The United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW Canada) recently presented to the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit to advocate for better health and safety protections for migrant workers labouring in the Windsor, Ont., area. The county and area has been hard hit by COVID-19 at local farms and farm businesses, including hundreds of positive cases... Read More
Category: Health & Wellness
With nearly all farm shows and in-person events cancelled or moved online, a community event is rather rare this time of year. And that's proving rather challenging for many rural communities who are so used to using the warm summer field days as a way to learn, connect, and maybe even commiserate in the beverage... Read More
A new mobile app is under development to help farmers track their mental health and link them with supports, says the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture. The app is the result of a partnership between Innovation Saskatchewan, the Ministry of Agriculture, and Bridges Health, out of Saskatoon, after being selected out of the province-wide Innovation Challenge... Read More
Just like farmers take pride in putting in the hard work and long hours to see a job done, now is not the time to take our foot off the gas of the mental health and wellness conversation in agriculture. "I can understand how people can start to be feeling burnt out about hearing about... Read More
Father's Day for many farm families involves a BBQ, gifts, maybe some golf, and likely some farm work if the weather is right for spraying. Like mothers, fathers play an integral role in the family farm business. For any family business there are smooth days, rocky ones and outright turbulent days that test the ties... Read More
Farm Management Canada, in conjunction with the Wilton Consulting Group, has released a comprehensive report looking at not only stress and mental wellness within the farming sector, but also the impact mental health has on the business side of farming. In the report entitled Healthy Minds Healthy Farms, most farmers reported "undesirable coping mechanisms that... Read More
I've been thinking a lot lately, as I'm sure you all have been. We're in a quarantine that doesn't have a definite end. And if you're an over-thinker like me, join the club — you're not alone. There's a lot of great advice out there. You could dig for eons on Google reading articles about... Read More
What happens if you, someone else on the farm, or one of your employees gets sick or must self-isolate during the spring planting or calving season? It's a scenario every farm should prepare for in the midst of the current pandemic, says Jennifer Wright. A cough or a runny nose is usually not an excuse... Read More
Meat coolers are going to look a lot different as we navigate COVID-19, but according to the Canadian Meat Council, each step of the livestock processing chain is collaborating, communicating, and committed to keeping food moving to grocery stores. Chris White, president and CEO of the Canadian Meat Council, says the livestock processing sector is... Read More
In a time like this, there's so much financial turmoil out there, and many people concerned about what their farm business looks like as we try to get to the other side of COVID-19. We've got major demand deterioration in the protein markets, there's milk dumping going on in parts of the U.S. and Canada... Read More