Behind the Lines - February 2015

Sunday, February 1, 2015

Consumers are losing their interest in fast food, according to news reports published in the United States late last year.

In locations that aren't exactly trendy, like Kentucky and Missouri, hospitals have broken contracts with McDonald's restaurants years ahead of schedule and removed fast food from their cafeterias. The fast food giant's American sales fell more than three per cent in one quarter last year. The new face of the American diet is the Chipotle Mexican Grill, established in 1993, which features high-quality fresh ingredients and, from the chain's inception, locally-raised organic vegetables and hormone-free meat.

Regardless of whether this is really "eating better," as some news reports have called it, a similar trend has taken hold north of the border. Canada's second largest fast-food burger chain (after McDonald's), A&W has followed the hormone-free meat path in Canada for 18 months with substantial success and followed it up by selling meals made with antibiotic-free eggs as well. This new direction in restaurant marketing has stirred ire in the farming community and stoked it further when A&W began sourcing beef from outside of Canada. So much for local food! Staff writer Mary Baxter looks at this trend and its implications in our cover story, beginning on page 12.

What is the value of a good weather report? Columnist Phil (The Forecaster) Chadwick notes in this month's column that weather services in tiny Switzerland have an estimated value of US$400 million for households, agriculture and electrical production and distribution alone for a system that cost $60 million, or $8 a citizen. Imagine what weather information is worth to Canada, the second-largest country in the world with the longest coast line. You can figure it out for your own farm. Chadwick's column begins on page 58.

Keith Reid has earned a special place in Ontario agriculture. He began writing his Seedbed column at Farm & Country, and then continued for more than 15 years with Better Farming magazine. The column began when he was an employee of the provincial agriculture ministry. Since February 2011, Keith has written as a soil scientist employed by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC).

As a widely-respected scientist with top-notch writing skills, Keith has been uniquely equipped to communicate sometimes-complex concepts in an unbiased, clearly-focused manner.

This month, an AAFC official called us to announce that Keith would not be providing the column written for this issue of Better Farming, nor would he contribute to any future Seedbed columns. To be clear, Keith is no longer allowed to write his Better Farming column as a government employee or as a private individual!

In fairness, we were told Keith is permitted to write a very limited number of columns, but only public relations-type articles about AAFC research.

Keith's situation reminded us of Environment Canada's chief climatologist Henry Hengeveld. Both are known for their sense of decency and sincerity. Both had a similar run with Farm & Country and Better Farming. Henry loved his career with Environment Canada. When he retired initially, he agreed to assume an emeritus role there and continued to write his weather column in Better Farming. A couple of years ago, Henry withdrew from both roles. In his final column Henry cited increasing government barriers to the scientific information he needed. He also complained that government bureaucrats were distorting or censoring his work on climate change.  BF

ROBERT IRWIN & DON STONEMAN