Food Prices Set to Soar. Reducing Poverty in Manitoba Just Got Harder.

Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

Early last year stories hit the news about the potential for food prices to rise throughout 2011. 

 PLT photo

Commodities prices for wheat, corn, sugar, and others were all on the rise which ultimately resulted in a 4.4% rise in the cost of food to December 2011. Full story here

Shockwaves in Manitoba's Hog Industry Over Investigation

                                                  CBC

 Courtesy of SteinbachOnline.com

People in Manitoba's hog industry are shocked a farm in the western part of the province is under investigation for animal cruelty. Full story here.

Latest Hurricane Shows Interesting Timing

Sooo.....Hurricane Isaac has forced the Republican National Convention to take a recess.....couldn't happen to a nicer group of climate-deniers.  PLT

Very Few Canadians Doubt Climate Change

Vancouver Sun
Only two per cent of Canadians who responded to a new opinion poll believed climate change is not occurring. Full story here.

Stop Great Barrier Coal - Sign the Petition. Please

Avaaz.org

Australia could let mining magnates build one of the world's largest coal ports on top of the Great Barrier Reef ecosystem -- opening access to 8 billion extra tonnes of planet-killing coal and risking the survival of this entire amazing world heritage site. Details here.

Manitoba's Lakes Have High Concentrations of Algae-Produced Toxin

By: Jenny Ford - Winnipeg Free Press
Manitoba lakes have some of the highest concentrations of a potent toxin produced by blue-green algae, a study published today found. Details here.

Farmers' Pardons Another Slap in the Face

Laura Rance - Winnipeg Free Press 

Harper's act of clemency hits at CWB

 

PLT photo

As the new marketing era dawned Aug. 1, Canada's prime minister took his revisionist view of history and his ideological vendetta against the Canadian Wheat Board to a new level. Full story here.

Sustainability Now a Matter of Life and Death

IPS - Interpress Service
BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, Aug 8 2012 (IPS) - Humanity is living beyond its means with the growing demand for food, medicines and other nature-based products, making sustainable consumption and conservation a matter of life and death. This is according to the world’s oldest and largest global environmental network, the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Details here.

World's Underground Water Resources Are Being Over-Exploited, Scientists Say

Reuters

Irrigation pivots sit idle in winter, in the US midwest. PLT photo.

LONDON, Aug 8 (Reuters) - The world is depleting underground water reserves faster than they can be replenished due to over-exploitation, according to scientists in Canada and the Netherlands. Details here.

How I Spent my Summer Vacation

Dear Reader,

By way of explaining why my blog has been so dormant, I suffered a heart attack about a month ago. They rushed me by ambulance from Roblin (MB) to the cardiac wing in the Regina General hospital. There, they installed a "stent" in a blocked artery, then did open hearts surgery during which they bypassed six other arteries. Lucky for me, the cardiac ward in Regina and the people who work there, are world-class.

I'm home now, recovering. But I'll now have to visit a sleep clinic in order to deal with my Sleep Apnea which appears to have returned. I may have to start using (for lack of the correct, technical term) a "sleep machine" to help me at night.

Should be able to get back to posting regularly, in short order.

Thinking of you all.

Larry