Harper legacy kills another premium wheat market
(June 15, 2018) Japan has announced the (hopefully temporary) suspension of wheat purchases. The suspension followed quickly after the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s announcement yesterday of the discovery of genetically modified glyphosate-resistant wheat in southern Alberta. Japan was always one of our Canadian Wheat Board’s customers willing to pay premium prices for quality-assured...
Read MoreDon’t blame the trains
(May 8, 2018) Prairie grain farmers live and die by the prices and delivery opportunities for their grain. On both counts farmers have a strong sense of being short changed. When the price looks good and the basis is low, the elevator is often plugged. When the basis is high making the offered price lower, the elevator has space for deliveries. This smells like the bad old days when...
Read MoreAg dwarfs oil
(April 19, 2018) It was Friday the 13th and on CBC Calgary’s Eye-Opener its business commentator reported that Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil company had a net income of US $33.8 billion in the first six months of the year on a cash flow of US $52 billion. It sounded like he was about to go into rapture right on the air. But hey, the show was coming from Calgary, Alberta where...
Read MoreInternational Women’s Day 2018
(March 8, 2018) On this international women’s day I learned of the longest running suffrage magazine in Canada. Freyja was published in Manitoba in Icelandic beginning in 1898 and ending in 1910. At the time it was considered the only such magazine being published in Canada. Its editor was Margret Benedictsson. This reminded your writer of a presentation called “Women of the...
Read MoreTrudeau’s China agenda damaged by recent history
(December 12, 2017) Over the past months the Canadian media has been filled with stories characterizing trade with China as either a golden opportunity or a blind walk into a totalitarian trap. There is the offensive smell of long standing racism mixed with the patronizing greed that has characterized most western relations with the Middle Kingdom for centuries. In this country we lack a deep...
Read MoreEnd of Wheat Board marks end of frontier values of cooperation and equality
(August 1, 2017) The end of the Canadian Wheat Board five years ago certainly proves that unregulated capitalism works very effectively for the powerful and well organized. Declining numbers and increasing debt show it does not work for farmers. The CWB was a hybrid organization providing farmers with collective bargaining power, a professional standards association, and a world-wide reputation...
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