Details matter when making decisions on the farm, but critical details are missing from the federal government’s inventory of Canadian farmers’ AgriInvest deposits. They’re either missing or the government doesn’t want to release that information for some reason. Either way, the details matter when governments try to justify lack of additional financial assistance for producers. […] Read more
Tag Archives WP editorial
Almost everyone spreads their risk within the chain
Food doesn’t come from the grocery store. That is one of the lessons North Americans are learning during this pandemic. Another is learning to spread risk. Like other major industries that have been bent on a path to lower costs over time, food has been sourced globally from the cheapest suppliers it can find. Is […] Read more
4-H members learn to do (differently) by doing
A young person’s 4-H livestock career is marked by the showing and often the selling of their stock. Season-long projects take a lot of heart, time and learning, all of it evaluated and measured at achievement day. This year, the usual culmination of 4-H livestock projects is missing due to pandemic restrictions and health risk […] Read more
BRMs need an overhaul, but patch it at least
Producers and governments must use all the tools available if they are going to fix the current breakdowns in Canadian agriculture. For now, they might have to delay regular maintenance and concentrate on the stuff that will keep producers in the field this year. Canadian agricultural support systems were designed around business risk management tools. […] Read more
Livestock needs forecast to deal with bad weather
Storm clouds have gathered over Canada’s livestock industry. And although federal and provincial governments can’t change the weather, they can assist the nation’s livestock producers to weather the current storm. So far, they haven’t. They must, and do it quickly. Many livestock producers are making COVID-19 plans today that will determine whether they have a […] Read more
Pandemic reveals weak links in nation’s food chain
Links in the food chain are breaking at the cracks. Canadian livestock producers are facing lower prices and, in some cases, the prospect of not delivering production when it is ready or at all. At the same time grocery store shelves aren’t over-burdened with supply, and prices for meat, poultry, dairy and farmed fish don’t […] Read more
There’s room for optimism as demand for crops grows
Agriculture might be the right business after all, at least for now. Three months ago, farmers planning the coming season found projected costs were higher than expected returns among most crop choices. Many growers were also concerned about financing a big crop and some still had harvest to complete. The outlook wasn’t that rosy in […] Read more
Effort to manage COVID-19 results in welcome unity
Agriculture is one of the businesses that must keep operating if the world is to carry on. Canadians and their various levels of government seem to finally be agreeing on that point. It’s a ray of hope because political agreement in Canada is ordinarily not that common. In recent weeks a few of the cracks […] Read more
Farming’s deeper problems still wait to be addressed
Farm groups’ reaction to the federal government’s plans to deal with the COVID-19 crisis has so far been positive, but without exception they note that these one-time measures do not address the underlying financial situation of agriculture in Canada. It’s a message the Liberal government is going to continue to hear until it takes action […] Read more
Strong action necessary to gain control of COVID-19
Canada’s ranchers and producers, many of whom are located in isolated areas, are no doubt astonished by what they see going on in the rest of the world. But rural dwellers are not isolated from the global pandemic. Future generations will look back to see how well we reacted, how much we were willing to […] Read more
