Philip Shaw's work is published across Canada and the United States. He is an accomplished speaker, journalist, commodity market commentator, agricultural economist and farmer from Dresden, Ontario, Canada.
Last Monday the office of the provincial minister of agriculture Leona Dombrowsky received a written bomb threat. She also was quoted in the Toronto Star as saying there have been threats to blockade her family home. What’s up with this? Are we talking about Ontario here? For those of you a long way away from…
Continue ReadingAs spring gets closer many things on the farm get closer focus. In the United States many farmers are not only going to the fields, some of them are already planted. There is also the group risk income protection (GRIP) and group risk plan (GRP) crop insurance to buy. That among other things makes US…
Continue ReadingThere is an old axiom, “the rich fat cats gets richer and the poor folks get poorer.” Surely, if you have followed my writing career over the last 20 years you will have seen it. It could be considered a buzz phrase for our free market economy. There is nothing right about it. Shortening that…
Continue ReadingThe air is changing. That must mean that spring is right around the corner. Sometimes I think there is something wrong with this country. It only gets warm for 10 weeks of the year. The rest of the time we are fighting the cold. Maybe that’s why some parts of Florida fill up with Canadian…
Continue ReadingThe situation developing in Iran is troubling. The IAEA, the nuclear watchdog, of the UN is debating whether to refer the case of Iran to the Security Council for further actions. This has been the demand of the US government for the last one-year. George Bush is increasing under pressure from its Israeli lobby to…
Continue ReadingMy day job puts me in a world, which has a long history. Putting food in our mouths is about as old as it gets. Yes, “now a days” it is full of new technology and modern methods to make me more efficient and to put more and more food on the table. Still though,…
Continue ReadingIt’s been a very busy week, full of highs and lows. Last Tuesday when I finished my speech in front of the Sir John Carling building in Ottawa that was clearly a high. 2000 farmers in front of me churned in a cold wintry wave, which I will never forget. When the end came, the…
Continue ReadingThe price of oil fell almost $2 a barrel last Monday as commodity traders started to breathe easy. It settled at $61 dollars after briefly dipping to $60.85. Traders were relieved that an al Qaeda attack on some Saudi oil facilities was foiled. For some of you this must seem strange. How does a botched…
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