Reading Time: 5 minutes Outside of maybe the health care field, there are few sectors that are as innovative and changing as rapidly as agriculture. It’s what I’ll write about in this series of columns for Country Guide, because frankly, some of the technologies that are coming off the drawing boards are going to challenge the way we think […] Read more
Could the future of farming lie indoors?
Innovation: The scale seems much too small, say farmers. But that may be its greatest strength
Aurora to buy Ontario’s MedReleaf in biggest-ever pot deal
Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters — Aurora Cannabis will buy rival MedReleaf Corp. for $3.2 billion in the biggest deal yet to unify major Canadian pot growers, as the country moves toward legalizing marijuana for recreational use. The deal announced Monday is the latest in a wave of mergers in the industry as marijuana producers — emboldened by pot […] Read more
Ontario greenhouse growers get competitiveness fund
Reading Time: < 1 minute The Ontario government is putting $19 million into a new initiative to support the competitiveness of the greenhouse sector in the province. Provincial Agriculture Minister Jeff Leal announced the funding on Thursday at Link Greenhouse near Bowmanville, just east of Oshawa. The Greenhouse Competitiveness and Innovation Initiative aims to provide funding for the creation of […] Read more
Lake Erie plan’s farming recommendations released
Reading Time: 2 minutes A federal/provincial action plan to reduce phosphorus loading in Lake Erie has been released for public comment — and many of its recommendations will have implications for farmers in the Lake Erie basin. None of the numerous recommendations are particularly new or surprising and mostly call for using existing funding programs to encourage certain production […] Read more
B.C. pulls PST for farm telehandlers, skid steers
Reading Time: < 1 minute Qualifying farmers in British Columbia are now able to buy telehandlers, skid steers and polycarbonate greenhouse panels for farm use without paying the province’s seven per cent sales tax. The province on Thursday announced the additions, effective Feb. 17, to its list of goods, equipment and services for which eligible farmers are PST-exempt. Farmers wanting […] Read more
Tomato producer Mastronardi said seeking buyer
Reading Time: < 1 minute Reuters — Mastronardi Produce, an Ontario grower and distributor of hothouse tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers, is exploring a sale it hopes could value it at as much as $900 million, including debt, according to people familiar with the matter. Privately-held Mastronardi has hired Bank of Montreal (BMO) to run an auction process, the people said […] Read more
Ont. to allow land application of greenhouse feedwater
Reading Time: 2 minutes Spent nutrient solutions from Ontario’s commercial greenhouses will be made more easily available to crop growers for land application starting in 2015 under a new provincial regulatory framework. Greenhouse growers in the province are already required by law to safely dispose of the greenhouse nutrient feedwater (GNF) after it’s been used, circulated and reused to […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
