If you are aggravated by puns or organisms belonging to the family Apidae, a warning: this article may bug you. But honey, I’ll try not to drone, if you promise to bee open-minded. There has been a lot of media coverage on the recent and very controversial propesed two-year suspension of neonicotinoids in the European… Read More
Category: Food
By Cami Ryan You may have run across this article “10 Reasons We Don’t Need GM Foods” on the FoodConsumer website. It’s been making its rounds on social media (Facebook and Twitter). I would like to address some of the inaccuracies in this article – point by point: 1. GM foods won’t solve the food crisis… Read More
The agriculture industry has historically taken the tact of “Science is on our side” in many debates over food production. But, as Charlie Arnot, with the Centre for Food Integrity, explains, perception trumps science when it comes to how consumers shape their opinions about food and their food choices. “Science tells us if we can… Read More
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
In 1998, the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association brought forward a petition to Health Canada to amend regulations so that irradiation of ground beef could be used in Canada. The scientific review proving the safety and efficacy of the bacteria-killing process was completed by Health Canada. The petition moved to step one of a two step process… Read More
It’s already cost the Canadian hog industry a billion dollars, but Country of Origin Labeling, or COOL, is not done with hurting the hog industry just yet. At least that seems to be the conclusion drawn from the USDA’s proposed “amendments” to the requirement to meet the WTO’s 2011 ruling. As RealAgriculture.com has reported before,… Read More
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
How do you view milk in your household? Do you lump it together with other beverages like juice, soda, coffee, tea? When do you drink it? Why do you drink it? What informs those decisions in your home? That’s a relatively small set of questions, but important ones as the dairy industry looks at how… Read More
The first Earth Day I remember was in 1989, even though the movement started many years before that. What, you say? How could I remember a non-holiday so specifically? I remember it because it’s the day my barn cat turned house cat decided to bless us with three kittens — right in the middle of… 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
Milk, in North America at least, is very much a commodity. There is little distinction between brands or types — a 4 litre jug is a 4 litre jug and not many have a preference as to what label it carries. This is changing, however, as family size shrinks and food trends increase the push… Read More
If you judge a politician’s strategy by where they choose their photo ops, Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne has her sights firmly set on rural Ontario. Typically the domain of the Progressive Conservatives, Wynne appointing herself ag minister after winning the premiership was a very strategic move in winning the hearts and votes of rural Ontario…. Read More
Understanding and managing antimicrobial resistance is important for livestock production and to ensure the continued effectiveness of veterinary products. It’s also a complex issue under intense public scrutiny two factors that, under the wrong conditions, don’t go well together. The Ontario Medical Association recently began pushing for governments to step up its involvement in the… 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
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