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[...]
The hustle and bustle of the Ontario Food Terminal
Tucked between a Shoppers Drug Mart and an overgrown hedge, the entrance to the Ontario Food Terminal is nearly impossible to find after you turn off the bustling Queensway in southwest Toronto — unless you know where you’re going. Yet every day, about 2,500 people in cars, half-tons, cube vans and tractor-trailers do know exactly[...]
Dry weather weed control in IP soybeans
Good weed control in Eastern Canada’s identity-preserved soybean fields this year appears to be just as patchy as the spring and summer rains, particularly in southern Ontario and parts of Quebec. Even Roundup Ready beans were slow to canopy in between rescue rains and required more in-season attention than usual. Then, as crops headed toward[...]
The hub of an opportunity
Trissia Mellor is on a mission to boost the sustainability of farmers and small businesses in eastern Ontario. In Northumberland County’s economic development and tourism department, she’s the energetic agriculture manager, and she’s also heavily involved in getting the new Ontario Agri-Food Venture Centre (OAFVC) up and running. The venture centre is one of a[...]
Alberta-based Sunterra companies in financial, legal trouble
Alberta-based Sunterra Farms has filed notice for protection under federal bankruptcy and insolvency laws to restructure itself financially while three of its U.S. subsidiaries face mounting legal and financial woes.
Better ag education
If you need to make a big splash, says Nuffield scholar Becky Parker, throw a big rock. A lot of little stones will only create a lot of little ripples. It’s an insight that Parker has brought home from her Nuffield tour of Britain, New Zealand and Australia, and it’s among the strategies that she[...]
How bird flu has sent US eggs prices skyrocketing
The price of eggs at U.S. grocery stores has climbed to a record high, nearly doubling from a year ago, as outbreaks of bird flu have led to shortages by wiping out millions of hens.
Save Ontario farmers, save farmland in the process
Rapidly rising populations, sprawling cities, shrinking farmland, and the feared effects of climate change prompted the Ontario government to create its Greenbelt around Toronto 10 years ago, with the goal of protecting some of the nation’s top agricultural land from development and fragmentation. After a decade, it seems it may be working. The greenbelt approach[...]
Trump’s tariffs would reorder trade flows, raise costs, draw retaliation
Iowa farmer Bob Hemesath is worried that U.S. agriculture will pay dearly if Donald Trump wins Tuesday's presidential election and makes good on a vow to swiftly impose a 60 per cent tariff on Chinese goods and at least a 10 per cent levy on all other imports.
US exporters race to ship soybeans as looming election stokes tariff worries
U.S. soybean export premiums are at their highest in 14 months, as grain merchants race to ship out a record-large U.S. harvest ahead of the U.S. presidential election and fears of renewed trade tensions with top importer China, traders and analysts said.
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
