Tag: Agriculture

  • Basic Living Standard Arithmetic For Ottawa And All Governments

    Basic Living Standard Arithmetic For Ottawa And All Governments

    September , 2024 To: Canadians concerned about prosperity From: Don Wright Date: September 4, 2024Re: Some Basic Living Standard Arithmetic for Governments Governments often talk about “creating jobs,” but what they really do is choose some jobs at the expense of others. With their myriad spending, taxing and regulatory decisions, all governments try to direct job growth…

  • Quickening Ecological Restoration On St. Kitts

    Quickening Ecological Restoration On St. Kitts

    May, 2024. UNESCO. On International Day for Biological Diversity, we highlight the remarkable efforts underway to accelerate ecological restoration at St. Mary’s Biosphere Reserve on the island of St. Kitts. Home to thousands of species, this UNESCO-designated site spans vast marine areas, forested ridges, agricultural hills, cloud forests, mangroves, and coral reefs. Despite its rich…

  • UN Specialized Fund & Program Combats Hunger In World’s Fragile Contexts

    UN Specialized Fund & Program Combats Hunger In World’s Fragile Contexts

           JOINT PRESS RELEASE IFAD and WFP work together to combat hunger in fragile contexts Rome, Italy, March 2024. The UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP) have today launched an action plan to work together in fragile contexts — countries simultaneously affected by economic shocks, and extreme weather, in combination with little…

  • Urbanization Of Rural Farm Land Threatens Archaeological Evidence

    Urbanization Of Rural Farm Land Threatens Archaeological Evidence

    The Haldimand-Norfolk Archaeological Research Project was a regional study meant to discover new information about the past that has impacted the region such as; glaciers, climate change, prehistoric and historic settlements, wildlife, and geologic formations.  The agricultural lands of Norfolk and Haldimand County combined is approximately 2,286.49 km2 and is identified as a zone of…

  • Living With Canada’s Urban and Rural Coyotes

    Living With Canada’s Urban and Rural Coyotes

    Coyotes, like other wild animals, sometimes come into conflict with humans. Since migrating to Ontario and the eastern provinces from western Canada more than 100 years ago, coyotes have adapted well to urban environments and can now be found in both rural and urban settings. Coyotes can be found across Ontario but are most abundant…

  • Agrarians From Ancient World Knew About Biochar

    Agrarians From Ancient World Knew About Biochar

    Agrarians from various ancient cultures around the world discovered the soil fertility benefits of charred biomass over two thousand years ago. Now known as ‘biochar’, this ancient soil management practice has been enjoying a renaissance of late for a number of reasons largely related to the need for more resilient and productive soils and biochar’s…

  • Quirky Doc About One Man’s Quest For Supreme Tea

    Quirky Doc About One Man’s Quest For Supreme Tea

    Invest a little over an hour watching this documentary about tea and you might find yourself contemplating a new connection between rural farming communities and the tea farmers of China. That’s because All in this Tea deals with all aspects of Chinese tea production, but takes a special interest in how a new demand for…

  • Canada Fights Food Crises By Committing highest-ever funding to UN agency IFAD

    Canada Fights Food Crises By Committing highest-ever funding to UN agency IFAD

    Rome, December 2021 – At a time when rural people in low-income countries face steep increases in food prices and the devastating impacts of climate change are contributing to a rise in hunger and poverty, Canada has announced today its commitment to support the resilience of small-scale farmers and the prosperity of rural communities by increasing its funding to the UN’s…

  • How We Set In Motion Coffee Global Business

    How We Set In Motion Coffee Global Business

    If you are like me- someone who has drunk much more than one coffee in your life, you might be interested in pondering this question: Why do you think the multi-billion-dollar global coffee industry can be a losing business for the growers, whose hands till the land from where coffee starts? In fact, if you…

  • The Consolidation Of North American Food

    The Consolidation Of North American Food

    Adam Jacob sent in this tell-all graphic that is pretty shocking. If these statistics are true then ‘it’s clear the small food producer is an endangered species. Unless of course, they start supplying the big chain corporate grocery store chains. And that will likely spell the end of family farm gate-retail…and that will spell the…

  • Canada Reassessing Glyphosate Roundup Herbicide Link To Cancer

    Canada Reassessing Glyphosate Roundup Herbicide Link To Cancer

    It’s been nearly four years since we published the article below and the water surrounding glyphosate use in Canada is still murky. Roundup is currently being used in an official capacity in certain situations by government agencies such as the Ministry of the Environment to fight the invasive species Phragmites. Let’s review the earlier article:…

  • Ontario Law Protects Bees By Reducing Neonicotinoid Corn And Soybean Crops

    Ontario Law Protects Bees By Reducing Neonicotinoid Corn And Soybean Crops

    On July 1, 2015, Ontario was the first jurisdiction in North America to protect bees and other pollinators through new rules to reduce the number of acres planted with neonicotinoid-treated corn and soybean seeds by 80 per cent. To support this goal, new requirements were put in place for the sale and use of neonicotinoid-treated…

  • Crop Circle Formations Predicted And Found In Etten Holland

    Crop Circle Formations Predicted And Found In Etten Holland

    Nancy Talbot writes, “On Saturday night, July 12th, 2014,  Robbert and I were on Skype and Robbert said he felt that three formations were coming all in one night in different villages—one in corn (maize) and two in “grain.” He told me he “saw” (in his mind’s eye) that one would come in Roosendaal, one…

  • Ontario Passes Landmark Climate Change Legislation

    Ontario Passes Landmark Climate Change Legislation

    Today, Ontario passed landmark climate change legislation that lays a foundation for the province to join the biggest carbon market in North America and ensures that the province is accountable for responsibly and transparently investing proceeds from the cap and trade program into actions that reduce greenhouse gas pollution, create jobs and help people and…

  • Contraband Tobacco solution requires more than Federal legislation ‘tinkering’

    Contraband Tobacco solution requires more than Federal legislation ‘tinkering’

    SOLVING ILLICIT TOBACCCO  A National Strategy  There is no debate that the global trade in contraband tobacco has far-reaching implications for society. Too much evidence exists today to deny that the black market in tobacco draws in the involvement of a host of problems for public safety and national security.  Complicating the picture is the…

  • Shephardess Innovates With Dynamic Agriculture System

    Shephardess Innovates With Dynamic Agriculture System

      Trying to find agricultural systems that are environmentally friendly and economically viable is a challenge facing the agriculture industry. So when a friend from New Zealand told us about how they graze sheep in fruit orchards we instantly liked the idea.  All of a sudden the apple and cherry orchards on the farm didn’t look just like orchards, they also…

  • New Ontario Gov’t Tax Credit to Benefit Farmers and Communities

    New Ontario Gov’t Tax Credit to Benefit Farmers and Communities

    A new tax credit is helping put nutritious, fresh, locally grown food on the plates of those who need it most. The Food Donation Tax Credit for Farmers — the only one of its kind in Canada — is giving farmers a tax credit valued at 25 per cent of the fair market value of…

  • Canada Migrant Worker Program Not Perfect But Seen As World Model

    Canada Migrant Worker Program Not Perfect But Seen As World Model

    TORONTO, CANADA – The world’s most successful program connecting seasonal workers with agricultural employers has kicked into high gear. Administered by Foreign Agricultural Resource Management Services (F.A.R.M.S.), the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) links approximately 14,000 requests for seasonal workers with jobs at Ontario farms this growing season. Not only does the 52-year-old program provide…

  • Contraband Tobacco Of Southern Ontario

    Contraband Tobacco Of Southern Ontario

    Dear Silo, There is a contraband tobacco economy that has sprouted over the past two decades that rivals the volumes that the “Big Tobacco” companies produce for the legitimate market.  That black market economy has spawned much criminal activity, false reporting and tax dodging to the point now where the majority of tobacco farmers are…

  • Why We March Globally Against Monsanto

    Why We March Globally Against Monsanto

    For those who are not aware of Monsanto or its global influence, I would like to provide you with some background information before explaining just why it is important to stand against the corporation and its actions.  Monsanto is an international agricultural corporation which is based out of the United States. It originated in 1901…

  • Unique Ontario Bill 36 (designed to promote Local Food) passes final Vote

    Unique Ontario Bill 36 (designed to promote Local Food) passes final Vote

    Ontario is moving forward to help promote the good things that are grown, harvested and processed in Ontario with today’s passage of the Local Food Act, 2013. The new legislation is part of a strategy http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/about/localfood.htm  to build Ontario’s economy by making more local food available in markets, schools, cafeterias, grocery stores and restaurants. This…

  • Why are Ontario farmland values skyrocketing? Greens: due to development

    Why are Ontario farmland values skyrocketing? Greens: due to development

    Ottawa, ON – Green Party leader and Guelph candidate Mike Schreiner called for the complete protection of prime farmland in Ontario. “We can’t eat subdivisions, quarries or pipelines,” said Schreiner while attending the Association Municipalities of Ontario Conference in Ottawa. “The Ontario government must stop destroying prime farmland before it’s too late.”  Only five percent of…