Shelterbelts and hedgerows reduce emissions of greenhouse gas by an average of 89 per cent
Both dead and alive, trees are an essential ally for farmers in helping the environment, a new University of Alberta study shows. Preserving and planting shelterbelts and hedgerows – and keeping the deadwood they contain – next to cropland helps store carbon and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. “Retaining those live and dead trees, and planting…
Ottawa's taxes and regulations are driving up costs for farmers and the families that buy the food they produce
By Robin Speer and Gunter Jochum Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is reassuring a hungry world he personally will “drive action on food security” while Canadian farmers will put food on their tables. But back home, his government makes pronouncements that are the policy equivalent of deflating the tires on tractors across Canada. The federal government’s…
If 200,000 truckers scared him into introducing the Emergencies Act, what will he do when 650,000 angry farmers descend on Ottawa?
Are Manitobans tired of suffering from high food prices at the grocery store? Well, the Trudeau government believes it is your God-given right to suffer even more as it imposes ever more onerous climate policies on farmers. The Trudeau government announced at a recent meeting with other levels of government that it has plans to…
Exporting actual food products may no longer be the best option moving forward
It’s tomato season, and Canadians love their tomatoes. It is by far the most popular vegetable at the grocery store. According to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the average Canadian consumes at least six to seven kilos of tomatoes per year. More than 12 kilos per capita of fresh and processed tomatoes are made available to…
The Canadian Dairy Commission is morally and ethically compromised. It needs to distance itself from the dairy sector immediately
Every year, the Canadian Dairy Commission (CDC), a branch of the federal government, hires external consultants to assess the cost of producing milk on the farm. The CDC has never released any data about costing and has recommended farm milk price increases most years, eventually impacting retail prices and Canadian families. Since February, dairy product…
Partnership with SVG Ventures|THRIVE will help researchers and startups move new technologies
The University of Alberta is partnering with a leading Silicon Valley firm to support innovation growth in Alberta’s agriculture and food sectors. An agreement with SVG Ventures|THRIVE, a venture capital firm investing in agricultural technology startups and supporting corporations with open innovation, powers the U of A to accelerate its development and adoption of technology-driven solutions…
Spot-treating soil with lime could give farmers another option to stem the costly disease and improve soil health
Lime is showing promise as an additional way to help manage clubroot, a deadly disease in canola crops, University of Alberta research shows. Spot-treating soil with the mineral reduced the overall occurrence and severity of the disease by 35 to 91 per cent, growth experiments showed. The finding, published in the Canadian Journal of Plant Pathology,…
There’s a way to reduce fertilizer use and make all agricultural production much more environmentally friendly: controlled environment agriculture
When we look at climate change, the future for many seems to hold only short-term despair and long-term disaster. Will humans be able to survive, let alone prosper? Before we let today’s doomsters depress us, let’s look at an earlier apocalyptic forecast. Around the turn of the 19th century, Thomas Malthus predicted the end of…
Interest groups are weaponizing science to support a narrative that fits their biased view of what farmers should and shouldn’t do
Most Canadians have never been on a farm, let alone lived on one, which makes more than 98 per cent of our population agriculturally illiterate. For many Canadians, crop production is an unknown concept. Because of this, it’s relatively easy to use fear to influence public opinion on any food-related issue involving agriculture. Activists know…
Chickpeas are nutritional powerhouses for consumers who don’t necessarily opt for animal proteins
Since the start of the pandemic, we have heard about shortages countless times. Most sections of the grocery store have been hit by tightening supplies for one reason or another. But the latest headlines we are seeing are about chickpeas. Many analysts are expecting chickpea inventories to drop significantly in months to come. For westerners,…
Increases phosphorus needed for plant growth and reproduction
A new study is the first to show on a global scale that conserving plant diversity boosts a nutrient crucial for healthy land, including productive croplands. An analysis of 180 studies done worldwide on farm fields, grasslands, forests and pot-grown experiments showed that overall, mixtures of diverse plant species increased the availability of phosphorus in…
Gaps in regulations and enforcement leave companion animals, livestock vulnerable to abuse
When it comes to laws protecting pets and livestock, Canada receives a failing grade. In 2020, an international organization called World Animal Protection gave the country a D, placing it among a group that includes Tanzania, Peru and the United States. The reason for that dismal ranking comes down to the “split jurisdiction” of Canadian federalism, according…
Knowing birds' behaviour and nesting habits allows nesting and mowing to coexist
Every year about his time I feel sadness for the many birds and small mammals killed by haying. I know there are many and varied reasons why fields are cut, and I respect that, so please don’t think I am criticizing farmers. Mowing hay fields is a necessary and important part of agriculture. We forget…
Digging into decades’ worth of data to gauge soil health across the province
A new project is, for the first time, harnessing information from thousands of soil samples into one big database to get an idea of how healthy the province’s agricultural soils are. The two-year initiative brings together decades of data collection on soil samples from 44 benchmark sites across the province so that they can be…
There’s currently only one genetic defence to protect from wheat midge – but researchers want to change that
Agricultural scientists in Western Canada are teaming up to give wheat a boost of built-in resistance to a destructive pest. “Wheat midge is the number one insect pest threatening wheat crops across Western Canada,” says James Harynuk, a professor in the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Science. Harynuk notes that wheat midge can cause about $60…