By Michael Grant, Director, Research, Centre for Food in Canada This post first appeared here, and is re-posted here with permission. An upcoming report for The Conference Board of Canada’s Centre for Food in Canada argues that it is time for the Canadian dairy sector to transition from playing defence to playing offense. The notion... Read More
Category: Features
“There are no facts, only interpretations,” is a common quote I refer to from poet Friedrich Nietzsche. Modernizing the language, I take it as, “Facts don’t matter, only the perception.” The struggle for perception in food is at an all time high. I talked last month about A&W’s perception of what ‘Better Beef’ represents, despite... Read More
Can you spot a chemically damaged wheat seedling from a healthy one? Unlike some other damage or infection, chemically damaged cereal seedlings don't always look that bad off in the very early stages. In fact, seedlings can even put out a mostly healthy shoot, but upon further investigation the trained eye will notice that the... Read More
I'm likely one of the few women who are positively giddy for November. Because November is Movember and I'm a huge fan of fantastic iterations of facial hair. The whole awareness campaign behind Movember is just icing on the cake (moustache?). I've encouraged the boy half of RealAgriculture.com to participate, but he hasn't agreed. Could... Read More
It's that time of year again, when a student's thoughts turn to looking fashionable while still staying warm (hahahahaha, as if) and, more importantly, the students from the University of Guelph's Crop 4240 class launch their weed identification and control videos. This is the second year that instructor Francois Tardif and lab lead Mike Cowbrough... Read More
Farmers could play a big role in the movement to turn food waste from a habit into a villain. In some circles, food waste is now being called the number one issue in the food business. It’s described as a major stumbling block in the drive to feed the world. According to this line of... Read More
Modernizing Canada's varietal registration system needed to happen — the removal of kernel visual distinguishability and the CWB's monopoly in recent years has changed crop variety development in Canada. The registration system needs to evolve with it in order to stay current and competitive. Read More: Upov 91, Gerry Rits and Canada's variety registration system... Read More
Farmers who banked on moving crop in September are running into road blocks left and right, even on the eve of November. A bumper crop across most crop kinds in all three Prairie Provinces is taxing Western Canada's railway service and elevators are at or near capacity, even with huge piles of grain being stored... Read More
It's time to get down, get your hands dirty and take stock of, well, what you feed your stock. As discussed in the last Beef Research School, rangelands serve several purposes beyond just growing grass, and their health is a measure of five key components — species mix, nutrient cycling, site stability, water management and... Read More
Sometimes, as a writer, when you get weary of coming up with new ideas, you simply take an older, successful idea and recycle it. Two examples of this: tabloids running a "Celebrity Pregnancy Shocker" piece and W5 running a "factory farming animal abuse" story filmed entirely by undercover animal activists. And so this last week,... Read More