Food and Farming Canada

Teats and tweets

Lilian — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 13:38:36 +0000

A unique project brings daily activities of milking cows to new media tool Twitter. This article appears in this month’s Ontario Dairy Farmer magazine and is the full length version of shorter blog article I posted here a couple of weeks ago. They’re an unlikely team – a new media researcher in Waterloo, an [...]

Fruit and veg snack program a no-brainer

Lilian — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 14:25:13 +0000

We all know diet and nutrition are directly linked to health, and we’re often told we can help make that link by eating plenty of fruits and vegetables. Yet, as a population, we seem to be getting fatter and unhealthier – a trend that is most alarming in young people as we see childhood obesity rates [...]

Advocacy, outreach and the social license to farm

Lilian — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 13:59:49 +0000

What do an agricultural advocate, a US logger and an urban media specialist from Toronto have in common? They will all be presenting at this year’s AGCare/Ontario Farm Animal Council (OFAC) speakers’ program, which will focus on advocacy, outreach and the social license to farm. Kay Johnson Smith of the Animal Agriculture Alliance will provide an [...]

Cows that moo…and tweet!

Lilian — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 13:48:19 +0000

A couple of weeks ago I had the chance to visit a dairy farm in Brant County, southwest of Toronto. It was a beautiful farm with a state of the art robotic milking system – which basically means, the cows decide for themselves when they’re ready to be milked and the machine takes care of [...]

Farmers get some PR pointers

Lilian — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:20:06 +0000

This is a longer version of a post I put up last week – and this article is also printed in the Ontario Farmer this week. *** An episode of Oprah. A film called Food Inc. A hard-hitting Time magazine cover story. A series in the Toronto Star. The last year was not a good one for agriculture [...]

Is farming on the right track?

Lilian — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 03:41:49 +0000

An episode of Oprah, a hard-hitting Time magazine cover story, a film called Food Inc. – farming is under increased, often one-sided scrutiny leaving many people to wonder whether modern agriculture is on the right track. Rob Hannam, President of Synthesis Agri-Food Consulting, believes it encourages everyone to do more to address public perceptions of farming, [...]

Food policy could end farming crisis

Lilian — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 20:53:04 +0000

There’s a crisis in agriculture. It’s an oft-repeated statement, one that at times comes from beef and pork farmers, and other times from the grain or the fruit and vegetable growers. In fact, it seems as though there’s always a crisis in agriculture – perhaps in different sectors at different times, but it always seems [...]

Young Leader Award winners announced

Lilian — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 13:01:44 +0000

Some great news to start off the week: I have just learned that I am one of the winners of the IFAJ-Alltech Young Leaders Award this year! This means I’ll be attending the 2010 International Federation of Agricultural Journalists congress in Belgium this spring as one of ten young leaders from around the world. The award [...]

Backyard chicken checklist

Lilian — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 14:15:44 +0000

The rise of the local food movement has also increased urban interest in growing food in the city. Generally, this means a small garden or some planters for tomatoes, carrots, some herbs and the like. But for some more adventurous types, this drive to “grow your own” also includes eggs – and it’s not as [...]

Soybeans in motor oils and lubricants

Lilian — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 14:47:33 +0000

As demand for “green” products increases, more and more technologies and opportunities for bio-based products are emerging alongside to meet those needs. Crops like corn, wheat and soybeans are starting to replace traditional petroleum-based ingredients in these new bio-products, making them easier on the environment and lessening our dependence on non-renewable fossil fuels. They’re also creating [...]