Hemp is often seen as a new crop, and in retrospect, it still is. Only allowed to be grown in Canada since 1998, there haven’t been the decades of research and experience with hemp as with other crops. Jan Slaski, senior researcher with Alberta Innovates – Technology Futures, based in Vegreville Alberta, says that southern… Read more »
Category: Agriculture Education
Federal gov’t backs Ag in the Classroom with $568,000 one-year commitment
This article was updated June 13 with comments and an interview with Johanne Ross, executive director of Ag in the Classroom Canada. The federal government is contributing more than half a million dollars to Agriculture in the Classroom Canada to bring lessons about the agriculture and the career opportunities in the sector into schools. Agriculture… Read more »
Alberta gov’t to cover ag training program course fees
The Alberta government has announced it will be covering course fees for students enrolling in the province’s Green Certificate apprenticeship-style agricultural training program. Education Minister David Eggen and Agriculture Minister Oneil Carlier were at the Whitemud Equine Learning Centre in Edmonton on Wednesday where they committed up to $400,000 annually to cover course fees. Around… Read more »
Career opportunities are agriculture’s ticket back into the classroom
Consumers need to know where their food comes from. Why don’t we have more agriculture in the classroom? Those are recurring conversation themes and questions AgScape executive director Colleen Smith encounters every day. They’re challenges the Ontario agriculture industry has been grappling with since the Ag In The Classroom program was launched 25 years ago…. Read more »
Growing agri-food industry shaping Guelph’s OAC programs
The agri-food industry needs more highly qualified people, and the University of Guelph’s Ontario Agricultural College (OAC) is looking for ways to help meet the demand. Producing more graduates is both a challenge and tremendous opportunity, says OAC dean Dr. Rene Van Acker. A study released five years ago indicated that there were three jobs… Read more »
What’s Holding Back Adoption of Precision Farming?
Precision farming — encompassing field imagery, soil and elevation maps, variable rate crop inputs, guidance and the creation of field management zones — has been, arguably, the technology that has chugged along, rather than taken off. Depending on who you ask, widespread adoption of a full suite of precision agriculture options has been held up by… Read more »
More Farm and Food Teacher Ambassadors On Deck
Rejoice, people who say we need more agriculture education in the classroom. Here’s some good news. In Ontario, plans are underway to have up to 50 agriculture in the classroom teacher ambassadors – twice as many as now exist — trained and available for assignment by the 2018/19 school year. This initiative is being driven… Read more »
University of Guelph Receives Largest-Ever Gift to Create Arrell Food Institute
The University of Guelph has received its single largest-ever gift — $20 million from the Arrell Family Foundation — to establish the Arrell Food Institute at U of G. “This landmark gift will allow our University to address the defining challenge of our time: food security, safety and sustainability,” said U of G president Franco… Read more »
The Push for a New Agriculture College in Eastern Ontario
Kemptville College’s agriculture programming hasn’t been gone all that long, but already agriculture, farm, and equine businesses within the Ottawa Valley and surrounding areas are feeling the absence. Mark Nelson, with the Ontario Equestrian Federation, says that within the equine community alone they’ve already noticed a lack of candidates to fill trainee and employee roles, as… Read more »
Ag Literacy Week Expands to Full Month of March
A week just wasn’t long enough… Six years after the launch of Canadian Agriculture Literacy Week, the program has been expanded to Canadian Agriculture Literacy Month for the month of March 2017. Agriculture in the Classroom – Canada (AITC) and its partners will be delivering agriculture programming to over 800 classrooms and 30,000 students across… Read more »
Farm Tours Get Outside the Agriculture Echo Chamber
Call it farm show-and-tell or a really great way to make new farming friends, but Andrew Campbell is almost two months into his 52 Farms in 52 Weeks tour, and the project, so far, is going very well. Campbell, the @FreshAirFarmer, sat down with RealAgriculture’s resident hand-talker Lyndsey Smith to talk about the tour stops… Read more »
Fireside chats take the chill off Canada’s Agriculture Day
Farmers don’t need to be reminded they’re active in many ways in the winter, but the public does.That’s part of what’s driving the timing of Canada’s first-ever national agriculture day. The architects of the February 16 event, #CdnAgDay — Agriculture More Than Ever, Agriculture in the Classroom, and Farm & Food Care – want to… Read more »
Essay Contest to Win Your Way to ’17 Youth Ag Summit
The third annual Global Youth Agriculture Summit will be held from October 9 to 13, 2017 in Brussels, Belgium. The 2017 summit is hosted by Bayer and two Belgian young farmers associations, Groene Kring and Fédération des Jeunes Agriculteurs. Canada will send four selected candidates to the summit, two of which will be chosen through… Read more »
Talking to Teachers at Agribition
Agriculture has so many job options and job vacancies. Students are always looking for a way to connect their interests and talents with a viable career choice. To close both of these gaps the conduit to the future is teachers. Over 8,100 students from around Regina attended the event and learned about agriculture. At Agribition,… Read more »
4-H Lessons Lead to World Dairy Expo
Mossley, Ontario’s Laura DeKlein wasn’t raised on a dairy farm but she sure has a great eye for cows. DeKlein is a member of Ontario’s 4-H team that competed in this month’s National 4-H Dairy Cattle Judging Contest at the World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin. Along with teammates Brett Stockdale, Collin Allardyce, and Josh… Read more »