Traditionally, farming has been done in rural areas carried out by families that have been in the industry for generations. But what about agriculture in the city? Does urban farming have a place in feeding the world and contributing to providing consumers with locally produced food within the city limits? According to Yari Nagi of… Read More
Category: urban farm
Self-proclaimed ‘waste-to-nutrient upcycler’, AgriProtein, is set to build 20 farms in the United States and Canada — fly farms, that is. The company started building its first commercial-scale factory in 2014. Just two years later, it announced the securement of 17.5 million USD in capital just to fund expansion in Europe, North America and Asia…. Read More
In a recent Fast Company magazine article there was a feature on the benefits of using technology to produce food. The article praised the efficiency gains made by implementing the latest in what technology could provide. The farm in the article is located in San Francisco. That’s right, it’s a vertical farm. The company’s name… Read More
Cities and towns are approving land development now that may not happen for a decade. If we’re to protect farmland from being swallowed by ever-expanding municipal boundaries, we need to act now to stop it, says Keith Currie, president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) . Currie’s organization is one of 16 farm groups leading a… Read More
Guest post by Janine Lunn I am happy to see that farming is gaining popular interest. It seems that lately agriculture has become sexy, and I’m relieved to see we’re graduating from the old image of men wearing striped coveralls, straw hats and chewing a stem of wheat. Many non-farmers are now keen to meet… Read More
Consumers are farmers’ customers…eventually. But in between the farmer and the consumer is an entire supply chain, from processor, to transporter, to wholesaler and retailer, each taking their pound of flesh. Yet, if consumers demand certain items, production systems or products, it’s largely farmers, not the entire supply chain, that must adapt and shoulder much… Read More
I don’t mean to alarm you, farmers, but your job is in danger. Career Cast, a job-hunting site, recently released its “Most Endangered Jobs for 2014” with the role of farmer listed in the No. 2 position, faring only slightly better than the much-beleaguered mail carrier. Two things: this is not shocking, nor necessarily negative…. Read More
Do you have that very famous lyric in the Don McLean song “American Pie,” running in your head? You should. Organic farming — as we know it — could be over. No, I am not an organic farmer, but if I was, I would be very concerned about a new pricing concept being pushed by large-scale… Read More
We’re all consumers. We buy cars and trucks, clothes and electronics, seed and fertilizer, food and drinks. About 2% of the population, farmers, also create a very personal consumable — food and food ingredients. Roughly 8% of our population, that is the amount of us involved in the agriculture industry, have a pretty good handle… Read More
Combine living and working in the “information age” with the greatest variety of choice the consumer has ever seen and you’ve got yourself a unique set of first-world problems. For the farmer, that essentially boils down to marketing problems. There is not only a large volume of information available to the consumer, but a demand… 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
This blog post is one I was hoping not to have to write. In Canada, there was recently an “investigative report” on the commercial egg industry. It developed after an animal activist group took undercover footage and passed an edited video to a television newsmagazine. The resulting 30 minute show was a black eye to… Read More
In case you haven’t heard, the 2013 winners of the Hult Prize (a $1M prize to help entrepreneurs start a proposed business) is a group of students from McGill, who have addressed this year’s theme, “The Global Food Crisis,” with — you guessed it —crickets! Aspire Food Group aims to grow, prepare and sell edible insects. Currently,… Read More
For a province that can seem overrun with highways and hi-tech interests (at least in its most southern regions), it’s significant that its premier, Kathleen Wynne, chose to name herself agriculture and food minister when she took over the reins. She had every other option. You name the portfolio and it could have been hers…. Read More
Yet more evidence is trickling out about consumers’ upbeat perceptions of farmers. And not surprisingly, once again, it’s good. This time the source is food consultant to the Royal Winter Fair, popular dietitian Lois Ferguson of Eating For Ecstasy fame. She’s released results of a survey conducted with more than 1,400 fairgoers last November, which… Read More