Behind the Lines - June/July 2014
Friday, June 6, 2014
With the huge markets of China and India beckoning from across the Pacific Ocean, the pressure is growing to open up Canada's highly regulated dairy system to take advantage. The 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations, to which Canada is a party, have put the spotlight on Canada's restrictions on dairy product imports and thus on exports.
The pressure is largely coming from entities that don't have a stake. The Conference Board of Canada is one of those, arguing that dairy farmers here would be better off without the supply management restrictions on imports that also keep them out of world markets. Writer Jim Algie examines the issues carefully, including the views of farmers who are leery of the Conference Board's "export food bonanza" approach. This story starts on page 12.
New technology is trending everywhere on the farm. Senior staff editor Don Stoneman and freelance writer Matt McIntosh set out to find if one of those new trends is not only towards larger tractors but also tracked tractors. That story, in our Power At Work section, begins on page 33.
One of the reasons cited for the apparent move towards tracks is reduced compaction. But cropping experts report that, while technology may have advanced, any science to do with compaction of soil, and how to avoid it, is old. The suggestion that this type of research is simply not being done anymore might raise alarm bells.
A "snap" provincial election approaches and campaigns are in high gear. Voter emotions were clearly running high well before the buses, airplanes and meeting halls were booked and federal-provincial lines are blurred, as noted by the response to our Parliament Hill columnist Barry Wilson's recent writing on new federal Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau's tough row to hoe to lead the country. Look to Letters on page 6 for a taste of that.
The Trudeau name clearly evokes a visceral response. It's worth noting that, immediately after the April issue landed in farm mailboxes, a reader called to cancel her subscription. She didn't want a magazine with a photograph of Justin Trudeau in her house. Political candidates be warned. Memories are long on the farm.
It's been nearly 15 years since we launched Better Farming magazine with a goal of providing credible science-based content for those involved in the business of farming and we think we have some of the finest agricultural writers in the world.
It's always nice, though, when someone else involved in publishing acknowledges the quality of our writers. And that's exactly what happened in a recent Publisher's Weekly book review. We've told you about crop columnist Keith Reid's recently released book on soil, a topic he's written about extensively in these pages. Publisher's Weekly, often referred to as PW and considered by many the bible of the book industry, described Reid's book, Improving Your Soil: A Practical Guide to Soil Management for the Serious Home Gardener, as: "one that avoids both obfuscation and oversimplification" and "is an example of how to write popular science books."
We think that pretty much summarizes all of Keith's contributions to Better Farming, too. His article this month – "How much N do you need to sidedress your corn crop?" – begins on page 30. BF
ROBERT IRWIN & DON STONEMAN