LMT November 5th 2018

ALL you CAN EAT - CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4
tion.
Edible packaging is also gaining
ground. Imagine if everything on
grocery store shelves can be eaten.
Research has come a long way but it
hasn’t been easy. The first generation
of edible packaging was made from
starch, which often failed to keep
food fresh.
But the United States Department
of Agriculture (USDA) has been working
on new-generation edible packaging
that should be ready in 2019.
Those products include casein-based
food packaging, made
from milk proteins. It’s edible and
more efficient than other types of
packaging since it keeps oxygen away
from the food for an extended period.
Also, edible fabric can be infused
by vitamins and probiotics to make it
more nutritious.
Seaweed also is getting attention.
Humans have wrapped sushi with
seaweed for centuries, so it’s only
natural to extend it beyond Japanese
delicacies. Costs and availability are
still unclear.
These are all promising solutions
but no business model has yet been
developed, so we don’t know how edible
packaging will affect retail prices.
This is certainly a great concern to
retailers and restaurants.
Other issues include matters of
taste and food safety. Reducing
plastic waste by eating packaging is
Last Mountain Times • Monday, November 5, 2018 • lmtimes.ca
intriguing, but not every consumer
would consider the concept appetizing.
A case has to be made to entice
consumers to eat their garbage away.
Logistics are also an issue. Temperatures
vary greatly throughout the
supply chain, making it challenging
for edible packaging to preserve the
integrity of products that often must
travel thousands of kilometres.
Nevertheless, startups are rampant.
According to Transparency Market
Research (TMR), demand for edible
packaging could increase on average
by 6.9 per cent a year through 2024
and ultimately be worth almost $2
billion worldwide.
So consumers will be given an opportunity
to save the planet by eating
food and its packaging.
In the meantime, Greenpeace can
continue to blame companies for the
rubbish we find in oceans and waterways,
but in fact we’re all responsible
for this mess.
And if we want more compostable
and edible packages, we may have
to pay for it. But a planet premium
bought with these new technologies
may be worth it.
-Sylvain Charlebois is dean of the
Faculty of Management and a
professor in the Faculty of Agriculture
at Dalhousie University, and senior
fellow with the Atlantic Institute for
Market Studies. www.troymedia.com
Disclaimer: opinions expressed are those of the
writer.
The East Shore Wildlife Federation
wishes to sincerely thank all the donors
for their generous support of the 2018
Spring Fundraising Banquet:
• AAA Dent Repair
• Acton’s Plumbing & Heating
• Affinity Credit Union
• Alvin & Janice Wagner
• Aquarius Water & Septic
• Auto Parts Plus
• Big Al’s Craven Esso
• Bob Wilson
• Bolt Supply
• Bulyea Co-op
• Bulyea Grocery & Baked Goods
• Carla Betker Photography
• Cathy O’Byrne
• Cathy &Murray Wild
• CDM Electro Mechanical
• Countryside Signs & Designs
• Craswell Seeds
• D’s Place
• Dave’s Autowrecking & Towing
• Davey’s Seed Cleaning
• Degelman Development Inc
• Don’s Septic
• Earl Grey Credit Union
• Earl Grey Vet Services
• Eileen Schulz- TupperWare
• Flavell’s Plumbing & Heating
• Gescan
• Gunpowder & Whiskey Designs
• G&S Marina
• Harvey McEwen & Daphne Pinch
• Heidi Berger
• Hubick’s Plumbing & Heating
• Janelle Frizzell/Wilson’s Water
& Ice
• Jeff Jones
• J&W Construction
• John Berger
• KNL Construction
• KPS Repair
• KSF Publishers
• Lakeridge Construction
• Lakeview Septic
• Last Mountain Rodeo
• Last Mountain Remedial
Massage
• Leaning Maple Meats
• Lori Wild
• Merle Williams
• MC Construction
• Mountain Motors Autobody
• Myer’s Livestock
• Nola Schulz
• Norm & Cindy Smith
• Pokey’s Tackle Shop
• Prairie Co-op
• Royal Bank Strasbourg
• Regina Fasteners
• Richardson Pioneer
• Roberta Bender
• Rolling Plains Metalwork
• Rowan’s Ravine Provincial Park
• Royal Hotel Strasbourg
• Sask Assoc of Conservation
Officers (SACO)
• SaskEnergy & SaskPower
• Silton Car Wash & Laundry
• Silton General Store
• Sisters Café
• Steve & Sue Bristow
• Strasbourg Agencies
• Strasbourg Agro Inc
• Strasbourg Building & Home
Supply
• Strasbourg Coin Laundry & Car
Wash
• Strasbourg Co-op
• Strasbourg Garage
• SynEnergy Ag
• S&K Sales
• Todd & Nicole Bracken
• Tread Quarters
• Trudy Uhl- WatKins Products
• Wild’s Electric
• Wolf’s General Store
Wildlife branch meetings are held in the Wildlife Hall in Strasbourg at 8pm every 2nd Wednesday from
Sep 1st to May 31st The Annual General Meeting will be held December 16th 2018.. Memberships
to the Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation can be obtained by calling 306-731-3213 or visiting the
website at www.swf.sk.ca East Shore Wildlife is one of the large contributors to Habitat Trust in the
organization.
The 2019 Annual Spring Fundraising Banquet will be held March 31st 2019 in Strasbourg. If you wish
to book the Wildlife Hall for a function please contact Tim Gelanis at 306-725-4440
7
RITZ TARNISH continued FROM PAGE 4
to agribusiness. These actions shift yet more costs onto already cash-pressed
farmers.
Input suppliers and commodity buyers were the winners under Minister
Ritz’s agenda, while farmer numbers and their economic viability went down.
How is this good for the future? Under Gerry Ritz’s watch Canada’s meat
inspection regulations were weakened, leading to 22 deaths from listeria poisoning.
Ritz did not take this tragic event seriously, instead he made fun of the
situation, joking about the deaths and even degrading public dialogue by suggesting
he wished the PEI resident who died was Liberal MP Wayne Easter.
Minister Ritz attacked farmer livelihoods and hampered Canada’s ability to
fight climate change when he cut the PFRA Community Pastures program in
spite of its decades-long success in soil research, providing shelterbelt trees,
water management knowledge, and natural grasslands preservation. Let’s not
forget that Minister Ritz changed the Ag Stability and Ag Invest farm safety
net programs making them much less useful to farmers.
The major concessions he made in the Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement
demonstrate he had little respect or understanding of how our supply
management system benefits farmers, processors and consumers. When he
left supply management was very much weakened.
The Canadian Agriculture Hall of Fame does not have the prestige of a Nobel
Prize, but it should seek to do much better. Perhaps a “Hall of Infamy” award
would be a better fit for Gerry Ritz in recognition of the damage he has done to
Canadian agriculture and Canadian farmers.
-Ian Robson is National Farmers Union board member and operates
a mixed farm with his family at Deleau, Manitoba.
Disclaimer: opinions expressed are those of the writer
Hey there,
Thanks for reading
RM220 - CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7
a municipality discovers an error or omission that relates to the tax rates, the
municipality may revise the tax rates and send out revised tax notices.
LMT: So was there an ‘error or omission’ in the process of preparing the tax
bylaw?
REEVE ARNDT: And the answer is yes. The error comes in two parts.
Administration and council believed that they needed to replace the money
withdrawn from a reserve account and that the depreciation allowance included
in the budget had to be part of a balanced budget. Having to collect for
these two items resulted in the need to collect an additional one million dollars.
However, as a result of new work and research, we learned we can defer
payments into the reserve fund and the depreciation allowance does not need
to be included when calculating a balanced budget. With this new knowledge
council passed a resolution on October 26 to move forward with a redo of the
budget and tax bylaw.
Reeve Arndt stated to Last Mountain Times that he expects new Tax Notices
will be in the hands of RM 220 McKillop ratepayers by the end of November. It
is not yet known if the tax payment deadline will be revised as a result of these
new developments.
-editor