Right now I’m sitting at Starbucks at Portage and Main, imbibing a caffeine-laced beverage, working up the energy to tackle a 29 minute taped interview I did yesterday with a leading American crop price forecaster. This, dear readers, is one of those recurrent plights that affects newspaper scribblers like me. You’re delighted to finally speak […] Read more
Opinion — page 680
Right in ’08, so what about ’09?
Conspiracy of cheapness
I feel like I’ve joined a secret conspiracy, something that’ll probably help all the grain growers out there and hurt the livestock producers. It’s a conspiracy that, if it grows widely across the world, might save grain farms from even a depression, or at least a double dip recession. It’s a conspiracy I’m joining against […] Read more
Back in Switzerland
Flying over a country you really see what’s going on down there. As we passed over France we were amazed at the amount of canola the country grows. Bright yellow dominated much of the patchwork of fields below. Robert thinks that about a third of the fields are seeded to canola. I did a little […] Read more
Inflecting the point
It’s nearing the moment of truth for a set of predictions about the three big grains that I’ve been following since the start of 2009. A technical analyst named Jeffrey Kennedy called for wheat, corn and soybean prices (Chicago ones) to rise from late 2008’s lows to somewhere above where we are today (in December […] Read more
Old, broken down structures
It was a cold, dark morning about 10 days ago when I walked in to work and saw a couple of things that made me nostalgically sad, and to ponder the fate of old, broken down structures. As a few flakes of unseasonal snow fell on my oddly short and messy hair and I came […] Read more
Letters to the editor
Recycling query; Too kind; Smart farmers; World prices; Prison farms; Gun registry Recycling query As a paper with emphasis in agriculture and environmental practices, I wonder why you accept the inserts of machine, seed, fertilizer companies which use heavy, glossy paper, bright inks, very wasteful spaces and such, which are all more difficult to recycle […] Read more
Business strategy drives decision making – Perspectives on Management
Two neighbouring farms with the same enterprise, size and weather will typically report different financial outcomes, one performing better than the other. The only variable is the difference in management decisions. If sustained, similar financial results for the farms will have short- and long-term implications. Short-term effects could include whether the farm can obtain money […] Read more
Think critically about flu info – WP editorial
IT’S A PLEASANT surprise that the World Health Organization and other countries ceded to entreaties from agricultural sectors and governments to rename the deadly flu virus that now dominates the news. That is the only pleasant occurrence in relation to influenza H1N1, the virus formerly known as swine flu. It has killed at least 100 […] Read more
It’s Ignatieff’s challenge to wipe out Liberal stains – Opinion
IT WAS A gift for a columnist seeking a metaphor to describe the Liberal national convention as an attempt to move the party beyond the failures of the recent past. In delegate registration bags containing serious stuff – policy resolutions, proposed constitutional amendments and agendas – was an item meant to be practical. With the […] Read more
We need CWB election reform – Opinion
Vos is a Canadian Wheat Board director who farms near Fairview, Alta. The Canadian Wheat Board voters list does not accurately reflect the farm community. It gives far too much clout to those who do not depend on farming as their main source of income. In the 2007-08 crop year, the CWB issued 84,403 permit […] Read more
