The Future of the Canadian Dairy Sector – March 23, 2012
Sylvain Charlebois and Tatiana Astray assess the capacity of Canada’s dairy sector to compete in a post supply management era, and offer policy reform ideas to help the industry succeed.

Why Protecting Dairy, Poultry Farmers is no Sacred Cow for Harper – March 12, 2012
Is the Harper government willing to dismantle the supply management system that protects poultry and dairy farmers from competition? You should bet that it is.

Food Inflation and Biofuel Production – February 10, 2012
Frontier Centre Intern Eric Merkley shows that the use of grains for biofuel production instead of feedstock can contribute to undesirable increases in the price of food.

Media Release - The Moral Dilemma in Biofuel Production – February 10, 2012
The continuous use of food crops for biofuel production can contribute to undesirable increases in the price of food, with serious consequences for the poor in developed states and masses of people in developing countries.

New Voluntary Wheat Board May Struggle – December 7, 2011
The federal government is about to abolish compulsory membership in the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB). However, there are good reasons to doubt that a voluntary board will succeed. Farmers who chose not to take part in the board will likely be better off, like their counterparts in the rest of the world that do not operate under a wheat marketing board.

NDP Stuck in the 1930s on CWB – November 30, 2011
Rather than engage in ideological battles and fear mongering, provincial governments ought to help wheat and barley farmers seek new markets and opportunities.

Why the Wheat Board Monopoly is Being Removed – November 20, 2011
As Western Canadian farmers have become larger, more educated, and more sophisticated, they placed greater value on autonomy and freedom of choice, as evidenced by the Conservative sweep of the rural Western vote. Changing economics, demographics, technology, and values have left many farmers desiring “marketing choice” instead of monopoly.

What’s So weird About the Weather? – August 27, 2011
Contrary to official temperature records, observational evidence from around the world indicates that we are in a period of cooling almost certainly caused by solar changes. This is expected to continue and deepen and poses the real threat to Prairie and Canadian agriculture, most of which is confined to a narrow strip along our southern border. Fifty percent of crops in Manitoba cannot be grown with a 0.5°C overall temperature drop and much of Canadian agriculture is eliminated entirely by a 1°C cooling.

Wheat Board Stacks the Deck in Effort to Retain its Monopoly – August 25, 2011
The Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) is using old tricks to justify its monopoly over prairie wheat and barley sales. The board is conducting a mail-in plebiscite among western farmers that is rigged to give it the result it wants – namely the appearance of widespread support for its “single-desk” marketing of all wheat and barley harvested for human consumption.

The $25,000 Cow – August 19, 2011
If it were proposed today to tax food—even at five per cent, never mind such punitive rates as these—it would be instant political suicide: consider the ruckus that erupts whenever some stray academic suggests the GST should apply to groceries. But because it is the status quo, and because the tax is implicit rather than explicit, and because “it’s to help farmers,” the policy is not only tolerated, it is impossible to remove. Or at least, it has been until now.

Wheat Board Monopoly Lost – August 3, 2011
A sober look ahead to the eventual removal of the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly shows a significantly prosperous industry and the likely emergence of a volunteer board.

Post-Monopoly CWB has Tough Job – August 3, 2011
With the clock ticking on the introduction of legislation that will end the Canadian Wheat Board's monopoly on marketing wheat and barley, it's becoming increasingly clear that whatever form a successor organization takes, it will have a tough go of it.

Removal of the Canadian Wheat Board Monopoly – July 28, 2011
This study looks ahead and assesses possible consequence scenarios to the eventuality that the Canadian Wheat Board is removed in 2012 as many expect.

Media Release - Prosperity Ahead Without Canadian Wheat Board Monopoly – July 28, 2011
This study looks ahead and assesses possible consequence scenarios to the eventuality that the Canadian Wheat Board is removed in 2012 as many expect.

It's Getting Harder to Bring Home the Bacon – May 13, 2011
Mr. Pope is the chief executive officer of Smithfield Foods Inc., the world's largest pork processor and hog producer by volume. He doesn't mince words when it comes to rapidly rising food prices. The 56-year-old accountant by training has been in the business for more than three decades, and he warns that the higher costs may be here to stay.

We Should Remain Open to All Food Choices – April 21, 2011
Although everyone should have the right to buy the food they want, whether or not those decisions are healthy or environmentally friendly, individual preferences should not be forced on others or be turned into regulations that restrict the choices of farmers and consumers.

Let Us Not Turn Our Backs on Science – March 16, 2011
Regulations based on scientific assessments in agriculture are being ignored in order to privilege unproven opinion, belief and sometimes superstition.

Flee the Land of Quota – March 4, 2011
Ten months ago we sold our eastern Ontario dairy farm and ­relocated on another dairy operation 20 miles away as the crow flies, in northern New York. Money and freedom were the reasons for our decision.

CWB Kills Wheat Acreage – February 18, 2011
Canada is losing its status as a wheat super power with acreages steadily falling over the past fifteen years. Acreage is falling in all Prairie provinces but not in Ontario. This may be because the Prairie farmers are bound to the Canadian Wheat Board, but Ontario farmers have marketing freedom.

Helping The Obese Help Themselves – February 15, 2011
An innovative shuttle service program in Winnipeg shows how we can help people access healthy food without limiting freedom.