Reading Time: < 1 minute Alberta’s four crop commissions have launched a new Farm Sustainability Readiness website tool for farmers considering obtaining sustainability certification. “Companies like Walmart, General Mills, and McDonald’s are looking to source sustainable ingredients to meet the growing expectations from stakeholders to be more responsible for their suppliers’ social, ethical, and environmental practices,” Alberta Wheat said in […] Read more
Website offers sustainability self-assessment
A new dawn? Sustainable beef puts money in producers’ pockets
It’s only $10 a cow, but pilot marks the first time producers have been paid for their stewardship efforts
Reading Time: 4 minutes The first rubber-meets-the-road test of the years-long effort to make sustainable beef a paying proposition has been a success. After three months of testing, the Canadian Beef Sustainability Acceleration pilot project has shown that tracing certified sustainable cattle and beef through the supply chain is possible at current volumes. “It’s one of the first times […] Read more
Is your stewardship plan up to date?
Reading Time: < 1 minute Effective April 1, producers will need an Environmental Farm Plan completion letter dated within the last 10 years to be eligible for cost-share funding with the Environmental Sustainability and Climate Change programs of the Canadian Agriculture Partnership (the successor to Growing Forward). Alberta has been the only province without a renewal period. If you cannot […] Read more
Forget those dungeons and dragons games — you can now go farming
New smartphone game teaches players about sustainable food production — and you can trade points for (virtual) land!
Reading Time: 4 minutes Not everyone is cut out to be a farmer, but thanks to a new game, anyone with a smartphone can get a taste of what it means to feed the world. “There’s definitely a disconnect between consumers and what happens on the farm, and I think people are curious,” said Lindsey Verhaeghe, a corporate social responsibility […] Read more
World’s first verified sustainable beef plan is ready to roll
It’s taken two years of work and looks much like McDonald’s pilot, but its creators say it’s a historic step forward
Reading Time: 4 minutes After two years of consultations and review, the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef has rolled out the official list of procedures and standards for producing beef in a humane, environmentally friendly way. And while the Certified Sustainable Beef Framework looks a lot like the one developed for McDonald’s 2014 pilot project, its launch is historic, […] Read more
First the cows, then the grass, and then the soil
Winner of top environmental award for cattle producers says stewardship is a journey that never ends
Reading Time: 2 minutes ‘Sustainable’ isn’t a word that finds a lot of favour with this year’s winner of one of the provincial farm sector’s leading environmental awards. “I prefer to use the word regenerative,” Ian Murray says in a video portraying the work he and wife Carman have done at Shoestring Ranch. “I don’t want our ranch to […] Read more
Roundtable for Sustainable Beef wants your input
Reading Time: < 1 minute The Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef is seeking feedback on its sustainability indicators for beef processing to ensure sustainability challenges and opportunities for this sector are addressed. The indicators reflect what will be measured to verify sustainable practices. The consultation runs until Aug. 29, and a link can be found on the home page of […] Read more
Burger King pledges to end deforestation by 2030
Rio de Janeiro | Thomson Reuters Foundation — The owner of Burger King has pledged to eliminate deforestation from its supply chains by 2030 but scientists say the company is not moving fast enough to stop its hamburgers from destroying rainforests and the communities who depend on them. Restaurant Brands International, one of the world’s […] Read more
Study finds organic’s sustainability ‘context-dependent’
When weighed for sustainability, the purported benefits and costs of organic agriculture can actually “vary heavily” from case to case, a new University of British Columbia study finds. The UBC study, titled “Many shades of gray: The context-dependent performance of organic agriculture,” published Friday in the U.S. journal Science Advances, sets out to “systematically review […] Read more
Keeping land in grass has a side benefit
Young beef producers need affordable access to grassland if the industry is going to grow
Reading Time: 2 minutes The beef industry has been struggling to retain and attract new producers while the average age of farmers, at 54, keeps creeping up. The next generation of cattle producers might be looking for something different. The Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (CRSB) released the National Beef Sustainability Assessment and Strategy this fall. The industry garnered […] Read more
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