|  She was the winner of the Golden Apple Award for industry service and leadership at the 2011 OFVGA annual meeting. Now, in 2012, Cathy McKay will also be a calendar model.
She is the first-ever apple grower to be featured in the popular Faces of Farming calendar, produced annually to promote awareness of food and farming in Ontario. Thirteen Ontario farmers or farm families are featured in the calendar every year, nominated by the project’s sponsoring organizations. Continue reading Apple grower featured in Faces of Farming calendar  It’s finally here.
The International Federation of Agriculture Journalists (IFAJ) 2011 congress is now underway with several pre-congress events taking place in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia. Together with my colleague Owen Roberts (@theurbancowboy), I’m co-chairing this gathering of about 260 farm journalists from 30 countries around the world, which is taking place in Ontario this week. The last time Canada hosted this annual conference for agricultural writers was in 1967, so this is a big deal for us. Continue reading World’s farm journalists come to Canada  RFID tags are placed in an animal's ear Many modern-day pet owners microchip their four-legged companions. This is to help identify them should they become lost, injured or otherwise harmed in some way. Farmers are doing a similar thing with their beef cattle. They’re using radio frequency identification (RFID) tags to keep track of their animals as they move from farm to farm at various points in their lives. These tags, which are placed in the ear, store information about each animal, such as its farm of origin, age and identification numbers, to help farmers and processors maintain and promote food safety and traceability. Continue reading Keeping tabs on where the cows are  Ontario Conservative Leader Tim Hudak announced this spring that, if elected, he’d make convicted provincial prisoners work to clean up Ontario’s highways.
According to a story in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, a variation on this theme was recently launched in Georgia, where teams of probationers are working on fruit and vegetable farms. Many farm workers there don’t have legal status and with a new law cracking down on illegal labour, many no longer come to the state looking for employment as they used to. Continue reading The farm labour side of local food  The debate over organic versus conventional agriculture is an ongoing one in the world of food production.
For one Ontario apple grower, though, that debate ended a decade ago after some firsthand research into the issue. But first, a little bit of background. Continue reading Apples – organic or conventional? 
Here’s the third in a series of guest posts I’ve been writing for the Canadian Beef Blog. Last month, I described some of the different cattle breeds and how to tell the difference between a dairy cow (one that gives milk) and a beef cow (one that is raised for meat). Now we’re going to take a quick look at how and where cattle are raised and what they eat. Beef cows and calves typically live outside on pasture in the spring, summer and fall months – which is why it’s not uncommon to see cows grazing in fields if you find yourself out enjoying the Canadian countryside. Continue reading As cows live and eat  Southwestern Ontario’s burgeoning agri-food sector received a boost earlier this month with the launch of the Ontario Food Cluster.
My alma mater, University of Guelph, along with the City of Guelph and others are partners in this new initiative designed to attract more foreign investment and creating more businesses in our agri-food sector. In addition to being home to some of Ontario’s best farm land and farmers that produce a multitude of field crops like corn, wheat and soybeans, as well as over 100 different fruits and vegetables – not to mention a wide array of meat, dairy and poultry – the Greater Toronto Area, Guelph-Wellington and Waterloo Region together boast more than 2,500 food and beverage companies. Continue reading New cluster promotes Ontario food and farming | |
