ON MARCH 11, 1934, a small group of dairy farmers met at Ottawa’s Chateau Laurier hotel to form what has become Dairy Farmers of Canada. Last week at that same hotel, DFC delegates met to celebrate their triumphs (supply management being the most prominent) and to plot strategy on how to continue the lobby to […] Read more
Opinion — page 692
Over 75 years, dairy group has learned its politics – Opinion
Romance of small farms is fine – Opinion
Beingessner is a farmer and a columnist in Truax, Sask. The Jan. 15 Western Producer editorial entitled “Banish romantic notion of small farm” left me a trifle uneasy. While it seems to be a critique of very small farms in poor countries, it implies that North American romantic notions about small farms constitute some kind […] Read more
No market mover
Any hopes that the United States Department of Agriculture stocks and world production report this morning would blow the crop markets out of the doldrums have been dashed by the generally expected conclusions. USDA’s WASDE forecast for corn was unsurprising in reducing Argentine production by three million tonnes, but raised a few eyebrows by not […] Read more
Feb. 6, 2009
I hope to be on internet tonight. The system is down at the moment. I use an air card for my laptop. Zambia introduced the air card several years ago, before anyone in Canada was talking about it. In many ways Zambia is technically quite up to date. The speed of the internet leaves much […] Read more
Easy Being Green
It’s pretty easy being green, especially when that’s the colour of gains on the contracts on the Chicago Board of Trade. At mid-morning all the ag commodities were trading up, with March winter wheat leaping by 18.6 cents to $5.61, soybeans up by 16.4 to $9.66 and corn up 8 cents to $3.66. Oats was […] Read more
Budget misjudged cattle investment – WP editorial
IT IS disappointing that the federal budget did not directly assist Canada’s embattled cattle producers. It is unfair for a free spending budget, which threw money at everything from the auto sector to home renovations to the arts, to offer only tough love to the livestock sector that is reeling from a succession of blows, […] Read more
It’s only words – and words are all we have – Opinion
IT WAS the great British author, political analyst, socialist and wordsmith George Orwell who most cogently made the argument that a key political tactic is to capture the language. In part, he based his analysis on the language of the Russian Revolution. In the pre-revolutionary Russian Social Democratic Labour party, the minority radical movement took […] Read more
Seeing the good in all of us – Opinion
Popoff is a political columnist based in Osoyoos, B.C. Many books attempt to define what being Doukhobor and being Canadian means. None comes close to capturing the simple message my grandfather gave me. Popular wisdom is that Doukhobors don’t drink alcohol; we’re strict vegetarians and ardent pacifists. Few of my fellow Doukhobors follow these tenets […] Read more
In search of the wild javelina – Editorial Notebook
I looked to the hills and looked into arroyos. Checked along roadways and paths and gullies. Peered through telescopes and binoculars and sunglasses. I was searching for the elusive javelina, a wild pig – or technically a peccary – native to Arizona, where it survives in harsh desert conditions by munching on prickly pear cacti, […] Read more
Letters to the editor
Budget advice; Invalid results?; Cattle assistance; Power questions; FNA credit; Smell the oats Foreign takeover; Smell the oats; Fertilizer prices Budget advice In the midst of global uncertainty and change, Canada’s federal government stands ready to implement progressive interprovincial revenue sharing agreements and public policies that could enhance and strengthen Canada’s position in a free […] Read more
