"Nothing About Agriculture" In Last Week's Throne Speech

Dec 09, 2019

The Conservative's Shadow Minister of Agriculture says what was not in last week's Throne Speech is more telling than what was included.

John Barlow says the word agriculture did not appear once, along with oil, gas and pipelines.

Barlow says he and his fellow Conservatives will not be voting to pass the Liberal's throne speech when it comes up this week in Parliament because of the issues which were not included.

"You look at the crisis that we are facing in agriculture, where it's trade issues with China, India, Italy, Saudi Arabia, around the world, or oil and gas and our ability to get our products and our commodities to market."

Barlow says with new job numbers Friday, December 6 showing over 71,000 people losing their jobs in November, most of those coming in Quebec, where 45,000 jobs were lost while Alberta and B.C. each lost 18,200 jobs, it shows the Prime Minister is out of touch when it comes to economic issues.

"Clearly there are clouds on the horizon when it comes to the global economy and the Canadian economy. Nothing in that Throne Speech was said about addressing some of those issues. In fact it was all about throwing more money around and getting further and further into very deep debt. So, we will not be supporting the Throne Speech."

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Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.