Reading Time: 3 minutes I am writing to you in this column sporting my new credentials: master of arts in global leadership. And through it all, I never left agriculture. In fact, it was agriculture that gave me the depth and breadth of experience for interesting dialogue and the completion of many papers based on food production and food […] Read more
Viewing the importance of farming through a different lens
Studying global leadership gave me a new appreciation of how agriculture underpins everything
The new food guide can be an opportunity for the ag sector
Instead of being on the defensive, why not take a more constructive and educational approach?
Reading Time: 3 minutes I read with dismay that British grocer giant Tesco was cutting more jobs in its grocery stores from the fresh counter and replacing those employees with vending machines. I thought about how that put another league of distance between people and their food. Is it any wonder farmers feel there is such disconnect with the […] Read more
Infrastructure is the foundation of food security
Without functioning ports, economies can be crippled — as the British may soon learn to their sorrow
Reading Time: 3 minutes Grain farmers have experienced it: The worry about grain car accessibility and the multiplying losses when grain cannot be shipped or sits at port. Cattlemen know the importance of an open border. Almost everything we grow in Canada is exported in some form and this relies on rail, trucks, air transport but more importantly, transport […] Read more
Farmers and small processors tapped for local food council
The group has a year to find ways government can assist burgeoning local food sector
Reading Time: 2 minutes There’s no shortage of hands-on experience on a new advisory group charged with coming up with ways to boost Alberta’s local food sector. Creating a Local Food Council — and ensuring it had a healthy number of producers and processors of local food — was part of a bill titled Supporting Alberta’s Local Food Sector […] Read more
Building the foundation for a sensible food policy
We need to have strong and unbiased science to create approaches that are sensible and sustainable
Reading Time: 3 minutes Food prices are expected to stay low for the next decade or so, according to recent reports from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. That is good news to people who eat, which, of course, includes farmers. But it does remind us that farmers […] Read more
Local food is putting down deep roots
One in 20 Alberta farms are selling directly to their customers, and there’s room for plenty more
Reading Time: 4 minutes The year Mark Gibeau started growing heritage grains, a book called The 100-Mile Diet had just come out. Suddenly it seemed everyone was using terms such as ‘local food’ and ‘locavore.’ It was good timing on Gibeau’s part, but would time be his friend? Would local food be one of those ‘here today gone tomorrow’ […] Read more
Food insecurity is not just a Third World problem
The situation in a country like Sudan is much more dire, but there are parallels to our own country
Reading Time: 3 minutes The United Nations has developed 17 sustainable development goals. The second one is “zero hunger.” This includes a mandate to end not only hunger but poverty everywhere and to achieve food security, improve nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture. I would like to focus on food security in this column. Food security was defined at the […] Read more
In the quest for ever-more production, have we lost our way?
Farmers in the developing world are impoverished while producers here are taking on ever-higher levels of debt
Reading Time: 3 minutes I strongly believe that our focus in the future should be on the nutrient density of plants and biodiversity. Pushing our soils to produce more is terminal because there is burnout of the soil and the plant, along with financial harm to the farmer. Instead, we should look at soil health, seed health with nutrient […] Read more
Take another look at organic — and consider taking the plunge
Reading Time: 3 minutes Over the past couple of years, I have been developing and promoting new marketing tools to help farmers prove the concept of sustainability to consumers, and to use that to their advantage in pricing. Most recently, my efforts have targeted helping those transitioning into organic. I have always been honest and unbiased in my work […] Read more
FBC editorial chief wins major international awards
Laura Rance, editorial director of Farm Business Communications and editor of the Manitoba Co-operator, has won two major international awards for her work on African agriculture. Rance won the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAJ) Star Prize for ‘Africa’s Hunger Games,’ published in the Winnipeg Free Press in April 2015. The same piece was awarded […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
