Five years ago, about half of the pigs in Canada were raised with ractopamine. In 2018 the percentage is basically zero. Use of the feed additive, which increases the rate of gain for hogs, dropped to nothing because Canada’s pork industry listened to market signals. Major buyers, like China and Russia, didn’t want pork with […] Read more
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The science of division vs. the pursuit of truth
Is it just me, or is it getting harder to tell the difference between fact and fiction? Thanks to the internet and social media, we have more information and more opinions at our fingertips every day. But as the amount of information available to us increases, it takes more time and mental energy to sort […] Read more
One last post from the old ‘bux
On tumult in the ag trade and industry
This is the last blog post I’ll be writing from my preferred venue of the Starbucks in the base of one of Portage and Main’s towers. I’ll still be blogging and blithering in this digital space on the internet, but this physical space in the core of Winnipeg’s and Canada’s grain business is disappearing on […] Read more
Trump fails import-export math
For someone who graduated from a top business school, Donald Trump doesn’t seem to understand basic math. In a Monday morning tweet, Trump said Canada, Mexico and China are treating American farmers “unfairly.” He claimed that U.S. farmers have not been doing well for the last 15 years because countries, like Canada, put up barriers […] Read more
Farmbaya for C-49
I never thought I’d see it. It was like the wolf lying down with the lamb, the leopard lying down with the goat, or the calf, the lion and the yearling lounging in peace. What child led this parade of grain industry peace? It was a brand new child of Parliament, known as the Transportation […] Read more
VIDEO: Commodity Classic Day 1: Farmers warned against locking in futures prices
Sean Pratt is attending the 2018 Commodity Classic in Anaheim, California. The gathering of U.S. corn, soybean, wheat and sorghum growers is America’s largest farmer-led convention. Look for stories in upcoming issues of The Western Producer. In the meantime, here is a blog of some of the things he is hearing at the conference. ANAHEIM, […] Read more
‘Yes and yes’: Cargill successfully embraces both science and non-science
About 13 months ago Cargill sent out a tweet that unintentionally offended, and profoundly offended, thousands of North American farmers. “We work closely with the #NonGMO Project & hope to have even more Cargill ingredients verified in the near future.” The tweet, released March 2017, quickly became a public relations debacle. Hundreds of farmers hammered […] Read more
Eating organic kale is about status
In 2017 I interviewed about 800 to 1,200 people about agriculture, agronomy, science and food. Looking back at the responses, to probably more than 3,000 questions, one comment stands above the rest. It came from Kevin Folta, professor and chair of the University of Florida horticultural sciences department and a well-known science communicator. Folta frequently […] Read more
Better not to kowtow to China
It’s too bad China didn’t offer Canada everything Canadians had hoped for in the Prime Minister’s just-completed trip. Many were hoping that Canada and China would officially agree to beginning negotiations towards a free trade deal, but that frittered away with Justin Trudeau pushing labour and gender rights and some amongst the Chinese leadership appearing […] Read more
WP launches new website
The Western Producer has launched a new website. It has been a long time coming, but I hope visitors will find it’s been worth the wait. The new producer.com is not a flashy or gimmicky website; instead, it’s functional and attractive. Our experience — both in print and online — shows that the easier and […] Read more
