Across Canada in a farmhouse: Edmonton to New Norway

The Edmonton area provided more content than we had originally bargained for. Toward the end of our previous entry, we referred to land-use battles between citizen groups and the municipality. Well, after some digging around we soon found folks willing to tell us (albeit not on camera) some startling personal stories about ongoing battles for […] Read more



El Nino emerges, raising fears over food prices

An El Nino weather pattern is underway and will last until winter, Japan said on Friday, foreshadowing disruptive conditions that could harm crops from Australia to India at a time of rising fears about global food supplies. Corn prices have surged more than 60 per cent in the past two months as the United States […] Read more

Cargill posts worst quarter since 1991

Cargill Inc. said Thursday its quarterly earnings fell 82 per cent in the giant U.S. agribusiness firm’s worst quarter in more than 20 years, hurt by volatile commodity markets and weak margins in key areas such as beef and oilseeds. Full-year results were also seen as disappointing, as both sales and profits from the company’s […] Read more


Major German bank pulls ag from fund on food fears

Germany’s Commerzbank has removed agricultural products from a commodity index fund after accusations that speculation has pushed up food prices and fuelled unrest in some poor countries. Commerzbank followed at least two other German banks in restricting investments in agriculture, while most banks and fund managers have defended investment in commodities, saying that price jumps […] Read more




Across Canada in a farmhouse: Regina to Camrose

Now, you can’t make it out of Regina without having some contact with the Canadian Football League. This is Roughrider country, and you sure can’t miss it! So, before heading north out of Regina we decided to take a rare day off and see about attending a football game; Hamilton was in town. As luck […] Read more


Markets end three-day fall after jobs data

U.S. grain and soybean futures ended a three-day slide on Friday as better-than expected U.S. jobs data helped markets recover their appetite for risk. Agricultural markets felt spillover support from strong gains in crude oil and equities, with a weak dollar helping to feed the bull market sentiment. The dollar fell to a one-month low […] Read more