Insights and Stories on General

May. 8, 2011 at 10:12 am CDT

The U.S. dollar dipped below 74.00 last week, posting a 32-month low. Prices have not been this low since August 2008. The U.S. dollar is the world’s primary reserve currency and it is traded at the IntercontinentalExchange (ICE), the world’s centralized price discovery point for the U.S. dollar index. The […]

By David Drozd

May. 6, 2011 at 5:18 pm CDT

This week’s commodities plunge has done little to dent concerns of continuing food price inflation, as grain prices held up better than most and fundamentals for the highly weather-sensitive sector are unchanged. Grain traders have had their eyes glued to weather forecasts rather than economic data, as heavy rainfall slows […]

By Gus Trompiz, marie-maitre

May. 3, 2011 at 5:51 am CDT

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s agriculture minister will be among the Conservative cabinet members returning to Ottawa in the wake of Monday’s election, and most but not all handlers of the ag portfolio will follow. Late Monday night, Elections Canada reported the federal Conservatives as elected or leading in 167 of […]

May. 2, 2011 at 5:01 am CDT

Legislation blocking Ontario’s farm workers from collective bargaining will stand, after Canada’s top court dismissed a major union’s court battle against the province’s rules. The Supreme Court of Canada on Friday upheld Ontario’s Agricultural Employees Protection Act (AEPA), which had previously been overturned at the Ontario Court of Appeal in […]

Apr. 29, 2011 at 4:16 pm CDT

One of the keys to achieving food security in Africa is ensuring that its millions of smallholder farmers are able to produce enough food for their families plus a surplus to sell in local markets. To get a better idea of the challenge facing a typical African farm family, we’ve […]

By Jean Paul Ntezimana