A familiar name to Western Producer readers has left the building.
Ed White, who has been reporting for the paper for 30 years, has taken another job. His last day with us was Sept. 30.
Ed brought with him a passion for journalism that couldn’t help but spread to his colleagues.
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He probably covered almost every aspect of agriculture over the years, but his areas of expertise gradually evolved to include marketing and the hog industry.
One of Ed’s biggest strengths has been his interest in identifying some small corner of the agriculture landscape and then giving it an extensive, multi-story, big picture treatment.
Among the first of these was a series of stories and photos that ran in the paper over several months that followed the construction of one of the new big concrete grain elevators that were being built 25 years ago.
Ed was living in North Battleford, Sask., at the time but working out of the Western Producer’s Saskatoon office, and his daily commute took him past the construction site.
He would drop in every few weeks to check on the construction’s status, snap some photos and turn it all into a riveting progress report.
The series slowed down somewhat once he moved back to Saskatoon, but he made the drive a few more times to finish the series.
Ed has never lost his fascination with this type of journalism.
Some of you may remember the series he did last year called “rye to Rye.” It was an extensive months-long examination of the rye industry, covering everything from crop production challenges to bread making to the whiskey trade.
His article on the Bronfman family and their connection to the bootlegging era of the 1920s in southern Saskatchewan was particularly fascinating.
Ed made the drive to places like Yorkton, Sask., and Bienfait, Sask., from his home in Winnipeg to get a feel for some of the family’s old stomping grounds.
He has currently been working on two new series this year: one looking at underused agricultural labour pools and the other on the different faces of agricultural advocacy.
A final instalment of each can be found in this issue.
Ed’s dedication to his craft will be truly missed. Bon voyage, old friend.
