I saw a placard earlier this year around the University of Guelph declaring food is a right. Well, if that’s the case, then those who produce food better have rights too, rights that are shared with the public, clearly understood and widely accepted. A step in that direction takes place May 14, 2013, at the… Read More
Author: Owen Roberts
We should all steal a page from Pulse Canada’s inventive approach to market expansions. The organization’s new Meal Planning for 9 Billion People video campaign pushes just about every button imaginable. First, the positioning. It sounds elementary, but feeding the world with meals as Pulse Canada suggests rather than simple saying “food” is brilliant. It… Read More
Food and farming wise, I like what’s going on in agriculturally rich Waterloo region, where people have rallied to create the region’s first food charter. It was accepted by the regional council’s community services committee there Monday. The charter’s sponsor, the Waterloo Region Food System Roundtable, calls the five-point document “a statement of values and… Read More
On Tuesday, April 9th, a widespread day of protest will be held against – of all things troubling our country – GM alfalfa. Activists will be gathering at about 20 locales, including 12 in Ontario, to show their opposition to its pending arrival. The Canadian Biotechnology Action Network, a relatively benign group with agricultural ties… Read More
It was high noon in steamy Windsor, Ont., when the Ontario Corn-Fed Beef Program was launched at a lunchtime steak BBQ back in the summer of 2001. Given the heat, you could have grilled the corn-fed beef directly on the strip mall parking lot where the sweltering event was staged, and skipped the middleman –… Read More
Everyone wants in on the local food craze. Some believe formalizing its place in society through local food legislation or institutionalizing it would open doors for farmers who now feel left out. That thought prompted a University of Guelph research team to look into local food for hospitals and long-term care facilities. On the surface,… Read More
With the public eye increasingly fixed on agriculture, twitchy farm policy makers may be inclined to act first and ask questions later. And that has farmers worried. For example, last spring in Ontario, more than 200 bee kill incidents were reported. No question about it, that’s a problem. Thousands of hives were affected. What’s the… Read More
Editor’s note: This is Owen Roberts’ Real Talk, Real Action column. Each week, Owen will offer his insight into how farmers and the agricultural industry can participate in the rural- and ag-related discussions going on around them. Contact Owen at [email protected] or on Twitter at @TheUrbanCowboy. What’s spreading faster in Canada — herbicide-resistant weeds, or growers… Read More
Farm safety took on a new meaning for me when I first met Alberta farmer Cliff Breitkreuz Jr., on his meticulously kept farm near Onoway. That’s going back a few years. Cliff had typed me a letter (on a manual typewriter) and then surface mailed it, inviting me to his farm to talk about politics… Read More
In an effort to gain respect, agriculture has long fought the public image of farmers as salt-of the-earth types, more at home in the barn than the boardroom. But recent high-profile media events involving farmers have captured the hearts and imaginations of millions of people…and suggest maybe image isn’t a problem after all. First, long… Read More