Reading Time: 7 minutes Our tour guide is Leo Moncel, and as he looks over the English-Chinese menu, he calls out, “Does anyone have dietary restrictions?” In a restaurant like this after everything we’ve seen on the stands and in the windows of Toronto’s Kensington Market, it makes us wonder. What could he mean? It turns out it’s the […] Read more
A food tour of Toronto’s Kensington Market
When city dwellers get curious about where their food comes from, they take tours like this one to Toronto’s Kensington Market. Country Guide sent writer Steven Biggs to buy a ticket and answer the question: Should a farmer go too?
After a decade in agriculture, these new farmers weigh in
Having completed their first decade, Adam and Amy Petherick, with son Lucas, take stock. They’ve met hopes, challenges, successes. What’s next?
Reading Time: 11 minutes About 2010, the tide turned. Or, the tides, with an “s.” Agriculture had finally left the gruelling 1990s behind, leading to an uptick in twenty-somethings with a realistic shot of making it on the farm. But it was also clear that this new generation was never going to start their careers the way their parents […] Read more
Rural isolation in a digital world
If farmers have to wait 10 years to catch up on high-speed internet access, will it be too late? No one knows
Reading Time: 7 minutes The internet has become such an integral part of our lives that it’s hard to remember 20 years ago when only 30 per cent of households had access. Life without clear, reliable connectivity in today’s business world is a little like asking a doctor to go back to the days before penicillin or having to […] Read more
‘Soap opera’ prenups
Marriage agreements built on fairness can be a legitimate risk management tool
Reading Time: 7 minutes Picture this. The bride, decked out in finery, arrives at the church on the morning of her wedding. As she reaches the church doors, a man in a suit blocks her way. In his hand is a prenuptial agreement ensuring she has no rights to the property of the farmer she’s marrying. If she wants […] Read more
The carbon tax and how farmers can truly mitigate climate change
Take a deep breath. The real numbers don’t come close to justifying the anger of groups like APAS
Reading Time: 7 minutes “If the treatment doesn’t kill you, the disease will!” I can’t remember when I first heard this saying, or who said it but given the recent carbon tax costing by the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan (APAS), it seems an apt analogy. First, some background. In 2017, APAS hosted the Prairie Agricultural Carbon Summit, where […] Read more
Guide Health: How to help prevent osteoporosis
Men can be impacted as well, and are more likely to end up in a nursing home
Reading Time: 2 minutes Osteoporosis is linked to low bone density, a decrease in bone strength and deterioration of bone structure. And, with this loss of bone integrity comes an increased risk for fractures, most notably hip and wrist fractures. Unfortunately, by the time you realize your have osteoporosis, it may be too late to build healthy bone. Bone […] Read more
Cross-border truckers exempt from mandatory isolation
TFWs coming to Canada won't be exempt from new rule
Reading Time: 2 minutes Truckers and others who are still allowed to cross into Canada on essential business are exempt from a new two-week self-isolation rule for people arriving in the country. Health Minister Patty Hajdu on Wednesday announced an emergency order under the federal Quarantine Act, requiring anyone who’s entering Canada by land, air or sea to self-isolate […] Read more
Farm publishers hail periodical fund streamlining
Reading Time: < 1 minute Publishers of Canada’s agricultural journals and newspapers expect greater certainty out of a new federal plan to cut the turnaround time on support available to publishers. Federal Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault on Wednesday announced his department is “working to establish a simplified process” for submitting and processing 2020-21 funding requests for both the Canada Periodical […] Read more
Looking for the next “jump-shift” in agriculture
Amid all the predictions that agriculture in 2030 will look utterly different than today, a new, less dramatic future is emerging
Reading Time: 6 minutes Way back in 2009, Country Guide published a story on a new idea that was being called “jump-shift.” It’s the theory that the only real way to get ahead is to make sudden transitions or “jumps,” instead of trying to evolve smoothly and steadily. Shift quickly, jump whole-hog. Commit yourself to deciding which technologies to […] Read more
Editor’s Note: A better test of your resiliency
Reading Time: 2 minutes Much of the focus in our March 17, 2020 issue of Country Guide is on new technologies and new farm management strategies. After all, that’s where much of your focus is too. But maybe we’re missing something. It’s like how farmers will often say that when they go to conferences, even though the big name […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
