| For many of us, the Internet is a vital part of our daily lives – business and pleasure. Personally, I have a hard time imagining my life without the Internet in it in some way shape or form. From a work perspective, I’m a freelance writer and communications project manager and my husband and I also have a web-based retail business. Socially, the Internet helps me stay in touch with friends and family far away and makes plans with those who are close by. Where am I going with this, you may ask? Continue reading Connecting rural Canadians to the Internet  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 it, saving a lot of time and work for farmer Chris Vandenberg.
Now this in itself was cool as I had never seen one of these set ups before, even though they are starting to become more in Ontario. But what really tweaked my interest, as a self-professed social media and new technology geek, was that some of Chris’ cows have their own Twitter accounts and are merrily tweeting away as they go about their daily lives! Continue reading Cows that moo…and tweet!  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 new market opportunities for farmers.
Continue reading Soybeans in motor oils and lubricants The Internet has become inextricably intertwined with my daily life – to the point where I can’t image living without it and have a hard time remembering the days when I did. High speed internet access is something I’ve pretty much taken for granted, having always lived and worked in urban areas since it became standard in homes and offices. Until now, when I discovered first hand the great Canadian technology divide. Continue reading The great Internet divide Imagine a world where pavement doesn’t disintegrate and potholes don’t exist. Imagine a product that can reduce the negative environmental impact of asphalt, cut costs for cash-strapped municipalities and offer new market opportunities for farmers. Some might consider this a utopian dream, but thanks to a new asphalt preservation product, this dream could soon be a reality.
Continue reading Can soybeans be the solution to potholes? The Environmental Farm Plan (EFP) has long been a popular program but when the annual cost-share funding for 2009 was fully allocated in just over two months, program representatives were both surprised and pleased at the demand. One of the things driving the uptake of cost-share is the awareness that is developed through the EFP process. Since the launch of the third edition of the EFP in 2005, more than 11,000 farm businesses have attended workshops, developed EFP action plans and had them deemed appropriate through peer review. The results are a more environmentally informed sector, eligible to apply for cost-share funding to support environmental improvements on farms. Continue reading Farmers’ environmental commitment evident in program funding demand  The federal government has developed a series of suggestions for Canadians to be more environmentally conscious.
The tips – listed on a website called Take Action for the Environment – cover a variety of areas, but some of them, in my opinion, come directly from agriculture and represent things that farmers have been doing for years. For example: Continue reading Take action for the environment – by learning from farmers | |
