Small farmers can feed a country, but they need help
WINNIPEG—There is good news to report from the field concerning the level of hunger in the world. It’s down. It has decreased by more than 100 million people in the last decade. But one in nine people in the world still experience chronic hunger. The Food and Agriculture Organization calculates that around half of the […]
Canada should reassert itself as a global leader in food security: Experts
It’s a ‘timely time’ to talk about food security; tomorrow is Earth Day and world leaders, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, will be gathering at the United Nations to formally sign the Paris climate agreement. And considering that climate change and the resulting weather unpredictability is a major contributing factor to insufficient food supplies, and […]
Extend women’s empowerment to the farm
WINNIPEG—Zione Mbewi is a great farmer. In recent years she increased yields on her small plot of maize in northern Malawi, and helped provide for her family. She also had big plans to expand her fields. Her husband, however, had other plans. He wouldn’t give her any more land. Since, as a woman, Mbewi doesn’t […]
The other Syrian refugees
Wherever I went in Jordan and Lebanon last month while visiting refugees from Syria, I heard people express gratitude for what Canada had done in accepting 25,000 people from that war-torn country. “Canada has a very good reputation here,” one aid worker told me. But while so many feel good about how Canada responded to […]
New Zealand high commissioner brings defence, trade background
“I arrived at the end of February, 3 o’clock in the morning, in the middle of a snowstorm.” What a welcome to Canada for New Zealand’s high commissioner, Daniel Mellsop. It was a few days after Ottawa got its last big dump of snow: 50-something centimetres of the white stuff. “That was fun, bringing a young […]
Tory MPs push Liberals on China’s canola crackdown
Conservative MPs from canola-rich ridings are pushing the Liberal government to dissuade China from bringing in stricter standards on canola imports from Canada. Randy Hoback, who represents Saskatchewan’s Prince Albert riding, called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to personally raise the issue with Chinese officials at the highest level, days after China’s government announced it […]
Drought tightens the screws on Zimbabwe’s most vulnerable
It was the fourth time Nelia had planted; and still, the rains were not enough to germinate her seeds. She had buried her first seeds in the Zimbabwean soil in December. But the regular, predictable rains she remembered from years past never materialized. The second and third crops also failed. I met Nelia in Zimbabwe […]
Animal-based agriculture environmentally harmful, says letter-writer
Reading The Hill Times’ excellent green economy policy briefing on March 21, I was disappointed by its greenhouse gas omissions. I must ask, “Where’s the beef?” Missing from the briefing was any mention of agriculture and, in particular, animal-based agriculture despite it being a major source of greenhouse gases and other serious pollutants and a […]
Meat industry officials see opportunity in TPP
On the heels of Canada’s meat industry winning a trade dispute over labelling of products in the United States, the sector sees opportunity in the signed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement. The Canadian Cattlemen’s Association said it was “elated” by the U.S. repealing its country of origin labelling (COOL) after the World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled […]
A primer on House of Commons committee members, agendas
As of now, almost all House committees have elected their chairs but just 16 per cent, or four of the 25 committees are chaired by women, and 40 per cent, or 10 of 25 of committee chairs are rookies. According to The Hill Times review of committee makeups, male and veteran MPs are still dominating the […]
