Hemp is often seen as a new crop, and in retrospect, it still is. Only allowed to be grown in Canada since 1998, there haven't been the decades of research and experience with hemp as with other crops. Jan Slaski, senior researcher with Alberta Innovates - Technology Futures, based in Vegreville Alberta, says that southern... Read More
Category: Agriculture Education
This article was updated June 13 with comments and an interview with Johanne Ross, executive director of Ag in the Classroom Canada. The federal government is contributing more than half a million dollars to Agriculture in the Classroom Canada to bring lessons about the agriculture and the career opportunities in the sector into schools. Agriculture... Read More
The Alberta government has announced it will be covering course fees for students enrolling in the province's Green Certificate apprenticeship-style agricultural training program. Education Minister David Eggen and Agriculture Minister Oneil Carlier were at the Whitemud Equine Learning Centre in Edmonton on Wednesday where they committed up to $400,000 annually to cover course fees. Around... Read More
Consumers need to know where their food comes from. Why don’t we have more agriculture in the classroom? Those are recurring conversation themes and questions AgScape executive director Colleen Smith encounters every day. They’re challenges the Ontario agriculture industry has been grappling with since the Ag In The Classroom program was launched 25 years ago.... Read More
The agri-food industry needs more highly qualified people, and the University of Guelph’s Ontario Agricultural College (OAC) is looking for ways to help meet the demand. Producing more graduates is both a challenge and tremendous opportunity, says OAC dean Dr. Rene Van Acker. A study released five years ago indicated that there were three jobs... Read More
Precision farming — encompassing field imagery, soil and elevation maps, variable rate crop inputs, guidance and the creation of field management zones — has been, arguably, the technology that has chugged along, rather than taken off. Depending on who you ask, widespread adoption of a full suite of precision agriculture options has been held up... Read More
Rejoice, people who say we need more agriculture education in the classroom. Here’s some good news. In Ontario, plans are underway to have up to 50 agriculture in the classroom teacher ambassadors – twice as many as now exist — trained and available for assignment by the 2018/19 school year. This initiative is being driven... Read More
The University of Guelph has received its single largest-ever gift — $20 million from the Arrell Family Foundation — to establish the Arrell Food Institute at U of G. “This landmark gift will allow our University to address the defining challenge of our time: food security, safety and sustainability,” said U of G president Franco... Read More
Kemptville College's agriculture programming hasn't been gone all that long, but already agriculture, farm, and equine businesses within the Ottawa Valley and surrounding areas are feeling the absence. Mark Nelson, with the Ontario Equestrian Federation, says that within the equine community alone they've already noticed a lack of candidates to fill trainee and employee roles,... Read More
A week just wasn't long enough... Six years after the launch of Canadian Agriculture Literacy Week, the program has been expanded to Canadian Agriculture Literacy Month for the month of March 2017. Agriculture in the Classroom - Canada (AITC) and its partners will be delivering agriculture programming to over 800 classrooms and 30,000 students across... Read More