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Article evaluation

Dairy farming in Canada - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dairy_farming_in_Canada

Is everything in the article relevant to the article topic? Is there anything that distracted you?

The material in this article is relevant to the topic of 'Dairy Farming in Canada' and the information provided in each section is necessary to fully understand this topic. The article is divided into clearly stated sub-headings, however in the introduction of the article, facts regarding the dairy industry in Canada are at times disjointed and difficult to follow from one fact to the next. Despite the confusing sequence of information in the introduction, the main points are presented clearly and are representative of the basic fundamentals of dairy farming in Canada.

Is the article neutral? Are there any claims, or frames, that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?

This article demonstrates biases existing in favour of policies protecting Canadian farmers. Biases favouring the Canadian quota system are promoted through citations of ‘fair’ returns, prices reflecting the additional costs attributed to dairy production in a Canadian climate, the large contribution to Canadian GDP, and the jobs created from the dairy industry in Canada. The article fails to mention any negative impacts of a closed dairy market, artificially inflated prices, or the losses associated with abstaining from global trade. Additionally, the sources in this article are solely from Canadian publishers and the government of Canada, emphasizing the Canadian standpoint on dairy farming in Canada.

Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?

The history section of this article is labeled as ‘This section needs expansion,’ emphasizing the lack of historical information in this text. The article provides a broad overview of the history of dairy farming in Canada as a whole, with little information regarding provincial differences to practices and policies regarding quota shares. Additionally, the statistics section of this article is presented as a table of numbers, without descriptive titles describing the significance of the numerical results.

Check a few citations. Do the links work? Does the source support the claims in the article?

One of the 9 links cited does not work. The citations which do work are all Canadian sources and therefore support the biases toward protectionist measures applied to the dairy industry in Canada.

Is each fact referenced with an appropriate, reliable reference? Where does the information come from? Are these neutral sources? If biased, is that bias noted?

Throughout the article it appears that there is a lack of references provided for many of the facts presented. In particular, paragraphs 2, 3, 4, and 5 lack any references to support the detailed information provided. Furthermore, of the sources that are cited in the article, only a small portion of the sources appear to be reputable. Of the nine sources cited in this article, one webpage is broken and does not display the information, three pages are non-reputable websites, and one source is a newspaper article. Therefore, out of the nine sources cited, only four of them are peer-reviewed and empirically supported. It is clear from examining the article that it lacks reputable sources to back up the claims in the article. The information, presented in the article references the government of Canada website, the Dairy Farmers of Canada website, a newspaper article, and two policy briefs. A slight bias for the positive aspects of policies to protect Canadian dairy farmers is clearly evident in the sources cited. All of the sources cited in the article are Canadian sources and most of the sources present the protection of Canadian Dairy Farmers as being positive. This bias is not clearly stated anywhere in the article however, the title of the article is Dairy Farming in Canada, leading the reader to believe that the article will be discussing Canadian dairy policies from a Canadian perspective.

Is any information out of date? Is anything missing that could be added?

It appears that much of the information presented in the article is somewhat dated. Of the four reputable sources presented in this article, only one of them appears to be current. The other three references are from 2012 or 2013. This is especially dated given the fact that we have undergone significant changes in government since then which potentially has impacted the policy being discussed. The information presented in this article is very broad and does not provide much insight into Canadian dairy farming other than discussing dairy farming from an economic point of view. Some information that could have been beneficial to this article includes the impact of dairy farming on the environment, regulations of Canadian dairy compared to the regulations of dairy farmers in other countries, and how the process of dairy farming in Canada compares to the process in other countries.

Check out the Talk page of the article. What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic?

The talk page discusses the fact that the article has been flagged previously as being non-neutral. The discussion states that the articles are “negative opinion based articles” however, this seemed to be inaccurate as the article itself appears to display Canadian dairy farming positively, indicating a slight positive bias for the policies protecting Canadian dairy farmers.

How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects?

This article is a part of two different WikiProjects. The first WikiProject that it is listed as being a part is WikiProject Canada which is described as being a way of working towards having increased coverage of Canadian topics on Wikipedia. The second WikiProject that it is listed as being a part of is WikiProject Agriculture which is described as a project working towards increased information about agriculture on Wikipedia. For both of these WikiProjects, the article is listed as being “start-class” and “low importance”. “Start-class” is a rating that indicates that the article has some good information but needs to be discussed more in-depth. “Low importance” refers to the fact that the article is not essential to understanding the broad context of the topic being discussed.

How does the way Wikipedia discusses this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class?

Since we have not yet discussed food resources in class, I am unable to comment on this question.

Thabiso's peer review

Is everything in the article relevant to the article topic? Is there anything that distracted you?

The article is relevant to the topic. The editors did an incredible job at presenting the information about the whole topic. Additionally, this introduction is captivating and intrigues the reader to read further.

Is the article neutral? Are there any claims, or frames, that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?

The article tends to lean towards favoring the "supply management." As good as it may be, some farmers may be against it. Therefore I urge the editors to look into that.

Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?

The article is well represented. It looks at both the pros and cons of dairy farming in Canada.

Check a few citations. Do the links work? Does the source support the claims in the article?

All the citations work very well. These support the facts stated by the editors. However, the article has some run-on sentences without any references. These should be well cited to improve credibility of the information.

Is each fact referenced with an appropriate, reliable reference? Where does the information come from? Are these neutral sources? If biased, is that bias noted?

Where facts have been referenced, their sources are neutral and very reliable.

Is any information out of date? Is anything missing that could be added?

The cited information is up to date, making this information very credible.

How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects?

This article is a part of two different WikiProjects; WikiProject Canada and WikiProject Agriculture. These projects are both listed as being start-class and low importance.

How does the way Wikipedia discusses this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class?

Aside from the Agriculture side, most of the information is relevant to some of the topics we discussed in class, like pollution and policies. These are addressed neutrally and in depth. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Thabisomodise (talk • contribs) 02:49, 9 March 2018 (UTC)

Pamela's Peer Review - Dairy Farming in Canada

Good work, this is a great article. It is easy to read and follow, and provides a good summary of important point in Dairy Farming in Canada.

The greatest critique I have is citations. It seems like a lot of your information is not cited. For example, when you have statistics in a sentence you have to cite this information for the reader to know where these numbers are coming from. Not citing statistics makes the information being stated unreliable. Here are some examples of sentences/paragraphs I would suggest you cite:

"In 2016, there were 959,600 dairy cows on 11,683 farms across the country."

"In Canada, dairy farming is subject to the system of supply management. Under supply management, which also includes the egg and poultry sectors, farmers manage their production so that it coincides with forecasts of demand for their products over a predetermined period - while taking into account certain imports that enter Canada, as well as some production which is shipped to export markets. Imports of dairy, eggs, and poultry are controlled using tariff rate quotas, or TRQs. These allow a predetermined quantity to be imported at preferential tariff rates (generally duty free), while maintaining control over how much is imported. The over-quota tariffs are set at levels that allow Canadian farmers to receive a price reflecting the cost to produce in a northern environment." <-- This paragraph seems to be missing citations.

"These regulations provide clear guidelines for Canadian dairy farmers to adhere to in order for them to ensure biosecurity standards are maintained in the sectors of environmental protection, human health, animal health, and animal welfare. "

"The Canadian dairy industry is responsible for 20% of total green house gas (GHG) emissions generated in Canada by livestock agriculture which includes dairy, poultry, swine and beef. " <-- When you have statistics in a sentence you need to reference where they are coming from.

I would also recommend linking some words to other Wiki pages. For example things like "Canadian Food Inspection Agency", or "greenhouse gas", etc. This will make it easier for the reader to understand bigger concepts you are referring to.

Apart from this, I honestly think your article is well written. In terms of neutrality, what you have stated appears to be unbiased. Good work!

Reply to Peer Reviews

The peer review feedback I received on my article draft was concise and informative. It is apparent that I need to add additional citations to specific statistics and to maintain a neutral, unbiased standpoint in each subheading section. Moreover, it was suggested that I add links to other Wikipedia pages for key words and specific phrases which may not be understood.

I will begin by adding additional references where they are needed. I will be adding citations to the following:

"In 2016, there were 959,600 dairy cows on 11,683 farms across the country."

"In Canada, dairy farming is subject to the system of supply management. Under supply management, which also includes the egg and poultry sectors, farmers manage their production so that it coincides with forecasts of demand for their products over a predetermined period - while taking into account certain imports that enter Canada, as well as some production which is shipped to export markets. Imports of dairy, eggs, and poultry are controlled using tariff rate quotas, or TRQs. These allow a predetermined quantity to be imported at preferential tariff rates (generally duty free), while maintaining control over how much is imported. The over-quota tariffs are set at levels that allow Canadian farmers to receive a price reflecting the cost to produce in a northern environment." "These regulations provide clear guidelines for Canadian dairy farmers to adhere to in order for them to ensure biosecurity standards are maintained in the sectors of environmental protection, human health, animal health, and animal welfare. "

"The Canadian dairy industry is responsible for 20% of total green house gas (GHG) emissions generated in Canada by livestock agriculture which includes dairy, poultry, swine and beef. "

I will be linking the following phrases to their respective Wikipedia pages:

“supply management”

“Greenhouse gas”

“Canadian Food Inspection Agency”

“GDP”

“Quota”

“Tariff rate quotas”

“CH4”

“N2O”

“CO2”

Furthermore, I will be analyzing each subheading section to ensure neutrality. Feedback has been critical of the article being in favour of supply management and therefore I will be making sure to add references which are relevant and which demonstrate no bias toward or against supply management.

Lastly, I will be adding stock photos to illustrate the current dairy farming operations at farms across Canada. This addition of photos will add colour and an additional medium for graphic learning. Contributingknowledge (talk) 03:07, 16 March 2018 (UTC)