Reading Time: 7 minutes Today, farmers don’t buy land with a handshake over the fence, as Grandpa and Grandma, or even Dad and Mom might have done. Selling methods like sealed tenders and online auctions are becoming ever more prevalent, and the key is finding which one best fits the size, type and circumstance of the farming operation. “There […] Read more
New ways to buy and sell farmland
These options are putting a lot more power in the hands of sellers. They’re also changing how the real estate industry works
Corporate diversity, equity and inclusion
A look at the decision-making inside a major international multinational as it gets serious about DEI. Can their ideas work on your farm, too?
Reading Time: 6 minutes Like many other high-level corporate leaders, when COVID-19 was starting to become a serious issue in Canada in the spring of 2020, Syngenta Canada president Trevor Heck was under pressure to put together a team to deal with the new and unprecedented realities unfurling every day. “At the time, I was just thinking about the […] Read more
A question for women in 2022
Gender issue? What gender issues? Hasn’t the battle already been fought and won?
Reading Time: 5 minutes Try it yourself. Check it out with women in agriculture who speak about gender issues in the industry. Find them informally via social media or look for them through an ag women’s organization, of which there are several across Canada today. Then ask them what kind of response they get when they talk about gender […] Read more
A Canadian woman’s experience in ag
On the farm and in her boardrooms, here’s Amy Vanderheide’s story
Reading Time: 3 minutes Amy VanderHeide had great role models growing up. She was raised on a beef farm that was run entirely by women after her grandfather passed away in 1986. With her grandmother and aunts continuing to operate the farm throughout her childhood, she wasn’t aware of the barriers that existed for women in agriculture. “I didn’t […] Read more
Different goals for women in ag
It turns out diversity, equity and inclusion in agriculture are things we can do something about, as this case study proves
Reading Time: 8 minutes Statistics show that women in agriculture face barriers and are under-represented in the industry. But if you are female AND you weren’t born in Canada AND you didn’t grow up on a farm, imagine how high the barriers are then. But that may be beginning to change. Entrepreneur Laura Lazo, who also serves as chair […] Read more
City-bred farm workers
Is your next employee working today on an urban farm in Toronto?
Reading Time: 5 minutes In cities like Vancouver and Toronto, urban farms are creating a new pathway for the next generation of Canada’s farmers and farm workers, whether these young people see themselves destined for city or, indeed, rural operations. Toronto Urban Growers (TUG), a non-profit network that connects growers and facilitates knowledge sharing between them, will work with […] Read more
What if bigger farms aren’t better?
Canada’s largest farms are unbeatable. At least, we’re pretty sure they maybe are
Reading Time: 6 minutes Are Canada’s mid-sized farms heading in the same direction as the dinosaurs? That’s not exactly what a recent analysis by think-tank Agri-Food Economic Systems is predicting, but there’s no question it wants to raise some doubts before you grow your own farm any bigger. Large farms are booming in Canada, and they’re doing that mainly […] Read more
Meet the team
In today’s agriculture, succession means most family farms must grow. For the Siemens family, it also means adopting new ways of doing business. Success is all about building on the existing foundation, and creating a new one
Reading Time: 14 minutes When Kurt Siemens and his son Harley were planning an expansion of the family’s egg farm, they would scratch out designs on paper, then climb the feed tank in the yard so they could visualize the layout on the ground from a bird’s-eye view. “We would take marker paint and draw the building out on […] Read more
Keep the money
Here’s a concept that’s making this Oregon farm community more profitable. Could it help you?
Reading Time: 10 minutes This is not a typical Country Guide story. It couldn’t be. Jared Gardner didn’t start out as a farmer. It’s just that every step of his life has moved him inexorably and sometimes surprisingly towards not only building up a livestock farm but also a regional food system that promises to put more money in […] Read more
This is urban agriculture?
CANADA: If you want to see eyes roll, just ask Country Guide readers (and writers) if urban farmers are actually farmers. Since when was a pot of tomatoes on a balcony a farm? But maybe we need to think again
Reading Time: 7 minutes Not surprisingly, urban farming is generally defined as agriculture that is done in a city, usually on a small plot of land but really it could be on any available nook. That’s what separates it from conventional farming. But then, it’s also done as a business, producing food for commercial sale, which is what links […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
