higher prices are better than lower prices, historically, there has been a consequence to them. | File photo]()
Commodity price spikes welcome but have consequences
What are your thoughts about the existence of a commodities supercycle? Whether we’re in one is open for debate. From…
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![The UN Food Systems Summit scheduled for this fall in New York is farming’s equivalent of the meetings that birthed the Paris agreement on climate change. Western Canada needs to ensure that its regional reality is recognized in that process. | Screencap via un.org]()
Nine billion people or not? Producers need new focus
A few years from now, in about 2028, there will be eight billion people on the planet. The possibility of…
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![Madyson Dempsey would like to see more education made available about the mental health issues facing farmers. | Supplied photo]()
Mental health issues continue to be a struggle in agriculture
Mental health is an important issue for the agricultural community. As someone who struggles with my own mental health, I…
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Trust is paramount in technology age
Farmers have been collecting and generating data for centuries. In our increasingly digitized world, data has also become synonymous with…
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Internship returns writer to her roots
Last year was a year of firsts for me: my first year of journalism school, my first pet of my…
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Stories from our other publications
Crop envy hard to resist but provides limited research value
I admit it, I suffer from crop envy. Every time I drive down a road during the growing season my head is on a swivel looking at the crops on both sides of the road. When I see one that looks nicer than mine, I wonder what that grower did that I didn’t. The opposite […] Read more
Maintaining public trust in food system requires public regulation
Millions of dollars and countless hours spent building public trust could be undone if Health Canada finalizes its proposed new regulatory guidance for products of gene editing (also called genome editing). Despite biotechnology industry complaints that regulation is just red tape that hampers competitiveness, companies rely on the legitimacy that government regulation provides. If the […] Read more
Agriculture has a role to play as country acts on reconciliation
Canadian agriculture has a role to play in reconciliation. The important role of reconciliation was once again made painfully clear when the remains of 215 children were found on the site of a former residential school in British Columbia. It is the latest example of why Canada’s residential school system has been described as “cultural […] Read more
Saskatchewan leaders look to the future of agriculture
Editor’s Note: Recollections and Reflections is a new column celebrating prairie history and 50 years of the Saskatchewan Agricultural Hall of Fame. Linda Braun is writing the column as we look back on the history of agriculture during this important SAHF anniversary year. The Saskatchewan Agricultural Hall of Fame, organized in 1971 and honouring its […] Read more
Commodity price spikes welcome but have consequences
What are your thoughts about the existence of a commodities supercycle? Whether we’re in one is open for debate. From some of the reading I’ve done, even economists aren’t all of the same opinion about the presence of a supercycle. What we do know is that the grain and oilseed sector has seen tremendous price […] Read more
Nine billion people or not? Producers need new focus
A few years from now, in about 2028, there will be eight billion people on the planet. The possibility of growing to nine billion, a 2050 United Nations’ projection, has captivated speakers in the food and agriculture realm for the past 15 years. But now there’s growing skepticism about that predicted growth. A global population […] Read more
Mental health issues continue to be a struggle in agriculture
Mental health is an important issue for the agricultural community. As someone who struggles with my own mental health, I know it is a big problem that affects people in many ways. When you think of farming and agriculture, the words wheat, farmers, animals and food come to mind. People do not think about the […] Read more
Trust is paramount in technology age
Farmers have been collecting and generating data for centuries. In our increasingly digitized world, data has also become synonymous with today’s farm — whether that information is used to choose a hybrid to increase return on investment, use crop protection products more efficiently, or strategically place more input in areas of high performance. In fact, […] Read more
Internship returns writer to her roots
Last year was a year of firsts for me: my first year of journalism school, my first pet of my own, my first summer away from home, and my first real journalism job, here at The Western Producer. Here is another first, one you’re reading right now and one that I’ve rewritten five times — […] Read more
