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 | Local food is in, the 100 mile diet is cool and we’re being advised to buy in season fruits and veggies to both be healthy and reduce the carbon footprint. But what do Canadians really think about food, farmers and farming? Continue reading What we really think about food and farming   Farmers sometimes get a little upset at how their livelihoods are depicted in urban media and on the Internet. They feel their side of the story isn’t being told, which leads consumers to have unfair or incomplete notions of food and farming. For the most part, farmers are too busy farming and often, activist groups are leading sources for journalists – because they’re available, accessible and eager to tell their tale. Continue reading Upcoming presentation to focus on agriculture and activists If we want to feed the world – and do it in an environmentally responsible and sustainable manner – organics won’t cut it. That’s the message the World Wildlife Fund’s Director of Livestock will be bringing to the AGCare/Ontario Farm Animal Council annual meeting in Guelph on March 12. Continue reading WWF: organics not the answer to our food problems The following editorial, from the Ontario Corn Producers Association, is one of several that have been appearing in the media recently asking the Ontario government to focus on science rather than emotion when it comes to making policies that impact farmers. The Ontario Federation of Agriculture has been vocal on the issue, as has AGCare and Guelph Mercury columnist Owen Roberts. But these words from the Corn Producers – although they echo the other voices – are my favourite. The following article was printed in the Ontario Corn Producer, December 2008. By Lilian Schaer These days, it seems hard to predict what may happen with any degree of accuracy three months from now, let alone three years into the future. But although we live in volatile times, there are some fairly safe bets on what may lie ahead for farmers on the environmental front. Continue reading The green crystal ball There are days when I really love my job. And today was one of them. I was in Vineland, Ontario today as part of a series of spokesperson training sessions that my organization, AGCare, has been hosting together with the Ontario Farm Animal Council and our facilitator, media guru Wallace Pidgeon of Brick and Ball Media in Toronto. And here, as in many other small Ontario towns over the last two months, I spent the day with some of the people who I have come to feel are truly our unsung heros, right up there with the nurses who heal us and the firefighters who save us – they are the farmers who feed us. Continue reading Meeting Ontario’s unsung heros We’ve got another farm tour coming up this week with young culinary students, this time from Sir Sanford Fleming College in Peterborough. The focus this time will be on chicken production and apple farming. This tour is the last in a series that AGCare and the Ontario Farm Animal Council (OFAC) have been running for the past couple of years. Our aim is to help up and coming young chefs understand where their food comes from – and the care and work that has gone into growing it and getting it into their kitchens. It also lets them meet farmers face to face and ask any questions they might have about things they’ve heard, read or always wondered about. |   | ||||
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