Many of us in the agriculture industry spend time too much time scratching our heads, amazed at the perceptions consumers have of agriculture. Some are wonderful, of course, as farmers are viewed as trustworthy and honest, and some are downright false and potentially hurtful and harmful to the industry (Chipotle’s ‘Scarecrow’, anyone?). Perceptions are based… Read More
Category: Advocacy
Farm safety leaders are convinced talking is as necessary as safety equipment and training in preventing farm injuries. So maybe it’s not surprising the theme for this year’s Canadian Agricultural Safety Week, which runs March 9-15, is Farm Safety: Let’s Talk About It. Dean Anderson of Guelph, Ont., the agricultural program manager for Workplace Safety… Read More
It’s been a long, cold, snowy winter. I get that. You get that. The railways also get that, apparently. And, on one hand, would like to tell you that the dismal service Western Canadian farmers and Canada’s agriculture industry is receiving is the weather’s fault and then, in the same breath wants to “work together”… Read More
Beef Advocacy Canada has launched its advocacy and education program. Canada Beef and the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (CCA) along with funding from the Alberta Livestock and Meat Association (ALMA), have brought together industry partners to develop a comprehensive program that will walk future beef advocates through the entire industry from gate to plate, a press release… Read More
It’s March and I can almost taste spring. Certainly the thermometer around here isn’t part of that – but the slightly longer days and that first day of spring marked on the calendar for later this month – has me longing for it. Dream with me of those warm spring nights in the field filling… Read More
The picture to the left was shared with me by Cami Ryan. Several thoughts and rants come to mind as I look at this marketing campaign. Has marketing always been this dishonest? Have consumers always been so led astray? Are we all just pawns in the game of food marketing? I find it quite ironic… Read More
By Jenny Dewey Rohrich Editor’s note: This post first appeared on Jenny’s site PrairieCalifornian. Click here to visit her site or follow her on Twitter as @PrairieCA This weekend I was cruising social media and I was quite shocked to see a Chico News & Review article entitled, “Llano Seco drops Organic label“. Now to… Read More
I suspect there will be a lot of angst over the new federal farm review and forecast – even though statistically, it’s a good news story. The report, released last week, showed farmers produced 96.5 million tonnes of grain in 2013. That’s a major leap over the previous year’s relatively dismal 76.7-million tonne crop, which… Read More
Biotechnology’s fatal flaw, says Mark Lynas, was that the first well-know trait associated with the technology was herbicide resistance. First impressions matter, and on that account, genetic modification and the resulting GMOs failed miserably. Lynas, a UK-based environmentalist and former anti-biotech activist, says that GMOs’ bad publicity needs to move past this tough start and… Read More
Agriculture in the Classroom – Manitoba Inc has produced a new video that showcases the depth and scope that a career in agriculture holds for young students. At RealAgriculture.com we encourage you to share this video with all your friends, family and especially your child’s teachers. We need all teachers to make sure that agriculture… Read More
How did your ag education shape your career choices? Your interests in other areas of agriculture? Your willingness to continue to learn and keep learning? Watch more: Check out our corn production video series, the Corn School, here In this video, RealAgriculture’s Ontario field editor, Bern Tobin, speaks to Dave Hooker, professor at the University… Read More
When it comes to meat, poultry is continuing to see big demand across the country, largely because of our appetite for chicken. The Canadian Meat Council says that in 2010 the average Canadian ate almost 16 kilograms of poultry compared to 13 kg of beef and 12 kg of pork. Moving forward, poultry demand will… Read More
Think of an event covered by 5,000 journalists from 70 countries. The Winter Olympics? Superbowl XLVIII? A Justin Bieber court appearance? Think again – it’s actually an agriculture and food event, the biggest one in Europe, called Green Week. Now in its 79th year, this edition, staged every January, drew a record 410,000 people (mostly… Read More
The last Ford I owned outright – and lived to tell the tale — was a 1972 Pinto. To me, at the time, it was a beauty, silver-grey with a thick black stripe along the rocker panels. I thought it was cool, but, in truth, I was an idiot to drive it. I was lucky… Read More
I feel like I probably could have written a daily update of all that went on this week, as each day had the RealAgriculture team busy. If you attended CropSphere or any of the Crop Production Week festivities in Saskatoon, perhaps we even crossed paths. The week kicked off with a bang (and more than… Read More