Reading Time: 2 minutes One of Canada’s biggest grocery chains plans to build new hubs to distribute both fresh and frozen foods to its Ontario stores. Quebec-based Metro Inc. said Wednesday it expects to put up $400 million to modernize and automate its Toronto operations between 2018 and 2023, building two new facilities for fresh and frozen food distribution […] Read more
Metro plans automated distribution for Ontario
Gay Lea lays out dairy processing expansion plans
Reading Time: 2 minutes A dairy farmer co-op on an aggressive growth track has mapped out its next four years’ worth of expansions and upgrades, starting with a storied processing plant in southwestern Ontario. Gay Lea Foods Co-operative on Wednesday announced a budget of $140 million over four years to set up what it describes as an “innovative nutrition […] Read more
The hustle and bustle of the Ontario Food Terminal
Handling over a million tons of produce a year, the Ontario Food Terminal is like agriculture’s Port of Vancouver in the east, and just as complex
Reading Time: 7 minutes Tucked between a Shoppers Drug Mart and an overgrown hedge, the entrance to the Ontario Food Terminal is nearly impossible to find after you turn off the bustling Queensway in southwest Toronto — unless you know where you’re going. Yet every day, about 2,500 people in cars, half-tons, cube vans and tractor-trailers do know exactly […] Read more
Save Ontario farmers, save farmland in the process
10 years later, was setting up the Ontario’s Greenbelt worth the pain? More farmers are saying yes
Reading Time: 7 minutes Rapidly rising populations, sprawling cities, shrinking farmland, and the feared effects of climate change prompted the Ontario government to create its Greenbelt around Toronto 10 years ago, with the goal of protecting some of the nation’s top agricultural land from development and fragmentation. After a decade, it seems it may be working. The greenbelt approach […] Read more
Buffalo Girl author tells food stories in ‘Star’ fashion
Married to an Alberta bison farmer, Jennifer Bain is food editor of Canada’s largest newspaper
Reading Time: 6 minutes I had to buy a chest freezer when we were dating,” says Jennifer Bain. She pauses while the audience laughs. Then she continues telling us about writing Buffalo Girl Cooks Bison, her latest cookbook. She is Buffalo Girl. Her introduction to bison came when she married Rick, an Alberta bison rancher. Bain weaves her own […] Read more
Pest Patrol: Why are stink bugs in Ontario?
Stink bug damage found on two apple farms near Hamilton and Waterdown
Reading Time: 2 minutes Question: A couple of years ago there was a lot of talk about a new invasive insect, some sort of stink bug. I was told that it could take a few years before this insect reached populations that would negatively affect crops. What are populations of this insect doing in Ontario? For our answer, I […] Read more
A food walk in India on the streets of Toronto
Follow Steven Biggs’ footsteps for your own eye-opening tour of the new world of Canadian food
Reading Time: 7 minutes It’s pretty clear that we don’t exactly know what we’re doing. The shopkeeper, looking through the window, sees our hesitation. He opens the door, looks at us, smiles, and waves us in. “Please come in,” he says. Not familiar with this stretch of city shops, we had paused to peer in the window of a […] Read more
FoodShare provides fresh vegetables, food security
Farm groups are getting on the inside with Toronto’s world-class food outreach program
Reading Time: 6 minutes When I fire off a last-minute email to confirm the details of my scheduled visit, I mention that I have never before seen a food bank. Debbie Field, executive director of FoodShare, politely responds, “We are not a food bank,” she tells me. “We’re a community food hub.” Food bank, food hub. But the next day, […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
