Reading Time: 3 minutes The Spuds in Tubs Farm to School program teaches Alberta students about growing potatoes, maintaining soil health and managing sustainable food production while growing potatoes in school.

Spuds in Tubs increasingly popular in Alberta
The program becomes a farming feature in many school curriculums, giving students first-hand experience growing potatoes

Potato growers’ feedback wanted in final response plan consultation
Potato growers are once again asked to give their feedback on a national potato wart response plan as the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) launches a final round of public consultations.

Alberta harvest wraps up
Harvest operations in Alberta are virtually complete for 2024, the province’s crop report said. Combining advanced three points to 99 per cent finished as of Oct. 22 as well as being three points above the five-year average.

Nakamura brothers win major potato award
Family's commitment to sustainability, efficient packaging gives them an edge in a crowded marketplace
Reading Time: 4 minutes At Nakamura Farms, potatoes are what they do best. In fact, it’s what the family has always done. Now that dedication has been recognized with a major award from Hostess-Frito Lay. The southern Alberta farm is in its fourth generation, operated by brothers Ryland and Lyndon Nakamura. As they head into the growing season, they’re […] Read more

Making potatoes friendly to soil health
Soil health tactics are not out of reach for the spud sector
Reading Time: 4 minutes Glacier FarmMedia – Potatoes are a high-value crop and one of the world’s most important dietary staples. But when it comes to sustainability, they’ve got a hurdle to clear because there’s no escaping some level of soil disturbance when growing and harvesting. That doesn’t mean the relationship between soil health and the potato sector can’t […] Read more

Potato wart survey comes back clean
Fungus-fraught P.E.I also gets clean bill of health
Fungus-fraught P.E.I also gets clean bill of health

Canadian potato output rises in 2023
Alberta vaults to first place in provincial potato production
At 32.063 million hundredweight of potatoes this year, Alberta vaulted from third to first place as it improved on the previous year’s crop of 26.813 million. Manitoba moved into second spot from third with its harvest of 29.760 million cwt. following last year’s 26.139 million. Prince Edward Island saw its output reduced in 2023 to 25.813 million cwt. from 27.789 million. In 2023, the trio combined for 68 per cent of Canada’s total potato harvest of 128,801 million cwt.

The rise of vertical farming
The development and future of vertical 'plant factories'
Reading Time: 7 minutes Broadly speaking, commercial vertical farming operations are humankind’s attempt to grow food under conditions more controllable than Mother Nature allows and with a minimum of wasted space. Many seem like sci-fi greenhouses: hydroponics, plants growing in stacks or up walls and high-tech sensor setups that seem straight out of the mind of Gene Roddenberry. And, […] Read more

Major strawberry plant producer changes hands
New owners get funding to buy Lareault business
The Quebec company billed as Canada’s largest producer of strawberry plants has picked up new ownership after nearly 70 years. Production Lareault, based on just over 450 acres at Lavaltrie, Que. — about 40 km northeast of Montreal, in the province’s Lanaudiere region — has been acquired by investors Antoine Casimir and Andrea Borodenko for […] Read more

McCain launches new predictive ag firm
McCain Foods has formed a new digital agriculture subsidiary, Presia Ag Insights. The move builds on McCain’s 2022 acquisition of a “predictive crop portfolio” from Resson, a Fredricton, New Brunswick firm that uses artificial intelligence to advise farmers on crop management decisions. McCain, in a media release, said the Presia launch is “the result of […] Read more