Reading Time: 7 minutes Quebec is already a leader in urban agriculture. It has many small urban farms and a number of community-led rooftop gardens, and is home to the world’s first commercial rooftop greenhouse operation, Lufa Farms, which recently expanded into a new 163,000-square-foot greenhouse atop a former Sears warehouse in the St-Laurent area of Montreal. The Quebec […] Read more
Quebec leads indoor urban agriculture trend
Guide Canada: LEDs plus cheap electricity opens new opportunities
High food prices hurting India’s poor
Inflation pain expected to persist for months yet
Reading Time: 2 minutes New Delhi | Reuters — India’s retail inflation may stay elevated for at least three more months after hitting a six-year high in October, as excess rain has damaged standing crops and seedlings, while edible oils that the country imports have become expensive. The high prices are a particular cause of concern for India’s hundreds […] Read more
Newfoundland farmers may shoot problem moose at night
Province to provide permits to qualified farmers
Reading Time: 2 minutes Moose causing crop damage on farms in Newfoundland and Labrador may now be shot by farmers at night under a new special permit system. Farmers dealing with “problem moose” can now apply for permits for night shooting, via provincial agriculture development officers in their areas, the provincial fisheries and land resources department said Thursday. The […] Read more
Teamwork makes the dream work for this group of Alberta farmers
These five Alberta farms have built a co-op that reduces their costs, increases their efficiency, and gets them into markets they otherwise couldn’t tap. The big question is, could it work for you too?
Reading Time: 10 minutes For these five adventurous Alberta farmers, a co-op is more than a way to structure operations. It’s more, too, than the camaraderie and the mutual support they get from working together with the same goal in mind, important though that is. For this group, it’s also about profitability, and about efficiency, and about enhancing their […] Read more
Major Quebec hothouse grower seeks creditor protection
Reading Time: 2 minutes One of Quebec’s best known greenhouse propagators, who in recent years launched an aggressive expansion into organic vegetables, is seeking creditor protection. Les Serres Lefort, which operates almost 50 acres of greenhouse facilities at Sainte-Clotilde in Quebec’s Monteregie, announced Sept. 10 it had filed a notice of intention on Sept. 6 to file a proposal […] Read more
Guide Health: Are you getting enough dietary fibre?
Start slowly — adding too much fibre too fast will result in adverse effects
Reading Time: 2 minutes You know that fibre is an important part of your diet, but do you get enough? Daily recommendations vary from 25 to 30 grams of fibre, with older people and women needing even more. A penny weighs about a gram, so that’s about 25 to 30 pennies in weight. (I suspect you can remember pennies!) […] Read more
Eat plant-based foods more often, new Food Guide says
Reading Time: 2 minutes Health Canada unveiled a new Canada Food Guide today that ends the era of the ‘four food groups,’ no longer refers to serving sizes nor specific amounts of food to eat daily, and replaces the former iconic rainbow with a dinner plate comprised mostly of plant-based foods. This new guide is all about proportion rather […] Read more
The distributor’s business
Bondi Produce in Toronto trucks farm produce inside one of Canada’s most diverse food markets, and sees more opportunities for farmers every day
Reading Time: 8 minutes “We’re selling commodities, which is the exciting part of it. And we’re selling a perishable product, which adds this real pressure,” Ezio Bondi tells me as we walk about his distribution centre here in Toronto. It’s some warehouse. The business started in 1976 with one man — Ezio’s grandfather — and his pickup truck. Some […] Read more
Ontario backs frozen vegetable plant upgrades
Reading Time: 2 minutes The Canadian arm of French vegetable processor Bonduelle will put up almost $80 million to upgrade and expand three of its frozen vegetable plants in southwestern Ontario, with provincial government backing. The province on Tuesday announced it will invest up to $8.5 million in Bonduelle Canada’s upgrades for its processing plants at Tecumseh, Ingersoll and […] Read more
Their big idea
As Mike Kosaka and Adriane Skaros are learning, it takes determination, toughness, and plenty of smarts to succeed as a local-food startup. How many smarts? Well, read on
Reading Time: 10 minutes Young Zoe Jones and Ava Kosaka have sized me up. The girls are ultra-enthusiastic entrepreneurs. They’ve got a marketing plan, they’ve perfected their product, and — just weeks into production — they’re already watching the dollars roll in. Of course, the girls may be only seven and nine years old, respectively, but they already know […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
