Buchanan contemplating top job. Former provincial Agriculture Minister Elmer Buchanan says he'll decide this month whether to run for the leadership of the New Democratic Party. Buchanan, currently vice-principal of Centre Hastings Secondary School in Madoc, held the agriculture portfolio from 1990 to 1995. "I want to bring some new thinking into the economic policies of the party, and reach out to a coalition of groups and individuals who would support them," Buchanan said in a press release. "One way of doing that is to run for the leadership, and win." At press time, two candidates had already announced they would seek the party's top job, a position vacated by Bob Rae earlier this month after 14 years on the job. Frances Lankin, one of Rae's most trusted ministers, threw her hat into the ring two days after Rae handed in his leadership badge. Lankin, who held several cabinet posts in the last provincial government, is considered the front-runner for the job. Maverick MPP Peter Kormos has also declared he will seek the leadership.

Weaver takes chair. Dresden pork farmer Bill Weaver has been elected chairman of the Advanced Agricultural Leadership Trust. The trust operates the two-year Advanced Agricultural Leadership Program, which helps men and women active in Ontario agriculture understand and develop skills to deal with issues beyond the farm gate. Weaver is the first program graduate to chair the trust. The program, which has been running since 1985, consists of nine three-day seminars held in different Ontario locations and two two-week study tours. Weaver replaces Bolton dairy farmer Murray Stewart, who ended his term as chair in December.

Biotech boasts sales. A new study out of the U.S. says biotechnology will be the catalyst to push food animal health products sales to almost double from US$2.4 billion in 1994 to US$4.4 billion in 2001. The study, produced by California technology researchers Frost & Sullivan, says that despite reduced cattle and swine producer purchasing power in 1994, new products such as bovine somatotropin have delivered growth. Innovations designed to increase productivity, reduce labour requirements, increase product safety and overcome compound resistance will continue to drive market expansion, the study says. Biotechnology advances will contribute the majority of market growth. Disease-resistant crops will offer greater convenience and increased farming productivity, the study says.

Unifarm dies, but Wild Rose is born. Unifarm, Alberta's general farm organization died in January, but a new organization - Wild Rose Agricultural Producers - is struggling to take up the farm lobby charge. But there's one major hurdle - money. Wild Rose president Ron Leonhardt wants the Alberta government to approve a checkoff on all farm licence plates sold in the province, but provincial Agriculture Minister Walter Paszkowski told the organization to come up with some more creative solutions, The Western Producer reports. In Alberta, cattle producers and barley and canola producers are allowed to charge a checkoff to fund their organizations. But for now, Wild Rose organizers say they will concentrate on gathering memberships and building the new farm organization.

European profits up. With all the talk about subsidy cuts, you would think European farmers would be singing the blues these days. But new figures show that in real terms, European Union farmer incomes rose by 2.6 per cent last year to the highest level in 20 years, The Economist reports. World market prices have certainly helped, but in a bizarre twist, bureaucrats are finding out that their attempts to reform subsidies are driving up farm income artificially. In 1992, Brussels devised a plan that would reduce surpluses by paying subsidies directly to farmers rather than linking them to farm output. Support prices for farm products, including cereals and beef, were to be cut over the following three years, and farmers would be compensated through direct payments. It sounds like a good plan, but with rising market prices, farmers were getting top prices, well above support levels, and the guaranteed direct payments. Farmers actually have been paid for a drop in the market that never happened.

OFA needs GM. Ontario Federation of Agriculture general manager Doug Lisle has called it quits after six months on the job. Federation president Tony Morris announced earlier this month that both the OFA and Lisle have decided not to renew their relationship after the completion of a six-month probationary period. Lisle, who replaced Carl Sulliman as OFA top staff person, will be heading back to Saskatchewan to be with his family. The federation will begin a search for a new general manager.

Wolf in the fold. In an effort to save their flocks from mounting predator attacks, Ontario sheep producers in eastern Ontario are holding a seminar on March 16, to focus on the protection of sheep flocks. Almonte producer Eugene Flytche says the protective measures are also of interest to cattle and goat producers, who claim about 40 per cent of compensation paid by the provincial government. Protection measures include hunting, trapping, guard animals and electric fencing. The meeting will be on March 16 near Carleton Place. (613) 256-1798.

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Asked by the North Rhine-Westphalia Milk Association to jazz up the traditional milk glass, Ritzenhoff, a big industrial glass maker, commissioned fashionable designers to decorate one glass each. This produced what Ritzenhoff calls "the cheapest contemporary art collection in the world," the European publication The Economist reported last month. Since 1992, 1.9 million glasses have been sold, and distributed in 20 countries. These glasses retail at DM 35 (US$25) a pair or about 10 times more than their plain equivalents and cost little more to make.
Designs are changed every six months. Elaborately packaged, each set of glasses includes a profile of the designer, and a sample of his or her great thoughts on milk. The Economist quotes a typical contribution as "milk, white liquid, biological plaster, semantic cement, disharmonious link, white line in the sky. The unspoiled white that will always be lost to the artist's palette. It is nutritious nothing, the pink without magenta, the printer's nightmare."
European Yuppies turned on by this prose can join Ritzenhoff's Milk Club, at an annual subscription of more than US$50. Members are offered the chance to buy special edition glasses, to tour design studios and "discuss their passion for milk." Several electronic forums are used to keep the members in touch. True patrons can take courses in milking, and herd cows in summer pastures on idyllic German "tourist farms".

It may sound ridiculous, but how about a jellyfish alarm system for your tobacco crop? In the world of biotechnology, where wonders never cease, biologists have added a protein from jellyfish to tobacco that would make a plant glow when being attacked by pests or disease.
Edinburgh University professor Tony Trewavas says the protein acts as an alarm system by detecting changes to calcium levels that occur when plants are under siege. When changes to calcium levels are detected, the jellyfish protein emits light, producing a glowing plant.
Trewavas says the protein can act as an early warning system for farmers, enabling them to apply accurate, effective and minimal pesticide doses to control the problem. Trewavas says only one jellyfish plant per thousand is needed to monitor a crop.

A study commissioned by the Alberta Cattle Commission shows that the oil and gas exploitation hurts cattle on nearby farms and feedlots, The Western Producer reports.
Indoor air quality is a significant concern for owners of livestock kept in barns near petroleum production facilities, said scientists at the Alberta Environmental Centre in Vegreville.
The study hasn't been released, even though it has been completed for nearly a year, reportedly because peer review scientists had trouble with it. An updated study that takes into account modern gas and oil production practices may be released in another six months.
There were more than 189,000 wells in the province in 1993, with only 38,000 producing gas and oil and almost twice as many abandoned and possibly causing pollution. There are also 220,000 km of pipeline crisscrossing the province.
Emissions are being blamed for respiratory problems, especially from so-called sour gas. As well, there is slow weight gain, diarrhea, muscular weakness and eye and respiratory irritation.
Here in Ontario, oil production reached a record high last year at 1.8 million barrels. Farmers in Essex and Kent county alone, where 80 per cent of the province's oil comes from, took in more than $4 million in royalties from wells on their properties last year.

Put a pig in Hollywood and it goes to her head.
Babe, the swine star of the box office smash hit movie of the same title, was doing a bit of pork barelling at the British Parliament last month.
Babe's owner, British actress Joanna Lumley, was representing an animal rights group Compassion in World Farming, The Daily Telegraph reports. The group, protesting the transport of live animals, wants to have livestock reclassified as "sentient beings". Under current European Union rules, they are in the same trade category as baked beans and potatoes.
"Which one has feelings?" Lumley asked reporters, with the eight-month-old Babe in one arm and a tin of baked beans in the other. "Babe stayed at home with me all day yesterday. We cooked together, she licked the spoon, learned to sit and use the litter. We went for a walk and, later on, she fell asleep at my feet."
Also making the trip was a dog which Babe thinks is her mother.
The pressure on live animal transport in Britain is unlikely to go away. The opposition Labour party, which continues to call for changes, is seen as the likely successor to the faltering Conservative government.
Hope may be on the way from the British agriculture minister, who appears likely to sympathize with farmers if only because of his name: Douglas Hogg.

Babe has also drawn the ire of one Irish politician-farmer. MP Ned O'Keefe says film makers need to realize that the talking-piglet movie may seem harmless, but it could cause considerable hardship to others, especially pig farmers.
Although O'Keefe had not seen the movie, he cited reports from the United States that consumption of pork and bacon had dropped dramatically since the movie was released late last year.
He called for Irish people to boycott the film, but according to reports, piqued the public's interest, and sent many scurrying to get their hands on a copy of the film, which at the time was not available in Ireland.
Earlier this month, the film received an Oscar nomination for best picture.