Jeff walked over from the shop to say goodbye to his wife, Elaine, as she was getting into her SUV on Sunday afternoon. “Have a good meeting,” he said. “I’ll be home late on Tuesday,” she reminded him. “The kids are skating on the dugout. I left stew in the crock pot for you and[...]
Missing the market
Five years ago, the spotlight was shining bright on a report from the federal government’s Advisory Council on Economic Growth. Few federal reports get much attention, but this report, named after council chair Dominic Barton, generated headlines as it predicted that a new era of value-adding would not only transform the country’s ag and food[...]
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[...]
Selling the farm
You only sell the farm once. Obviously, you don’t get to this point lightly. So, what is your first step? Do you sell the whole farm, or go piecemeal? How can you be sure you get the market price? Will you get nailed for taxes? You’ve spent a lifetime — and there’s a good chance[...]
The diversity gap
Canada’s population is becoming increasingly diverse. Statistics Canada estimates that immigrants made up roughly 22 per cent of the population in 2016, and our country expects to welcome over 400,000 more per year until 2024. This will almost certainly result in a continually growing percentage of visible minorities among Canada’s working age people over the[...]
Social financing
Climate change and the pandemic are turning more investors’ minds — and their money too — toward building resilient food supply chains across Canada, according to two experts in social financing. “There are more and more people who recognize that local, social financing is a bit of a vaccination against what’s happening with the global[...]
Time to hit 'Print' for that machinery part?
First, let’s get the name right. Until now, we’ve been calling it 3D printing. It’s a name that will probably stick around for a while, but those in the know are already calling it by its newer name, “additive manufacturing.” “The technology is far, far more user friendly and there are really good desktop printers[...]
Drop the Ball
I was going to start this column with“This one is for you, ladies!” as the main audience for the book is certainly women. But honestly, as Tiffany Dufu’s book Drop the Ball: Achieving More by Doing Less suggests, everyone could benefit by occasionally dropping that ball — especially during these harried, upsidedown times. It’s particularly[...]
Taking care of business on a hybrid farm
When James and Josée Morin decided to move from the city of Sudbury to the country in 2012, little did they know that by 2021, they’d be committed to the farm as a thriving business. It wasn’t in the plan. “We were just looking to get out of the city, get some land and put[...]
Hanson Acres: Looking south with stars glittering in their eyes
When Dale and Donna Hanson drove home from their winter holiday in Yuma in January 2020, the biggest challenge they’d faced was finding a hotel room along the highway during a sudden blizzard. “Good thing we came back to Canada before COVID-19 hit,” they’d both said many times since then. After spending the rest of[...]
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
