It’s unsettling to even contemplate the possibility of breakdowns occurring within our agricultural system, but the industry is now actively working to avert disaster on a daily basis.

BY IAN DOIG • PHOTOS COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA PRESS A senior scholar at the University of Manitoba’s Asper School of Business, Paul D. Earl is the author of The Rise and Fall of United Grain Growers: Cooperatives, Market Regulation, and Free Enterprise. His extensive industry experience includes having worked for United Grain Growers […]

Through the Keep it Clean! program, partner groups communicate a clear and consistent message to farmers about on-farm practices that will help reduce market risk.

Unless one is specifically growing a feed variety of barley, or a class of wheat intended for the livestock or ethanol market, a crop that grades as feed can be an unwelcome surprise.

Every farmer will experience it
at some point. Making a grain
delivery at their local elevator, a sinister sample downgrades the entire load of a crop so dutifully grown.

This is a time of heightened uncertainty in global agricultural trade, but the Canadian grain industry is well positioned to push through, given its strong international marketing apparatus.