Crop show is a go, taking-on technology, food security in crisis

For many months now, in-person farm shows have been mostly shelved due to the pandemic. But in January, the Crop Production Show adapted its program and opened its doors. Mike Raine, editor of the Western Producer, attended the show and reports on how it went. The tech world seemingly advances by leaps and bounds and it can be hard to keep up. Farmer and Glacier FarmMedia columnist Toban Dyck muses on technology and how we accept it into our lives. Is world food security in jeopardy? Representatives at the World Economic Forum discuss the impacts of food shortages and how it can lead to political instability. Hosted by Ed White.

[podcast_transcript]

Ed White: [00:00:06] Hello and welcome to Between the Rows, I’m Ed White, your host this week. Today, we’re going to hear about growing concerns that a world food crisis is looming.

Svein Tore Holsether: [00:00:16] We cannot ignore the warning signs of an impending global security issue that could impact millions around the world. In areas where the pandemic and catastrophic climate events conflict and now rising prices are hitting really hard.

Ed White: [00:00:33] We’ll hear a farmer columnist, Toban Dyck’s, take on when farmers should embrace new technology.

Toban Dyck: [00:00:38] Farming moved from stick shift to the cockpit of a new seven forty seven in a very fast amount of time.

Ed White: [00:00:45] We’ll begin the program with the description and a discussion of what a big farm show that actually happened in person.

Mike Raine : [00:00:51] We were all smiling. Everybody seemed to be smiling a lot, even though it wasn’t as busy. Some of the exhibitors, you know, they if if it had been a normal year and and exhibitors had seen the smaller crowds, they might not have been as happy, but everybody was happy. It was just nice to be out.

Ed White: [00:01:10] But first, a message from our sponsor.

Commercial: [00:01:13] I’ve been farming my whole life, and the one thing you can always count on is change. And now there’s a new generation of inoculates from Lallemand plant care. New engineered granules and Lal fixed spherical for pulses and soybeans that provide improved handling and accurate metering. New rhizobium and Lal fix pro yield that deliver improved nitrogen fixation and iron uptake in soybeans. I’ve seen a lot of change, but this Lallemand company? Well, this changes everything. Contact your Lallemand and sales representative today.

Ed White: [00:01:48] Do you miss going to farm shows? I sure do. That’s normally how I spend most of my winter. Since the pandemic struck, most shows, conferences and meetings of canceled their in-person components and migrated online. But one of the biggest shows managed to have some of itself live and in-person. In mid-January, Mike Rann of the Western producer joins me now to tell us about that. Hello, Mike, and welcome to the show.

Mike Raine: [00:02:12] Thanks, Ed. Great to be here.

Ed White: [00:02:15] So Mike, you recently got to do something. Very few of us as journalists and very, very few farmers have got to do in the last couple of years, which is go to a real live farm show. Can you tell us what you were at and what it was like?

Mike Raine: [00:02:31] Well Ed, I was at the Crop Production Show in Saskatoon, and that’s tied to the usual producer meetings, commodity group meetings. So Crop Week crop sphere the the meetings were, well, they were mostly online. In fact, at the last minute just before in the Friday, just before the the show started. We we heard that producers were being asked to connect to the meetings portion of the event or events and by virtually. So and I think that went pretty well. However, there was there were also producers that were in the meetings because the meetings were taking place at the crop production show site at Saskatoon and Prairie Land Exhibition. So that went I went pretty well. They were they were sparsely attended, but there were producers in the meetings and some of the meetings, like canola and pulse. They were they were pretty well attended. So we had we had a lot going on because having a live crop show, a live production show, it just hasn’t happened in a while. We’ve had a few at the few smaller events throughout the summer and at out at the Discovery Farm site near Saskatoon, at Langham. And that’s those went pretty well. But they were fairly small. But I got to tell you that a show like the one in Saskatoon, the Crop Production Show, we were all smiling. Everybody seemed to be smiling a lot, even though it wasn’t as busy. Some of the exhibitors, you know, they if if it had been a normal year and and exhibitors had seen the smaller crowds, they might not have been as happy, but everybody was happy. It was just nice to be out,

Ed White: [00:04:17] You know, from from being there and being able to actually talk, you know, to farmers who were actually there. What was your sense of what people are talking about? They’re interested in what’s going on in farming and agriculture that’s making people chat and notice and, you know, sit up and listen to what’s going on at shows like this.

Mike Raine: [00:04:38] Well, obviously, crop prices were a big highlight. I got a lot of questions from producers about, you know, how long are the market’s going to stay up? And should I should I consider locking in some of these prices? There’s a little bit of wariness around contracting right now from some producers, but the prices that are being offered for new crop are pretty tempting if you can lock in some of those numbers. So that came up a lot. The same kind of questions were coming up about machinery because there’s there’s been some shortages out there being able to lay your hands on some new equipment. There’s been some long waits. There’s a lot of supply chain problems. So producers are trying to decide if they should pull the trigger and get their names on a list for a piece of equipment they might not see for, you know, six months or even a year. That came up a fair bit was, you know, prices are fairly strong for farm equipment. One might say they a lot of the producers I ran into used other terms that were a little more descriptive. But they they were they were talking about, you know, the need for some, some new gear, especially those that are looking at regular expansion plans.

Mike Raine: [00:05:49] So the the the equipment topic was fairly steady. There was a lot of talk about John Deere released a recently a fully robotic tractor, fully autonomous machine that’s field size field scale up to four hundred and ten horsepower for a fixed frame. That topic came up surprisingly often, too. They were producers wondering if I’d seen it and what I thought of it and what I what I knew about the, you know, if it was actually able to to do what they said it was, which is tillage for now, which means it isn’t entirely the right thing, maybe for a lot of producers up here. But if one thinks about, say, air seeding, for instance, if you think about that, that practice as sort of a fancy tillage, they would, they were anyway. They were pretty interested to hear about that prospect and just how far away that technology is from. From their farm gates, it was it was generally a show that producers wanted to chat some. Some of us don’t don’t get out much and these events really do when you when you come face to face or mask to mask.

Mike Raine: [00:07:01] It was it was exciting. It it gets you, gets you thinking, gets you stimulated, conversations get you stimulated because we well, we talk on the phone and we we text back and forth and email and find ourselves on Twitter. It might not be the same. And and I I really I really did. I can say I enjoyed it, and I think just about everybody who was at the show did. The big change probably is when you arrive at the show, instead of going right in and through the admissions area, there’s the there’s a staging area where you’ve got to, you know, prove that you’re fully vaccinated or you’ve got a PCR test that is recent, that shows that you’re not a threat to to one another. But once we’re inside the show, it was there were a few folks that didn’t mask up quite right, a few noses sticking out and that sort of thing. But it was it was pretty clean. The folks folks were masked, folks were, you know, providing some social distance. In many cases, and I, I generally felt it was, it was safe and and definitely it had it had the feeling of a very happy farm show.

Ed White: [00:08:12] And in the lead up to the show, the rules kept changing, as they have in every province with what you are allowed to and not allowed to do. And and that affected how we had to cover this event. I believe you and our news editor had to kind of change plans a couple of times on how we were going to cover this. Can you just tell us a little bit about how this affected the Western producers, I guess, coverage plan for for the show?

Mike Raine: [00:08:35] We definitely were looking at the the threat of Omicron. That’s that was top of mind for me. I looked at my, you know, you know, despite being a gentleman of a certain age, I’m in, I’m in, you know, I’m healthy and good condition I’ve had 4 vaccines now and and I decided to just to mitigate all of our risks of having generally having. We would have had four or five reporters and editors over at the show, maybe more. And that just didn’t seem like a a good risk management strategy, a lot of eggs in one basket there. So I thought, well, I’ll I’ll go and do the direct coverage that’s that we need. And with most of the meetings being commodity meetings being virtual, that allowed them to cover those things remotely and it mitigated the risk for the the editorial department at the Western Producer. So I not that I think there was a lot of risk there. It was a pretty safe show, but in advance of it, that was that was the the strategy we came up with and and it worked pretty well.

Ed White: [00:09:40] And you know, the year started with a live show with, you know, crop production show, which is really this huge event that everybody pays attention to. Normally, most of us across Western Canada, working for the Western Producer would be out at covering shows and events. You know, my January should be first week of January going to Saint Gene Farm days. You know, it has not happened for two years now, and it didn’t happen this year. Manitoba AG days has been postponed, not canceled as far as I understand, but postponed until people can gather again. Then there’s going to be other meetings, which I presume almost all are either going to be canceled or postponed. I just got news today that Manitoba’s crop connect, which is always a very big event here for growers, is being, you know, all there will be now. It’s all going to be virtual for annual general meetings. So that is gone back to the digital world to keep with all the various provincial regulations. And I also got an email today telling me that the Canadian Crops Convention, which brings together the Canadian Grain Commission and the Canola Council of Canada that’s normally the, you know, last big farmer crop commodity show that I cover in a winter before we move into the spring season. Well, that now has been canceled for a year, so it’s going to be a little bit of a different coverage winter yet again as we just go through, hopefully these last gasps of the pandemic.

Mike Raine: [00:11:11] It has been a very different year. We look we looked last year at the cancelations, even globally things like Agro Technica and Hannover Germany was canceled. Euro tier another deal G. German Farmers Co-op project that and show that was that was also canceled. And agri técnica. That’s the largest show in the world. Well, that was postponed to this November. And then it was canceled again. It was postponed to February. And now that’s been canceled again. So I. As I was emailing back and forth with with a German colleague just today and found and she was she was saying that it was, you know, there was some people felt a little bit of relief and some people felt a lot of disappointment. But the big thing is we just can’t wait for this all to end because, well, we’re just hoping that we can get back to back to some normal and we’ll see what happens in. There’s there’s some other shows in the Dakotas. There’s one in Louisville coming up and I think those are all ago. So there’ll be some, some stateside activity. But in western Canada, I I feel pretty comfortable with the choices that that organizers and a lot of producer organizations have made. It just it feels like we’re we’re probably doing the right things right now for the right reasons, keeping everybody safe and and before we know what spring will be upon us. It’s only it’s only a few sleeps away and we got to start thinking about starting to get some crop in the ground. So everybody wants to be, you know, safe and ready.

Ed White: [00:12:50] Yeah, I think we’re all getting ready to sort of do virtually what we have to do this winter. But look forward to a crop season of people actually out, you know, on the ground planting a crop and then hopefully lots of crop tours this summer and a chance for maybe things in a lightening pandemic atmosphere to get a bit back to normal. And maybe we’ll we’ll be we’ll be back to a sort of a form of a normal in a few months. So. Well, Mike, thanks very much for coming on and telling us about this start to the year. And I guess as we go on, we’ll we’ll see what and how we cover stuff.

Mike Raine: [00:13:25] Thanks a lot, Ed. When it comes to the lack of shows and the lack of activity and the lack of getting out for producers and the industry, I guess it’ll keep us busy because they still want the information. And we’re where that first line of of transfer that they get. So I look I look forward to a busy and meaningful season anyway.

Ed White: [00:13:50] Well, thanks, Mike. And that was Mike Raine, the editor of the Western Producer. And this is Between the Rows. When should farmers embrace and incorporate new technology? Farmer and columnist Toban Dyck has some thoughts about that.

Toban Dyck: [00:14:17] I recently purchased a camera lens capable of capturing with mesmerizing clarity the individual hairs on the nuthatches eating from the feeder outside of our dining room window. It’s just one more piece of technology in my ever expanding collection, a collection for which I make no apologies and it’s a growing collection. Camera gear, whether it be video, drone or still photography, is something I am very much drawn to. Technology in general has always been able to peek and hold my interest. I am not sure why this is the case. It’s has always been this way when I read books more often than I do now, and perhaps technology is to blame for this. I use audiobooks now. Ursula Franklin’s Massey lecture, entitled The Real World of Technology, was a book I would reference quite often. It is short, dense and in my estimation, it accurately portrayed the depth and nuance of humanity’s relationship with technology. If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it. Anecdotally, however, I have my own thoughts on the matter. Thoughts that are no doubt influenced by Franklin’s work. Glacier Farm Media didn’t ask me to write about cybersecurity, but they did ask me if I had anything to say on the topic. Initially, the answer was a hard no. I have never been hacked, nor have I had my identity stolen. I am not naive enough to believe that I’m impervious to such intrusions of privacy. But as of the writing of this column, no such attack has befallen me.

Toban Dyck: [00:15:57] My no quickly became a yes, however, after being struck with the connection I could make with technology and my infatuation with it. Up for sale as an idea in this piece is the accessible and attractive idea that technology will make our lives easier and people are buying it. I have, you have. We are seeing this play out with increasing persistence in the AG space. What I enjoy about technology is its utility for me. In my weaker moments, I may buy something believing it will allow me to spend more time doing more fun things. But I’d like to think that most of the time I know that increasing my tech reserve only increases my workload. Every piece of technology I have purchased for personal or for work consumes a portion of my overall brain capacity. Like finding room for another another tractor in your machine shed. There are limitations to all this. The technological inventory on our farms and in our lives should grow, in my opinion, in step with our capacity to comprehend and achieve some mastery over them. Every new piece of gear for me, regardless of whether it’s for the farm or for personal use, takes something out of me. If it’s for the farm, how should it be stored? What can it all do? How do I use it to work for me? I was reticent to talk about cybersecurity in a pandemic climate as the coffee shops in our rural communities don’t need more fodder to be negative or more fuel for conspiracy theorists pontificating about Big Sister and Big Brother watching our every moves.

Toban Dyck: [00:17:37] In short, if you don’t understand the tech you’re using, quit using it until you do. Reducing the targeted ads you’re receiving for the products you were chatting about with your partner last night to a conspiracy theory about government is just lazy thinking. There absolutely are nefarious technologies out there, and sometimes there is good reason to sound the alarm. But in order to arrive at such accusations, the user has to understand what he or she is talking about in greater detail than what conspiracy theories are able to offer. Farming moved from stick shift to the cockpit of a new seven forty seven in a very fast amount of time, and our households did as well. I used to play a computer game called Track and Field that was loaded on a cassette tape. It took a bit of code to get to the play action, and once they’re moving, my guy required the rhythmic pressing of the left and right arrow keys. Things have changed a lot since track and field. Our tractors talk directly to the dealerships from where they were purchased, and our computers and phones and headsets seem to be in a constant Two-Way dialog between our homes and the myriad networks to which we are almost always connected. I can’t imagine it would take a lot of hacking to be able to knock at your door as it were.

Toban Dyck: [00:18:59] But instead of letting this notion awaken the fatalist in you and scare you away from embracing the technologies that can work for you. Let it inspire you to learn more about them. This is how I would write about cybersecurity if someone were to ask me for such a column. I would then. Perhaps mention that on January 20th and February 17th, Glacier Farm Media, in partnership with the Community Safety Knowledge Alliance and Public Safety Canada, is hosting a webinar on cybersecurity featuring presentations from experts and investigators. Sign up where you can. The lens that I purchased requires me to embark on a steep learning curve. I will always have to find a place to store it, as well as train my brain to think about when conditions are ripe for its use. These things, while they sound fun, take mental energy. I have found more often than not that when people purge their households and or lives of things they call clutter in search of the simple life. What seems more likely to be happening is that they no longer have the capacity to hold all the pieces of the puzzle together. The technology is available to us on our farms and in our daily lives can do great things for us and our operations. Provided we understand them, there is a pecking order to this all. And you guessed it. I think we’re still on top.

Ed White: [00:20:39] You can find Toban’s column in Grain News and in the Western producer. And if you’re looking for more information on cybersecurity, we’ll be running a cybersecurity webinar February 17th. To find registration information, go to any of our Glacier Farm Media publications. Have you noticed that food prices have risen and some store shelves are empty? That’s a crimp on the family income for most of us and an annoyance in these trying times, but in much of the world. Price rises and food scarcity can be harbingers of actual hunger. At the World Economic Forum this week, Yara International CEO Svein Tore Holsether and United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres talked about their fears of where the situation puts the developing world right now. The first person you’ll hear coming up is Holsether, followed by Guterres.

Svein Tore Holsether: [00:21:33] Thank you again, Mr. Secretary-General first. Thank you so much for your clear and direct speech and the opportunity to speak with you. One of my biggest concerns and an area where I hope for stronger collaboration is in the looming food crisis. We cannot ignore the warning signs of an impending global security issue that could impact millions around the world. In areas where the pandemic and catastrophic climate events conflict and now rising prices are hitting really hard. Take the African continent as an example. The combination of an annual $35 billion food import bill, some of the lowest agricultural productivity in the world. Severe droughts, locust events. Poor access to vaccines and existing conflicts create the perfect storm. We need to act and we need to act together. So firstly, this is a potential security issue capable of destabilizing societies and forcing people into poverty, hunger and migration. And I believe this is a topic for the UN Security Council to address. Secondly, how can the United Nations coordinate our joint action as the CEO of a global crop nutrition company? I’m ready to act. How do you advise we work together with governments and international organizations to ensure that we have enough food both available and affordable in the next years? Thank you.

Antonio Guterres: [00:23:16] Well, that is a crucial question, because for the first time, after a long period in which hunger was every year decreasing in the world, we had witnessed an increase of hunger. That is something that is morally absolutely intolerable and that has consequences. As you mentioned in relation to social stability, the risk of conflict and the difficulties for countries to have an effective recovery. Now we had the Food Summit, I think it was a good summit in the sense that it was probably to bring together the governments, but also the private sector, the business community in general and the civil society. And we have decided that the three organizations that exist in the UN, WFP, FAO and FAO probably would not be enough to create the mechanisms of coordination that you mentioned necessary. So we have now created in Rome a hub, a food security hub. And the idea is to have this hub as a platform to strengthen the cooperation with all public and private entities that want to be part of a global project in relation to increase food security, meaning not only fighting hunger but also increasing productivity and production and creating the conditions for the agricultural recovery to be a main factor in the recovery, especially in developing countries and particularly in Africa, where we absolutely need to have food markets working as markets.

Antonio Guterres: [00:25:12] We have very interesting experiences, for instance, in countries like Kenya. It’s possible for farmers with the only a mobile phone to know exactly what are the prices in the different areas of the country, how they can make sure that the intermediaries, people in the intermediary sector will not cheat on them or whatever. We have financial mechanisms that can also be put in place through the mobile phones. So I mean, some things are happening, but globally in the African continent, we have a dramatic problem of productivity, as you mentioned, and we would like to create conditions to mobilize not only the FAO, the FAO is supporting them as they can, but to mobilize those that have the technology, the experience and also the financial capacity supported again by international financial institutions to be able to have a, I mean, the impact in Africa of what the Green Revolution has meant in Asia. And fortunately, Africa did not benefit, but it’s absolutely essential to do something similar with, of course, different characteristics, but with the same objective making Africa a continent that will be able not only to feed itself, but to provide food accidents to the global market.

Ed White: [00:26:53] That was Svein Tore Holsether of your international and Antonio Guterres of the United Nations speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. That’s all for this week. Join us again next week for another edition of Between the Rows. I’m Ed White and it was my pleasure being your host this week.

Speaker5: [00:27:23] I’ve been farming my whole life, and the one thing you can always count on is change. And now there’s a new generation of inoculates from Lallemand plant care. New engineered granules and Lal fixed spherical for pulses and soybeans that provide improved handling and accurate metering. New rhizobium and Lal fix pro yield that deliver improved nitrogen fixation and iron uptake in soybeans. I’ve seen a lot of change, but this Lallemand company? Well, this changes everything. Contact your Lallemand and sales representative today.

[/podcast_transcript]