It's no wonder that Western Canada is watching what's unfolding in Ontario closely. That province's government's move to closely regulate neonicotinoid seed treatments, even after changes in corn and soybean planting showed significant reductions in bee health risk, has many in the agriculture industry wondering what this means for pesticide access moving forward. In this... Read More
Category: Eastern Canada
We're proud of our team here at Real Agriculture — we're an enthusiastic and passionate bunch, but did you know we're not an ag-media-one-trick pony? You've heard one team member's farmer rendition of "Santa, Baby", and now our own Bern Tobin has shared the song below. Bern's family, if you haven't guessed by the accent,... Read More
A few weeks ago, the Grain Farmers of Ontario encouraged farmers to boycott the Ontario government’s public consultation process concerning new regulations governing access and use of neonicotinoid seed treatments on corn and soybean seed. At the time, GFO stated that there was little to be gained at the public meeting, and that GFO and... Read More
Perhaps compelled by the Christmas spirit (although unlikely), two seed industry heavyweights have decided to settle their differences and drop their remaining legal challenges against each other. DuPont and Monsanto announced Tuesday that they have agreed to dismiss patent infringement lawsuits against each other over seed-related technologies. Monsanto had claimed DuPont infringed on certain Monsanto... Read More
The final government-backed reports regarding recommendations for the fate of the University of Guelph's Alfred and Kemptville campuses rolled out in mid-December, and the findings were exactly what at least one group was hoping for. Marty Derks is chair of the Kemptville College Renewal Task Force assembled to maintain the Kemptville campus as an agriculture... Read More
Syngenta has announced it has received the safety certificate for its Agrisure Viptera trait (also know as "event MIR162") from China’s regulatory authorities, formally granting import approval. The approval covers corn grain and processing byproducts, such as dried distillers grains (DDGs), for food and feed use. The Agrisure Viptera corn trait provides protection against a... Read More
How has farming changed? Put another way, how have expectations of farmers changed? Significantly, says CropLife Canada president and CEO Ted Menzies. And, what’s more, farmers are rising to the challenge. Real Agriculture’s Shaun Haney sat down with Menzies at the recent Grow Canada Conference held at Ottawa, Ontario, earlier this month, to talk about... Read More
There comes a time in every farmer's life when they must sit down and write a letter to Santa. Whether it's for a shiny new combine, a quarter of good land or maybe decent twine, Santa's elves can totally get that for you — if you're willing to sing. And so, on a cold winter's... Read More
Venture capitalist Dave McClure made his mark in the branding world when he noted customers don’t care about your solutions, they care about their problems. Reflecting back then on the year that’s passing, as well as thinking towards the one ahead, it made me wonder if McClure’s approach might work for the agri-food sector, too,... Read More
Global markets were blindsided by Russia in the third week of December as Moscow raised its key interest rates to a shocking 17 per cent, up significantly from the 10.5 per cent level they had been just raised to a few days earlier. Why the rate increase? The ruble has been free-falling this year with... Read More