Reading Time: 7 minutes At peak operation, Andrew Vogler was growing 50 different varieties of vegetables, selling at nine different farmers markets around Abbottsford, B.C., and delivering vegetable boxes to 200 customers in the lower mainland. In other words, his produce farm was a lot like a lot of other startups — a lot of energy was going in […] Read more
The deal with food distributors
By connecting with distributors, ambitious small farms are leapfrogging their way into bigger markets. Is this an opportunity for mainstream farms too?
The rise of the new food engineers
Guide Books Review: The biggest threat to your farm isn’t commodity prices or interest rates. It’s science, and what’s going on in these labs
Reading Time: 3 minutes Rethinking Food and Agriculture 2020-2030: The Second Domestication of Plants and Animals, the Disruption of the Cow, and the Collapse of Industrial Livestock FarmingBy Catherine Tubb and Tony Seba How will agriculture, society and the environment be impacted by the onset of intense and broad disruption? It’s way more than COVID-19. Take a big breath […] Read more
Afghanistan ‘marching towards starvation,’ UN food chief says
Reading Time: 2 minutes Doha | Reuters — Millions of Afghans could soon face starvation due to a combination of conflict, drought and the coronavirus pandemic, the executive director of the World Food Programme said on Tuesday, calling on political leaders to act fast. “There’s a perfect storm coming because of several years of drought, conflict, economic deterioration, compounded […] Read more
Haitians grow impatient for quake aid as hungry crowd gathers
Victims say they still lack food, shelter, clean water; some major hospitals damaged
Reading Time: 4 minutes Les Cayes, Haiti | Reuters — A hungry crowd gathered outside an airport in southern Haiti on Wednesday as people left homeless by an earthquake that killed some 2,000 people voiced anger that government aid was slow to arrive five days after the disaster, leaving many without food and water. Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who […] Read more
U.S. confirms will boost food stamps by record amount
Reading Time: 2 minutes Washington | Reuters –– The U.S. Agriculture Department (USDA) on Monday will announce revised nutrition standards dramatically boosting average food stamp benefits, the agency confirmed Sunday. The New York Times first reported the plan to unveil the largest permanent benefits increase in the history of the government’s primary anti-hunger program, saying the change would result […] Read more
Hemp industry looking forward despite hurdles
Industry 'on the edge of turning'
Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — The number of hemp acres grown in Canada, of which more than 80 per cent are on the Prairies, have ebbed and flowed over the past few years. In 2018, 41,200 acres were planted, according to Statistics Canada, but the total more than doubled the next year to 91,100. In 2020, that number […] Read more
World Food Programme starts distributing food in Venezuela
Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters — The U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) said Wednesday it had begun distributing school meals to children in Venezuela, where some seven million people require humanitarian assistance after years of economic collapse in the once-prosperous OPEC nation. The WFP’s first take-home rations were distributed for children under six years old at some 277 schools […] Read more
JBS Canada plant up and running after cyberattack
Brooks beef plant has 'resumed production'
Reading Time: 3 minutes Meat packer JBS’s major beef slaughter plant in Alberta went back to work Tuesday following a cyberattack reported to have downed several of the company’s operations in North America and Australia. JBS USA, the unit overseeing the Brazilian firm’s Canadian operations, and JBS-owned chicken unit Pilgrim’s Pride both reported “significant progress in resolving the cyberattack […] Read more
Agriculture, agrifood wish lists pile up ahead of long-delayed budget
Freeland's budget due out Monday afternoon
Reading Time: 3 minutes Agriculture and agrifood sector stakeholders will learn Monday which of their requests make their way out of the pile and into a long-awaited federal budget. Federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s 2021 budget is scheduled to be released Monday in the House of Commons, at about 4 p.m. ET. Canadians didn’t get a 2020 budget: it […] Read more
Hospital food gets a local boost
Can local food create meaningful sales for farmers? Check out these institutional success stories
Reading Time: 7 minutes Putting the words “hospital” and “food” together in the same sentence doesn’t always spark much of an appetite. Mostly they conjure thoughts of a mediocre meal, something bland, tasteless and unimaginative. You might say the same thing about the way hospitals have procured their food too, with purchase systems that have been as bland, tasteless […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
