Agriculture and the “Made-in-Manitoba Climate and Green Plan”

In October the Manitoba Conservative Government released its “Made-in-Manitoba Climate and Green Plan”. This an important document and we commented on it last week. The Plan is accessible on-line and our government is inviting our respond. It is important that we respond. This week, Kleefeld resident, Gary Martens, retired agricultural professor at the U of M critiques the Plan from the perspective of agriculture.

The Plan exempts agriculture from the Carbon Tax. By exempting agricultural emissions, which account for 40% of Manitoba’s greenhouse gases (GHG)(2015), we are making it more difficult on everyone else in Manitoba to meet our reduction targets. More than that, we are denying innovative farmers the incentive to apply best management practises and contribute to reductions in GHG that are achievable and necessary

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The Made-in-Manitoba Plan

The Manitoba Government is to be commended for producing a plan that outlines how we in Manitoba intend to address the biggest challenges of our time – greenhouse gas production, climate change and the depletion of strategic earthen resources, most critically fossil fuels. It suitably follows the Beyond Kyoto Plan of 2008 and the TomorrowNow Plan of 2012, both produced by the previous NDP Government. Unfortunately both of the NDP plans have not achieved their goal.. This has been pointed out in the recent Auditor General's report.

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Why Doesn't Steinbach Landfill Have a Free Store?

By Wade Wiebe

The Steinbach Landfill is a heartbreaking sight. If you haven't been recently, you should go take a look. Lawnmowers, wheelbarrows, dishwashers, recliners, bedframes, lamps, bikes, dishes, kites, toys, lumber, masonry, windows, doors, garden tools, barbecues... anything and everything that someone has grown tired of, or doesn't have the skill to fix ends up here.

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Empty Versus Full

There was a time when the earth was “empty”. This was a time when the oceans and lakes were full of fish and much land was under-utilized. At that time the sensible way to increase the fish harvest was to build more fishing boats. At that time, there was unquestionable merit in making the fish harvest more efficient – bigger boats, better nets, and whatever else fishers do to make fishing more efficient. We humans became very good at this.

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You Are What You Eat

Question #1: would you spray something with Roundup and then eat it? Answer - probably not.

Question #2: would you eat something that someone else had sprayed with Roundup? The answer is, you are doing it all the time, probably every day.

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