Shelagh Rogers and Me

Tune in to CBC Radio One today at 1 pm for The Next Chapter with Shelagh Rogers recorded at my house in Saskatoon. Shelagh chats with four award-winning Saskatchewan authors - Allan Casey, Dianne Warren, Jo-Ann Episkenew and me!

The program repeats Saturday at 4 pm.

If you're not in Saskatchewan, check the CBC website for program times in your area.

Downtown Grocery for Local Foods

It's been a few years since the last grocery store chain packed up and left downtown Saskatoon.

That's opened the market for a new independent venture. Two well-respected food establishments are joining efforts to bring a grocery store to downtown Saskatoon. While the store will have a range of goods, it will focus front and centre on locally-produced foods. That's not surprising considering the two partners: Calories restaurant, where the menu is local and seasonal, and Pine View Farms, purveyor of naturally-rasied meat. Accodring to a newspaper article, the store is set to open this spring or summer.

Their grocery store will be called Souleio - Provançal for "sun."

Where's the beef? Not Europe

I buy beef from two local sources: from Al Bennett at Meacham and Benlock Farms (which has a booth at the Saskatoon Farmers' Market). I like their meat because it's raised with organic principles and tastes great.

So here's the issue: The European Union has banned beef from Canada and the U.S. because most of the cattle are fed growth hormones (i.e. steroids). The ban is based on fears the hormones are bad for our health. More specifically, that the hormones can affect the male reproductive system and contribute to the rates of colon, prostate and breast cancer.

The World Trade Organization ruled the ban is illegal because there is insufficient scientific evidence to back up the claim that growth hormones in cattle are harmful to people who eat the meat. The WTO ruled that Canada and the U.S. can retaliate against the E.U. by slapping tarrifs on imported foods such as Dijon mustard and Roquefort cheese. (Read more about it here.)

This ban affects Saskatchewan farmers, who produce about 30% of Canada's beef cattle. The U.S. and Canada argue the ban is not really about health, but about protecting the European cattle industry from competition. The Food and Drug Administration has set "accpetable daily intakes" for these hormones at which level it considers them safe for human consumption.

In a newspaper column, Kevin Hursh, a farmer who writes about agricultural issues, sides with Canadian farmers in this dispute but asks: "why can't we produce beef without hormones specifically for the European market?"

Personally, I'd rather not eat meat treated with growth hormones, even at "acceptable" levels. What about you?

Newspaper editorial on food security

Sometimes you don't know what you've got til it's gone...

An editorial in yesterday's Star Phoenix is warning that we here in Saskatchewan don't appreciate the value of our farmland and that we should think twice before paving it over for cities and golf courses. It points out that countries without farmland - Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar - are buying up productive farmland around the world to ensure food security within their own borders.

The editorial suggests that we should maximize our farmland for food production without harming the environment, and appreciate what we have before someone else buys it up.

In August, the provincial government announced a review of land ownership rules in Saskatchewan. Currently, foreigners can own no more than 10 acres of Saskatchewan farmland. An article in the Regina Leader Post notes that some farmers would like to be able to sell their farmland to outside interests because the competition would up the price. The minister of agriculture says he wants to strike a balance to prevent "corporations from all over the world owning big blocks of land here."