Reading Time: 2 minutes The black swans of 2022 have helped reveal the true value of our farms and of the products they produce. The questions that this raises have an easy answer Perhaps the most extraordinary thing about agriculture is how rarely we stand back in awe of it. For instance, in the paragraph on top, I shouldn’t […] Read more
Editor’s Note: Who can say you don’t deserve it?
Editor’s Note: What will you read tomorrow?
Reading Time: 2 minutes It rarely gets said in print but it’s true. One of the things Canada gets right about its agriculture is its farm media. We did it well 100 years ago. I’m convinced we still do. Now we’re asking, where do we go from here? I’m not talking only, or even mainly, about Country Guide when […] Read more
Editor’s Note: Summer in the new Canada
Reading Time: 2 minutes When COVID-19 first struck, who could have guessed that the biggest lesson it would teach us is how dangerous it is for Canadians to stop interacting with and appreciating each other. It’s being called the winter of our discontent. What name will we give to its summer? What, individually, are you going to do to […] Read more
Editor’s Note: It’s too early to say the battle for gender equality is won
Reading Time: 2 minutes Agriculture’s progress on the gender front has been uneven. Country Guide’s, I have to admit, has been uneven too. So yes, let’s celebrate women’s gains, but remember that more must be done. I wondered recently if Guide should do an issue where all the farmers and all the business advisors, in fact where all the […] Read more
Editor’s Note: Who should own the land?
Reading Time: 2 minutes Some problems must be solved before they become problems. For Canada, a question that will soon require an urgent answer is, who should own our farmland? There’s a whole world full of things that you and I can disagree about. One thing we can’t, though, is that farmland is an increasingly precious commodity whose management […] Read more
Editor’s Note: The best choices in 2022?
Reading Time: 2 minutes We used to say the worst choices get made in the best times. To farmers’ credit, that’s no longer true. But do we know what the best choices this winter will turn out to be? I sometimes think there isn’t a farmer in the country who wouldn’t like to sit in my seat from time […] Read more
Editor’s Note: Big decisions are coming fast in 2022
Reading Time: 2 minutes Farming isn’t a business. Oh no, hold on just a minute! Of course it’s a business. How could Country Guide ever say it isn’t? Ask any farmer what’s on their “must do” list for 2022. Right at the top will be production. It has to be. Farming is all about producing more, producing more efficiently, […] Read more
Editor’s Note: So much rides on finding the best words
Reading Time: 2 minutes The real charge I get from editing Country Guide is being able to connect with farmers who know what they want. They generate an energy it’s tough to find anywhere else Most of us have participated in some version of a conversation like the one I had below. (I’ll leave it in gendered terms because […] Read more
Editor’s Note: A different start for a different world
Reading Time: 2 minutes Canada’s agricultural colleges and universities deserve loud praise for the energy they have poured into re-imagining post-secondary ag education. But not everything is new. In fact, the whole farm education sector has responded impressively at a time when it must seem that everything is in constant change. Technology has changed how programs can be delivered, […] Read more
Editor’s Note: An opportunity to move on for 2022
Reading Time: 2 minutes It isn’t the only lesson from 2021, but it’s potentially among the most important: Our farm organizations will only grow more valuable the further we get into this decade. I pointed out once before in this space that there are two questions we almost never ask in our Country Guide interviews. What farm organizations are […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
