I was coming into the very southwest of England, into the county called Cornwall, where there was a lot I wanted to see and do, including a visit to farmer I’d been looking forward to meeting here named Jeremy Oatey. Before going to the airport, a colleague at the Canola Council of Canada asked me[...]
Summer Series: Making a leader
On-farm leadership is more than the skills we usually think of when defining a leader. This article looks at what farm leadership is really about.– April Stewart, CG Associate Editor When we think of strong leaders we often leap to examples like politicians, sport coaches and the CEOs of large corporations, so it’s little surprise[...]
Share of rented land increasing
Between the 1975 Census of Agriculture and the most recent, 2021, Census, the share of rented farmland has increased from 30 to 39 percent across Canada. This percentage comes from Census numbers, as the share of “area rented or leased” compared to the total of the “area rented or leased” plus the “area owned.” A[...]
This old land: Where is farming in Quebec headed?
In a province where only two per cent of its land is suitable for agriculture, Quebec has been losing cropland to the province’s expanding cities at the rate of 12 football fields every day, and it has been losing farmland at that speed for nearly three decades. Even now, says Quebec’s UPA, its main farm[...]
Value adding, with a flourish
When Dana Thatcher started getting compliments from the other teachers at school about the food she was bringing for lunch, little did she know it would lead to a thriving farm, food and agri-tourism business. “People were interested in what I was eating, and the fact that we had grown it,” Thatcher recalls. “That’s what[...]
Farming in a postcard province
On the first of May every spring, Kevin MacIsaac heads out on the water with his son-in-law, a lobster fisherman, to set the 300 traps they’re allowed under their quota system. For the next month, the pair are back out on the water to empty those traps — daily, at four in the morning. On[...]
Toronto’s golden Greenbelt
When Ontario’s Greenbelt turned 15 this past February, all four of Ontario’s political parties gathered at Queen’s Park to celebrate. According to Michael Young, communications advisor for the Greenbelt Foundation, the event was “a positive and convivial occasion, with a sense that we were all coming together with the shared belief that the Greenbelt must[...]
Farmers who made our country
As Canada celebrates its 150th anniversary in 2017, we’ll hear a lot about how the fisheries of the Grand Banks and the forests and the lucrative fur trade of the interior helped build our nation. We’ll hear less about the unique contribution farming has made to this country, but farmers have played an oversized role[...]
Cutting Edge
In September 2008, Mark Torchia found himself in an operating theatre at the world-renowned Cleveland Clinic, holding his breath.The Winnipeg-based professor, researcher and medical device specialist was about to see the result of several years of hard work by himself and a team with members from the St. Boniface General Hospital, the University of Manitoba,[...]
1. SET CLEAR GOALS
“Marketing isn’t the act of selling, it’s the act of knowing,” says Jerry Bouma of Toma & Bouma Management Consultants, Edmonton. “That includes understanding the markets — and your own strategies.” It’s a mouthful, but the pros say it’s realistic. Setting acceptable prices may not be easy and it may not seem like fun. But[...]
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
