WTO Takes Aim at the Canadian Wheat Board

MB Co-Operator - Staff 9/18/2009

World Trade Organization talks resuming this week in Switzerland include a proposal to eliminate the Canadian Wheat Board’s ....

l.p. photo

Mine to Turn Alaskan Lake Into a Dump

September 18, 2009 - by Lori Pottinger

• From September 2009 World Rivers Review

Recent federal rulings permitting a gold mining company to dump toxic waste into a pristine mountain lake in Alaska could have widespread ramifications...
Eds. note: Might the U.S. mining industry be taking its cue from Canada? Here, Harper and his gang gave approval some time ago for the same kind of deplorable practice! l.p.

A Manitoba lake, unaffected
by tailings (yet)! l.p. photo

Why Did Monsanto's Latest GM Foods Get a Free Pass Into Canada?

By Lucy Sharratt - Se. 10 '09 - Rabble.ca

Health Canada has begun permitting genetically modified foods onto the market without...
Please also read "Many Farmers Don't Want GM Wheat."

This GM "rogue" canola has spread

as a weed onto an organic acreage.
It's now a huge & expensive headache
for western farmers because it is
resistant to Roundup . (l.p. photo)

Population Growth Steady in the Face of a Changing Climate

Se. 18 - '09 Worldwatch Institute.

The human population is growing somewhat more rapidly than demographers had expected--pointing to uncertainty in the commonly cited U.N. projection of 9.1 billion by 2050--amid a convergence of trends that include decreased funding for family planning services, fertility levels well above replacement level in many countries, and improvements in life expectancy for people living with HIV. According to the latest Vital Signs, population projections also fail to account for the impacts of global climate change, which are expected to most adversely affect people in developing countries.

Read: Population Growth Steady in Recent Years by Robert Engelman

(l.) Children take refuge in a cyclone
shelter in Bangladesh/BBC
World Service Bangladesh Boat

Not More People, But More for All People "...those who bear children should be the ones, more than anyone else, to decide when to do so. The rest will work itself out... Wanting not more people, but more for all people, we might find ourselves at home again, with more nature than we thought possible."--Robert Engelman, More: Population, Nature, and What Women Want.

Worldwatch is working to slow, and ultimately end, the unsustainable growth of world population--a critical force behind many of today's most serious problems. Worldwatch Vice President and population expert Robert Engelman is lead author of the U.N. Population Fund's 2009 report State of World Population, which will highlight the linkages among population, gender, and climate change. This authoritative report will be distributed to policymakers around the world and made accessible electronically to hundreds of thousands of people. The population message must be heard if we are to achieve a sustainable world, so please support this critical work by making a gift today.

Consumers Pay More, Farmers Get Less

By: Laura Rance - Winnipeg Free Press - 12/09/2009

Move to buy local can be beneficial to both....

Farmers' Market in Regina, SK.
Photo by L.P.

Listeria Report Leads to $75M for Food Safety

Staff - MB Co-Operator -9/13/2009

Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz and Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq on Friday pledged $75 million for investments in Canada's food safety system.
A woman works to sterilize meat processing and packaging equipment at the Maple Leaf Foods plant in Toronto in a file photo. Photograph by: Mark Blinch, Reuters