Many people have opinions about what developing countries need to prosper in food production. Some insist on more local autonomy for farmers, and less Western influence. After all, people in what are now considered developing countries survived for thousands of years before Western wisdom arrived, they say. Such thinkers believe we should turn back the… Read More
Category: Real Talk Real Action
Sweeping changes are taking place in crop protection, especially when it comes to traditional chemicals. I believe these changes are for the best, but they’re going to take some explaining to consumers. Here’s what’s happening. At the BASF media summit in North Carolina this week, the company announced it was introducing an eye-popping 20 new… Read More
If you have any Farmers Feed Cities memorabilia hanging around, treat it with respect. As of Monday, it became collectible. Just as the first ever Local Food Week was getting underway in Ontario, Farmers Feed Cities, one of the most successful agriculture awareness programs in recent memory, wound down. The Grain Farmers of Ontario (GFO),… Read More
When it comes to nutrition, it’s safe to say modern farmers are diet conscious about their animals. Farm animals have a whole industry looking after their best interests. Professionals such as animal nutritionists make sure livestock don’t make bad nutrition decisions. How many humans can say the same? Granted, that option’s mostly taken away from… Read More
Not long ago, farmers thought their main opponents were environmentalists, bent on preventing them from implementing modern techniques and technology. Some considered it a battle against corporatism. But new research suggests that thinking has changed. In Ontario, results are emerging from a poll last winter of 400 farmers by Farm and Food Care, a group… Read More
Is rural Ontario unique – or indispensable? Some would argue both. And a new poll designed to eek out rural priorities suggests they’re right. The poll in question, which opened after the provincial election was called last week and closed yesterday (May 7) at 5 p.m., was led by the Rural Ontario Institute. And while… Read More
The devil is in the details of a new two-year pilot program in Ontario designed to bring local food and wine together in farmers’ markets. But if the agri-food sector has enough patience to see it through, I believe everyone involved – farmers, wineries and consumers – can come out on top. Starting tomorrow, Ontario’s… Read More
A sea change takes some impetus. In horticultural research in Ontario, that change happened eight years ago when the Vineland research station reinvented itself as the partner-driven Vineland Research and Innovation Centre. And it got a boost earlier this week when Ottawa and the Ontario government announced they were combining forces to give the centre… Read More
Ontario isn’t letting politically charged energy issues such as the ongoing gas plant cancellation controversy get in its way of its clean air policy development…and neither should farmers. Regardless of what party is in office after the next election, over the past couple of weeks it’s become even clearer the future of energy production here… Read More
Despite efforts to explain pesticides’ role in modern agriculture, confusion still reigns supreme in the eyes of the public. And no wonder. Pesticides get blamed for a lot of things; most recently, for wiping out bees. That accusation caught the Province of Ontario’s attention last summer and fall, when wildly fluctuating accounts of bee mortality… Read More