It was less than a year ago when the Wuhan virus, as it was first known, was first discovered. In February, the World Health Organization named it COVID-19. In March, it was declared a pandemic and the world has been forever changed. Within agriculture, the meat-packing industry faced serious hurdles as workers became infected and […] Read more
Opinion — page 2
Second COVID-19 wave brings new challenges
It is important to keep expectations low for president-elect
United States President-elect Joe Biden is a welcomed addition to the White House, but don’t expect the U.S. to change over night. Outgoing President Donald Trump is likely going to have to eventually give up his challenge of the election results with little evidence to back up his claims of fraud. Trump has inflicted havoc […] Read more
BLOG: Sustainable ag is here to stay
ESG investing. It may not be a household phrase yet, but it’s already shaping the future of agriculture. And in five to 10 years, Canadian producers may be operating their farms differently because of ESG (environmental, social and governance) investing. In the last 11 months, I probably received 150 emails from dozens of agriculture and […] Read more
National pork organization offers sector needed boost
It took years to get government on board with a national pork agency, but last week the long-standing request from producers came true. The Canadian Pork Promotion and Research Agency is a welcome entity that will allow Canadian pork producers to better leverage producer checkoffs, charge a levy on pork coming into Canada and fund […] Read more
Gov’t should resist temptation to over-legislate meat alternatives
It is understandable why livestock farmers feel threatened by meat alternative products and want strict rules, but we should be careful of putting in place draconian rules on this growing industry. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency recently announced it was seeking greater clarity in federal guidelines for the labels on “simulated” meat and poultry products. […] Read more
Sask. Party earns a place in history
Now that the Sask Party has secured its fourth consecutive majority mandate, it’s time to look at other powerhouse parties from Saskatchewan’s electoral past. The Sask Party’s re-election is a significant achievement, one that will ensure that it continues to be the longest serving provincial government in Canada today. There’s even talk of the Sask […] Read more
WP editorial recognitions
The American Agricultural Editors’ Association usually holds its annual conference in the middle of summer. This also coincides with the time when farmers typically have the least amount of time to spend with the publications. The Western Producer is an exception to that rule because producers seem to spend a lot of time with every […] Read more
What would you do if you had an extra million dollars?
You may remember the Barenaked Ladies song, If I had a $1,000,000, which was released in 1992. You would need about $1.85 million today to have the same buying power as then, depending on the inflation rate used in the calculation over the past almost 30 years. However, a million dollars today is still a […] Read more
Easy to second guess pre-priced grain this year
Could’ve, would’ve, should’ve — the lament over selling grain too soon. Over the past two months, most grain prices have increased significantly. In fact, some of the increases can be characterized as dramatic. Back in the first half of September, for a crop return analysis in this column, I collected pricing data based on published […] Read more
Letters to the editor – November 12, 2020
AgriStability comments make no sense Kevin Hursh’s opinion piece about AgriStability in the Oct. 29 issue of The Western Producer makes no sense and is infuriating because he seems to want to pit farmers against each other by taking AgriStability benefits away from grain farmers and giving them, instead, to hog and livestock farmers. Hursh’s […] Read more
