Barley farmers face many obstacles in the course of a growing season, but one threat is ever present: leaf disease.

This is not another article about whether GMOs (genetically modified organisms, otherwise known as “transgenic” crops) are likely to save the world or destroy it. The basis for this article is that using molecular biology is appropriate as another tool that can be used to improve crops.

David Eaton is passionate about environmental farm planning. He was one of the earlier adopters of the Alberta Environmental Farm Plan (EFP), and has maintained his passion and awareness of environmental issues on his farm since completing his plan in 2007.

Already backlogged and bogged down by frigid temperatures and the biggest grain harvest in history, CN Rail has avoided a strike by 3,000 of its workers, averting a full-blown disaster.

Ravinder and Manjit Minhas have never looked back after launching the Mountain Crest BrewingCompany in 2002 and its signature Damn Good Beer, the Mountain Crest Classic Lager. From a successful operation in Monroe, Wisconsin, in 2006, to opening a brewery in their hometown of Calgary in 2012 the Minhas’ open up about the city they love, their drinking habits and creating a work-life balance.

It is hard to imagine in this day and age that in Canada, the millions of dollars of investment required to develop a new variety is still protected with the current UPOV78 Convention, a law that is 36 years old.

Ending the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly brought with it significant changes in how grain growers relate to other industry participants.

Way back in 1991, Canada joined the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants—an organization better known by its French acronym, UPOV. UPOV’s mission is to craft an international framework for plant breeders’ rights (PBR), a system to ensure those who develop new plant varieties can protect and profit from their work.

Jackson farm about 650 kilometers apart under vastly different growing conditions. Yet for the past 20 years or more, both have been committed to the concept of conservation farming.

Over a cup of coffee at Carver’s Steakhouse at the Sheraton Cavalier in Saskatoon, the city where he now lives, Bill Cooper framed his achievements in a team context. The sturdy, straight-talking 82-year-old farmer from West Bend, SK, is interim chair of the Saskatchewan Barley Development Commission (SBDC), serves on the Barley Council of Canada, and operates Farm West Management Inc., his own agricultural accounting service and consultancy.