Are Farming Practices Harming Farmers?

by Larry Powell

A PinP image.

    Producers of cereal crops (wheat, oats and barley) are once again being plagued with serious fungal diseases. And the effects are being felt, not only in their fields, but in their wallets, too. 

    The headline in The Manitoba Co-Operator reads, "Western Canadian farmers fight heavy disease threat as harvest approaches. Cashflow reported to be a struggle as fungicide means extra expenses amid tight margins."

    This should come as no surprise. 

A study done in Saskatchewan by an international team of scientists (and published in 2009 in the European Journal of Agronomy) found "a persistent link" between the heavy use of glyphosate, the active ingredient in the popular herbicide, Roundup, and the fungal disease, fusarium head blight (FHB) in cereals. 

    It should be noted that heavy rains this summer may well have played a role, as well. However the study's main author, Don Huber, Prof. emeritus at Perdue University (Indiana) believes, without glyphosate, the severity of the outbreaks would still not be as severe.    

    FHB is a significant disease, probably costing producers billions globally. It often slashes their revenues by downgrading their crops to "feed-grade"only. And it can be toxic to both livestock and humans. (The human form, known as fusariosis, is known as "an emerging infection that's difficult to treat.") 

    But the harm glyphosate probably does, does not end there. 

    A study by Italy's renowned Ramazzini Institute just a year or so ago, finds lab rats became riddled with cancers in multiple organs, even when fed glyphosate at levels considered safe by the European Union!

    I'm not suggesting our leaders rush in and act immediately on either of the studies I quote here. Caution needs to be taken so we "do things right." To me, "doing what's right" would entail publicly-funded, independent research that determines, once and for all, how we can improve farming practices, protect our environment and human life at the same time. We need to find out whether the critical findings of these studies can be replicated and proven, then, appropriate action taken.

    To do otherwise, as we've been doing (in other words, nothing) to get to the bottom of these matters once and for all, represents a dismal failing on the part of those who ought to be protecting us.

    

    

The beavers are coming for Canada’s Arctic

 The New York Times

Beavers are turning streams into lakes near Umiujaq, Quebec,                                         disrupting ecosystems. The New York Times

Norimitsu Onishi, The Times’s correspondent in Montreal, traveled to Umiujaq, Quebec, to report on the migration of beavers into Canada’s sub-Arctic. Drawn by a warming climate, Canada’s furry national symbols are colonizing new territory, evading Inuit hunters and reshaping the world they find.

Mr. Wonderful’s Lawyers Just Got Wrecked in an Edmonton Courtroom

By Brandi Moran

Kevin O'Leary

Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation (Alberta) just won round one against a $70-billion AI data centre. The real fight starts in December. Story here.

BC firefighters face critical days as dry fuels and winds increase fire risks

Canada’s National Observer

The Brunswick Creek wildfire consumes trees on a mountainside, in Boston Bar, BC, on Thursday, July 9, 2026. File photo by: The Canadian Press/Darryl Dyck

A cold front with gusty winds could bring extreme fire behaviour in areas where British Columbia communities are threatened by wildfires. Story here.

Canada Just Cleared the Way to Bulldoze the Amazon for Gold

Indigenous Insider

A Canadian mining company just beat an Indigenous lawsuit on a technicality — days after Ottawa gutted its own corporate watchdog. Story here.

When the Wildfires Rage, Who Gets to Breathe First?

BRANDI MORAN 

Canada is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet. It just approved three more pipelines anyway. Story here.

Species’ ingenious survival strategies no match for human destruction, red list reveals

The Guardian

Newly endangered animals include desert frogs and snails in extreme ocean depths, both threatened by mining

Damian Carrington Environment editor

Life has colonised every corner of the planet by evolving ingenious survival strategies but these are increasingly being overwhelmed by destructive human activities, this year’s red list of endangered species has revealed.

Many snails, limpets and clams have adapted to life at crushing depths in the oceans on hydrothermal vents where water temperatures can reach 450C (842F). But an assessment for the red list found that two-thirds of the hundreds of mollusc species found only on deep sea vents were at risk of extinction because of deep-sea mining

Mining for diamonds has put another extraordinary creature at risk of disappearing – the desert rain frog. Most frogs rely on water for survival but the bulbous desert rain frog has evolved to need almost none. It hides from the southern African sun by burying itself deep in the sand, coming out only at night to hunt insects.

However, dwindling species can be saved, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which produces the red list, said. The new list shows the numbat, a stripy, termite-eating marsupial from Australia, has come back from the brink thanks to protection from feral cats and foxes.

At least five more self-sustaining numbat populations have been established owing to conservation work. Photograph: phototrip/Alamy

“Life on Earth has adapted to survive in the most hostile and unusual habitats [but] as pressures on biodiversity mount across the planet, even the creatures with the most ingenious survival strategies are under threat,” said Dr Grethel Aguilar, the IUCN director general. “But there is a clear path out of the biodiversity crisis: nature conservation works. By protecting the astounding range of biodiversity on this planet, we can preserve a welcoming environment for humans and wildlife alike.”

An IUCN update in April declared emperor penguins officially in danger of extinction owing to the mass drowning of chicks as sea ice is melted by the climate crisis.

More than 200 species of mollusc are known to live only on hydrothermal vents, where water heated by volcanic rocks jets out from the seabed. Many have been discovered only in the last decade but already face extinction.

The exploration and extraction of deep-sea minerals throws up sediments that smother the animals. One snail, Lirapex felix, is classed as critically endangered because of mining activity in the Indian Ocean.

However, more than 30 vent species are not in danger, as they live in marine protected areas where mining is not allowed. These include an ornately shelled snail, Provanna exquisita, that lives only in the Mariana Arc of Fire national wildlife refuge in the Pacific Ocean.

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The Provanna exquisita snail is not in danger as it lives in a marine protected area. Photograph: Chong Chen

“This global assessment reveals that [vent] molluscs are one of the most highly threatened of all animal groups,” said Prof Julia Sigwart at Senckenberg Nature Research, the IUCN red list partner that coordinated the assessment. “It provides important information as the International Seabed Authority meets in Jamaica this month.” The IUCN voted for a moratorium on deep-sea mining in 2021.

The desert rain frog is classed as vulnerable owing to diamond mining and energy infrastructure expansion into its range along the west coast of South Africa and Namibia. There is further pressure on the frog because of rising demand from the exotic pet trade following a viral video of the species squeaking its distress call.

The good news on the numbat comes after decades of conservation work, which has helped numbers rebound from a low of just 300 in the late 1970s to between 2,000 and 3,000 today. The numbat has moved from endangered to near threatened on the red list.

The impact of feral cats and red foxes has been reduced by baiting and predator-proof fencing, as well as captive breeding at Perth zoo and translocations from healthy groups. As a result, at least five more self-sustaining populations have been established. However, the species occupies only 0.04% of its original range across southern Australia, meaning continuing conservation work is essential, experts said.

Another five Australian marsupials have been confirmed as extinct on the red list, with no sightings for at least 60 years. The crest-tailed, southern, northern and little mulgaras were rat-sized carnivores, while the little bettong was a rabbit-sized jumping marsupial. They are likely to have fallen prey to feral cats and foxes. More than 40 modern mammal extinctions have been recorded in Australia.

And then there were none: Australia’s only shrew declared extinct

John Woinarski

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“The [numbat] assessment shows that long-term conservation effort works; without it, invasive cats and foxes will continue to drive Australia’s small marsupials and native rodents to extinction,” said Prof John Woinarski, co-chair of the IUCN species survival commission group on Australasian marsupials and monotremes.

“Continued management is vital not only to maintain the numbat’s unique evolutionary line as the last surviving member of the Myrmecobiidae family, but also to support its role in maintaining a healthy ecosystem, as digging for the termites it eats increases rain penetration into the soil, helping protect woodlands,” he said.

The IUCN red list includes 175,909 species of which 49,505 are threatened with extinction, although many species have yet to be formally assessed.