Food and Farming Canada » research and innovation

New crops in local soils raising high hopes

Lilian — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 13:06:56 +0000

Ontario lavender bunches

Lavender, hazelnuts and sweet potatoes are not crops we commonly associate with this province.

Yet they’re starting to emerge in Ontario’s south coast area, the fertile sand plains in Norfolk, Brant, Elgin, Middlesex and Oxford counties where tobacco used to reign supreme.

As the decline of the tobacco industry continued [...]

Greenbelt farmers saving energy, survey shows

Lilian — Mon, 30 May 2011 12:59:13 +0000

A new study shows that energy saving initiatives by farmers in Ontario’s Greenbelt are conserving enough energy to power 1,788 homes annually.

And on-farm solar panel installations in the Greenbelt are generating enough electricity for an additional 170 homes, says the report completed by engineering consulting firm Agviro, Inc.

“Our study showed some really positive results related to [...]

New cluster promotes Ontario food and farming

Lilian — Fri, 27 May 2011 12:53:51 +0000

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 [...]

Reducing energy use on the farm

Lilian — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 14:08:16 +0000

Farms are, for the most part, pretty large energy users. Barns housing livestock, the use of sophisticated feeding or milking technology or climate control and water recycling systems in greenhouses – all require energy to keep going. So it’s no surprise, with energy costs on the rise, that many farmers are looking for ways to reduce [...]

Decision to cut food research makes no sense

Lilian — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 14:03:31 +0000

Most of us will agree that food – and the farming the brings us that food – are pretty essential to our quality of life. In fact, it’s one of the basic underpinnings of an orderly society. As we can see in other places around the globe not as fortunate as we are, hunger and high [...]

Healthy Ontario farms will help us as supplies decline

Lilian — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 14:10:02 +0000

The crystal ball says we live in the best place in the world. Personally, I’ve long been convinced of it, having lived in this area for most of my life, but this is the opinion of a bio-economy expert who spoke at the Vineland Research and Innovation Centre recently.

His perspective was a bit different from mine, [...]

Protecting the environment – one farm at a time

Lilian — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 13:58:21 +0000

Folks in food and farming talk a lot about all the things farmers do to protect the environment – but often in somewhat general terms.

Here’s a real life example in Terry, a farmer and business owner from the Stouffville area.

I interviewed him this past summer for an article that I was writing and his story, to [...]

Unlocking the potential of soy proteins

Lilian — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 12:49:46 +0000

Soybean varieties developed for specific food and health applications represent a key future growth opportunity for the Canadian soybean industry. Different types of soybean protein can be ideally suited to specific food applications, which can lead to new food products and processes, says a University of Guelph scientist who is involved in research in this field.“Canada [...]

Soybeans could help extend life of asphalt roads

Lilian — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 18:15:17 +0000

This is an update to a blog post I put up almost a year ago, where I wrote about a soy-based asphalt sealant that can help keep potholes at bay. I was intrigued by the potential of the product at the time – both for municipalities trying to keep their roads budgets under control in the [...]

Dispelling dispair about the future of food and farming

Lilian — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 12:54:51 +0000

In Western Canada, student enrolment at various agricultural colleges is on the rise. And an increasing percentage of students flocking to programs in animal, food, life and environmental sciences are coming from urban areas, which spokespeople at these institutions attribute at least partly to the growing public interest in agriculture and food.

Guelph’s Ontario Agricultural College hasn’t [...]