I have, in recent weeks, come across the term “fake news” when people want to express their concern with an element in a story or column. This term has caught on and is being used as a tool to denigrate other people’s communication. It is often used inappropriately. The term was popularized by U.S. President […] Read more
Tag Archives editorial notebook
Gov’t tries controlling the message
Agriculture Canada tried to impose media talking points on the Canadian Food Inspection Agency for the public release of a study that examined glyphosate levels in Canadian food. Before the study’s release, CFIA provided the Grains Roundtable an overview of the study’s findings on April 10, 2017, according to an Agriculture Canada internal report obtained […] Read more
Your Producer journalists served you well
Most of you might not be aware that in this craft of agricultural journalism, a subset of the larger media industry, we have professional associations. One of the highlights of being a member of these groups is the annual competitions that allow us to see what the current standards in our business look like. As […] Read more
Our coverage of chemicals worthwhile
Discerning readers will notice that we’ve been writing a lot about farmers’ use of chemicals lately. There are four stories in this week’s Western Producer: one about the low thresholds used by Health Canada for neonicotinoids, one detailing how beekeepers in Western Canada are worried that a ban on neonics will result in farmers using […] Read more
‘Fake news’ tag harms useful info
I have, for the first time in my 25 years at The Western Producer, heard from farmer-readers that the professional press, including us, is “fake.” Lately, the term is being thrown around a lot. I was sitting in the sprayer, not so very long ago, going back and forth, as these things do when everything […] Read more
Trust vs. facts in debate over agriculture
We have often championed the virtue of good communications about agriculture to consumers, but Kevin Folta, a professor in the horticultural sciences department at the University of Florida, has outlined a process to ensure the targets and the messages are effective. Folta, who spoke at the Global Institute for Food Security conference in Saskatoon last week, urged those […] Read more
Will supply management survive?
In April 2017, shortly after Canada closed the loophole on imports of ultra-filtered milk, Wisconsin dairy farmer Shane Sauer, told the CBC: “We don’t blame you (Canada)” for what was then a glut of product on the market. Sauer explained the explosion in production of ultra-filtered milk, used in milk byproducts such as cheese, came […] Read more
Is the Producer on the side of farmers?
It’s a question that arises from time to time when The Western Producer publishes a story or opinion that many farmers disagree with. Of course we are, but not because we act as a spokesperson for the industry. Rather, it’s because we place a lens on the industry to try to get a clearer take […] Read more
Top stories of 2017
At the end of each year, we like to share with readers the most popular online stories from the previous 12 months. This gives us an indication of what people like to see, and readers can take the measure of what fellow farmers like to read. So here are 2017’s top stories: 10. Grain bag […] Read more
Repetition trumps truth
Insight can arrive at the strangest times. I learned that in 2015 when I was working on a story about Canada’s Inuit people and how they have dozens of words for snow. As part of the piece, I spoke with Graham Nesbitt, who worked at an Inuit cultural centre in Iqaluit. He said there probably […] Read more
