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This according to a report in Farmers Weekly, a leading British agricultural publication. The strategy includes tighter restrictions on agricultural irrigation as well as increased costs for water recycling and construction of on-farm reservoirs. Continue reading UK water rules sign of future for Canada’s farmers?  The following column I wrote was published in the Guelph Mercury yesterday. We were sitting on the deck with the dog as I was musing about the topic of this month’s column. My husband jokingly suggested I write about the relationship between man and his dog. I laughed it off — what did that have to do with food, farming and farmers? Not much, but as I thought about it some more I did start to see some parallels between the strength of that relationship and the one between farmers and their land. Continue reading Spring, farmers and the lure of the land Soybean hulls are primarily a by-product of processing or oil extraction. Traditionally, they are used as a fibre supplement in animal feed as way of creating some value-added use for them. But research at the University of Windsor focuses on a new and environmentally friendly use for these seed coats as well – in industrial wastewater treatment. 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 The following column was printed in the Guelph Mercury today, October 30 2008: It’s widely been touted as the new oil over which the wars of the future will be fought. That’s something that is hard for many Canadians to fathom — after all, our country is known around the world for its abundance of water. In fact, we’ve always had so much water that we rarely give it a second thought. And that’s precisely where the problem lies, Ontario Environmental Commissioner Gord Miller said in his annual report, which was released last week.
It often comes up as an issue widely expected to spark future wars and dominate human consciousness some day – much the way oil currently occupies our thoughts and drains our wallets. And for some, the lack of water is already a pressing problem. |   | ||||
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A new strategy on water usage in agriculture unveiled by Britain’s Environment Agency paints a potentially grim picture for farmers.
Earth, nutrients and water are the fundamentals of growing food. But today I had the chance to experience these fundamentals from an entirely different perspective – a mud bath and healing waters in a Slovak health spa.