Not so long ago, all the buzz was about unleashing Canada’s full agricultural potential on a world that desperately needs our farmers to produce more and more. Global population was booming, more countries were more prosperous, and consumers everywhere were changing and improving their diets. Now our country needs Canada’s farmers to succeed too. Whether[...]
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[...]
Investing in agri-food technology
San Eng thinks the agri-food technology investment climate in Canada might improve, but a “venture capital ecosystem” must develop quickly or the nation will lose out. “The people I’ve talked to are overlooking the sector — they don’t think it’s sexy enough, which is disappointing because the potential is there,” says the serial entrepreneur who[...]
Into the future
While it’s not exactly as futuristic as 2001: A Space Odyssey, it’s no longer such a big stretch to imagine the day when a single operator anywhere in the world can remotely control 25 to 30 tractors, and when our crops effectively send us emails letting us know what they need. As professor and chair[...]
How farmers can adapt to the new weather abnormal
For many western Canadian farmers this is the fourth consecutive year with harvest progress seriously stymied by weather issues. Fall rains and snows have resulted in significant loss of crop quality and/or an increased reliance on costly drying of crops in each of those years. For some farmers, inclement weather has even resulted in crops[...]
Why Kubota thinks you’ll buy more of its farm equipment
As I walked through Kubota’s new headquarters in Grapevine, Texas, one particular observation stood out to me. In other companies’ offices and engineering centres that I’ve visited, there was never any shortage of images of the brand’s machines lining the hallway walls. The offices in the Kubota building were stylish and comfortable with plenty of[...]
Social financing
A new fund is being developed in Ontario to help farmers and small food processors obtain local financing to grow their businesses. “Better access to capital comes up all the time when we ask our members what they would like us to do for them,” says Sally Miller, project manager with Local Food and Farm[...]
Got what it takes?
Maybe there really isn’t anything new under the sun. For generations, farmers have looked at the yawning gap between what they get paid for their crops and livestock versus what consumers pay in the grocery store, and thought there’s got to be a way to capture more of the consumer dollar for the farm. No[...]
It’s YOUR farm data
Long before the social media scandal that rocked Facebook and bankrupted Cambridge Analytica, Kelly Bronson was looking into how data is collected, who uses it and how they are benefitting from it in Canada’s agri-food sector. “For a couple of years, I’ve been doing qualitative research into the social scientific aspect of data collection in[...]
Regenerative agriculture hits the mainstream
If you’re a cattle producer, you may already have heard the term “regenerative agriculture.” If you’re a grain producer, maybe not. But that’s about to change. This spring, General Mills announced a plan to advance regenerative agriculture practices on one million acres of farmland in the U.S. and Canada by 2030, and Cargill Canada announced[...]
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
