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Written by Jim Knisley
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Sometime Canada and the U.S. are going to have to mount a massive joint science project to solve one of the great riddles of our time: On what planet are Ottawa and Washington, D. C. located.
It is clear neither is on the planet we lovingly call Earth.
If they were on Earth they would notice agriculture – the enterprise that produces food – has changed.
Grain supplies are negligible, food and feed prices are high and poor people are rioting and/or going hungry.
What hasn’t changed are government policies.
In Washington, congressional leaders extended their debate on the 2007/2008 farm bill. One would think they would take the changed circumstances into account.
One might think that, but it wouldn’t be true. U.S. politicians are dancing like it was still 2002 when burdensome supplies had depressed prices and government subsidies were the tune to dance to.
In the new farm bill it looks like the subsidies will remain, trade barriers will remain (including the implementation of COOL – Country of Origin Labeling) and the grain ethanol programs will remain.
What seems lacking is any attempt to help the world.
For analysis on the proposed new farm bill, please click on the following resources:
Christian Science Monitor
university_of_tennessee
purdue_university
New York Times
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Written by Jim Knisley
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Whenever an acquaintance of mine
is asked to forecast the future he replies that he isn’t a
prognosticator he is “a petty, small minded, back biting journalist
better suited to autopsy than diagnosis.”
He is wise. The only thing that is guaranteed about a forecast is that it will be wrong in either large or small ways.
But getting the future wrong isn’t necessarily a fault so long as
someone recognizes the flaws in your arguments, starts thinking about
the future and gets it right.
With that in mind let’s consider the future of the Canadian poultry
industry by considering the big question – the future of supply
management.
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A Year of Living Dangerously |
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Written by Jim Knisley
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The official definition of a recession is two consecutive quarters of economic decline or if you prefer two quarters of negative growth.
A more homespun definition is that a recession is when your neighbour is unemployed and a depression is when you’re unemployed.
Right now there is a lot of debate among economists as to whether the U.S. is in a recession now or if it will arrive later this year. In Canada the debate is whether the U.S. will draw Canada down with it.
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