Reading Time: 4 minutes 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 […] Read more
It’s YOUR farm data
… but it’s the companies you deal with that are creating an income stream from it
Where are investments in Canadian agricultural research headed?
2018 has been a great year with agriculture attracting acclaim as an economic powerhouse in Canada. But is there enough money in research to score on the opportunity?
Reading Time: 6 minutes “Sunny today but with clouds on the horizon” is how Serge Buy describes Canadian government investment in agricultural research. “There was more willingness for the federal government to invest in budgets 2016 and 2017, and some of the provinces are following suit,” says Buy, who’s the CEO of the Agricultural Institute of Canada (AIC). “That’s […] Read more
The news on soil health
This time, will farmers finally break the “build-up then burn-out” cycle of soil management? The Ontario Soil Network thinks the answer may be yes
Reading Time: 6 minutes Don Lobb takes a very dim view of how mankind has treated soil over the millennia, but he is slightly more hopeful for this generation, due both to our constantly growing body of knowledge about soils, and to farmers who are not only willing to experiment with better ways to take care of the soil, […] Read more
The Farm Network takes farm food products beyond local
The Farm Network is pioneering a new category of food business, helping farmers grow their sales of local products to reach commercial scale
Reading Time: 5 minutes When Tyler Ferguson found a distinct gap in Canada’s local food system, he decided to fill it by starting his own sales, marketing and distribution company focused on getting more food products from the farm into retail. That was the first step. But only the first step. “I noticed that a lot of local food […] Read more
Uber-stores for food
Businesses like Marcia Woods’ FreshSpoke are figuring out how to connect Canadian farmers with the consumers looking for ways to buy from them
Reading Time: 4 minutes Marcia Woods’ frustration at not being able to buy the high-quality food that she knew was being grown right down the road evolved into an online business that not only connects farmers with wholesalers, but also solves their transportation and cash-flow headaches. Coming from a long line of Oxford County farmers in Ontario, Woods, who’s […] Read more
Making ethnic markets pay
In Toronto alone, consumers are buying $400 million a year of imported ethnic vegetables. Could it make sense to grow them here?
Reading Time: 5 minutes Edamame, okra, bitter melon, quinoa, Chinese long eggplant — all these are edible crops that you’d have had a hard time finding on the country’s store shelves 50 years ago, let alone growing in Canadian fields and greenhouses. They’re still crops that few Canadian farmers know about, and that even fewer have considered growing. But […] Read more
Getting serious about local food
Philly Markowitz is fired up about supporting local farmers in an effort to build up rural communities throughout Ontario’s Grey County
Reading Time: 8 minutes Generations of rugged farmers have worked this rugged landscape. They’ve run cattle, they’ve pastured sheep, they’ve planted crops. None of it has been easy. South of Georgian Bay, the county’s highlands are notoriously cold, the ground rolls unpredictably in all directions, and the soil is just plain tough. If Grey County was an old building, […] Read more
Is local food good for farmers?
Canada’s social sciences council is investing $2.4 million in local food research. Here’s what they hope to learn
Reading Time: 4 minutes Alison Blay-Palmer has been studying and promoting local food systems for nearly 20 years, and her enthusiasm for the topic is greater than ever. Blay-Palmer is director of the Centre for Sustainable Food Systems at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ont., where she explores the big questions around sustainability. Those big questions include social justice, […] Read more
The hustle and bustle of the Ontario Food Terminal
Handling over a million tons of produce a year, the Ontario Food Terminal is like agriculture’s Port of Vancouver in the east, and just as complex
Reading Time: 7 minutes 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 […] Read more
The hub of an opportunity
Food hubs are moving north, making it easier for medium-size farms to break into ‘local’ sales without all the marketing
Reading Time: 7 minutes 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 […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
