Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters — Hedge fund Tourbillon Capital Partners is urging Canadian organic food firm SunOpta Inc. to sell itself to a bigger rival, according to a letter sent to the company on Friday. Mississauga, Ont.-based SunOpta’s share price jumped 26 per cent after the US$4 billion hedge fund asked it to hire an investment bank to […] Read more
Hedge fund urges organics firm SunOpta to sell itself
Learning from organic agriculture
These conventional farms are adapting techniques from organic agriculture — with a little time and care
Reading Time: 10 minutes Agriculture is always in search of the next innovation, but as most growers learn — some, the hard way — there is no silver-bullet solution. If you’re going to change things for the better, it’s going to take time, effort and likely a departure from the norm. Yet with lower crop prices, growers are also […] Read more
The new way into farming
After 10 years on the farm, these top graduates have succeeded by transitioning their family farms from conventional to holistic
Reading Time: 9 minutes A decade ago, a fresh-faced group of graduates jumped into a grain industry beaten down by prices and Prairie drought, and a livestock industry ravaged by the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) debacle. It was hardly the best of times. By the end of 2004, a year and a half after the BSE crisis began, Canadian […] Read more
Our toughest marketing challenge
Farmers are losing respect. Now is the time to win it back, before the costs get even worse
Reading Time: 4 minutes Rodney Dangerfield built a comic career on his signature line: “I don’t get no respect.” But for the agricultural industry, loss of respect is no laughing matter. The public perception of agriculture is steadily eroding. Last fall, Harris Interactive asked 2,537 Americans to name the most prestigious occupations. As you might guess, doctors topped the […] 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
Sales from organic U.S. farms reached $5.5B last year
Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — Sales from organic U.S. farms reached US$5.5 billion last year, a 72 per cent increase from 2008, the U.S. Agriculture Department said in a report on Thursday that highlighted the consumer trend toward such products. The USDA data, compiled through farmer surveys, showed that milk was the top organic commodity in […] Read more
When being organic isn’t enough
Their consumers don’t just want organic, says Martin de Groot. They want animal welfare, cow comfort, energy self-sufficiency… and they want to see it all in action
Reading Time: 5 minutes With the milk from their 60-cow, mostly Holstein herd, Martin de Groot, his wife Ineke Booy and their family make their Mapleton’s Organic line of ice creams and fresh and frozen yoghurts in their on-farm dairy at Moorefield, Ont., shipping their winter surplus through Harmony Organic Dairy Products. What they sell is much more, however, […] Read more
The organic boom continues
The sector says it desperately needs more farmers
Reading Time: 4 minutes With sales reaching $3.5 billion in 2012, Canada is now the fourth-largest organic market in the world after the U.S., Germany and France, according to a comprehensive study by the Canada Organic Trade Association. Nor are sales showing any signs of slowing down, says Matthew Holmes, executive director of the non-profit association that represents organic […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
