Ontario Agriculture

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April 2011 Blog Posts (8)

The CFFO Commentary: Growing Forward 2 needs a Family Farm Focus

By Nathan Stevens

April 29, 2011

 

The CFFO brought forward a number of key messages during a recent dialogue between farmers and the federal government on Growing Forward 2, Canada’s next agriculture policy framework. Many of these important messages lie outside the limited scope the federal government wants to look at, but they are issues that need to be addressed for the good of Ontario farmers.

 

The current directions outlined in Growing Forward 2 fail… Continue

Added by CFFO Blog on April 29, 2011 at 4:49am — No Comments

The CFFO Commentary: Renewal in Public Policy and Whispers of Encouragement

By John Clement

April 22, 2011

 

Public policy development and advocacy is slow and steady work. It can take years for a good idea to move from conception to adoption on a wide scale, if it happens at all. Those who work for groups advocating proactive options realize that public policy development is more like a marathon than a sprint.

 

There are no shortages of challenges within agriculture. Developing and maintaining an agricultural system that offers optimum amounts of… Continue

Added by CFFO Blog on April 27, 2011 at 3:47pm — No Comments

The CFFO Commentary: Agricultural and Rural Issues Loom Large for Federal Election

By Nathan Stevens

April 15, 2011

 

Another federal election is upon us. While some question the need for an election so soon, it is our democratic opportunity to make our individual voices heard. There are serious issues for farmers and rural Ontario as voters head to the ballot box on election-day.

 

The reasons behind voting patterns are naturally diverse. Some voters have a loyalty to a party regardless of minor policy concerns. Some look at local…

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Added by CFFO Blog on April 15, 2011 at 5:39pm — No Comments

The CFFO Commentary: Biotechnology Will Remain an Ongoing Discussion for Farmers

By John Clement

April 8, 2011

 

The Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario has had a number of long, focused conversations about the role of Genetically Modified Organisms in agriculture. It’s a lightning rod of an issue, with most people either being for or against the use of the technology. Few individuals…

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Added by CFFO Blog on April 11, 2011 at 8:53am — No Comments

The CFFO Commentary: Farmers Working Together Brings Results

By Henry Stevens

April 1, 2011



The hard work of the Ontario Agricultural Sustainability Coalition has finally produced positive results. As many people know, the 2011 provincial budget was announced this week and farmers received the eagerly anticipated news that new types of Business Risk Management programming are coming for many Ontario Farmers.

Presenting solutions that will cover the programming gaps found in existing programs like Agri-Stability has been the…

Continue

Added by CFFO Blog on April 3, 2011 at 5:41am — No Comments

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Agriculture Headlines from Farms.com Canada East News - click on title for full story

The Most Wanted Wheat Seed Across the Prairies — AAC WALSH

PART ONE The sign was up before anyone knew who put it there. No name. No description. Just a dark silhouette nailed to the side of the grain elevator, paper already curling at the edges where the prairie wind worried it loose. MOST WANTED. That was all it said. In a town like this, that was enough. People here understood value. They understood timing. They noticed things that arrived quietly and stayed put. By midmorning, more than a few sets of eyes had found their way to the elevator wall, lingered longer than necessary, then moved on without comment. At the café, steam rose off coffee cups and hung in the air like unfinished sentences. “Yield and protein like that,” someone said eventually, not looking up, “oughta be outlawed.” It was meant as a joke. It didn’t land like one. No one asked who that was. Nobody needed to. The phrase carried weight all on its own, passing from table to table, slipping into conversations that paused just long enough to acknowledge it. By the

Canada-China Trade Agreement Boosts Outlook for Canola and Prairie Seed Sheds

Renewed exports may narrow the basis and reduce surplus stocks, but rebuilding grower confidence will take time. Tariffs and economic trends are often discussed in the abstract, but their consequences couldn’t be more concrete for Prairie seed sheds. In recent months, real-world examples have already reared their heads — such as canola multiplications in California facing counter-tariffs — forcing Canada’s seed sector to adapt to a trade environment that can change quickly, even when agreements are reached. The recent trade deal between Canada and China has brought some much-needed relief to the sector, particularly around market access and export movement. But for many farmers and seed companies, the agreement also underscores a hard truth: the impacts of trade disruptions don’t disappear overnight. It is little surprise that global trade ripples affect local decisions: fewer seed options, changing input costs, and constrained access to genetics. “Tariffs create uncertainty in an

Canada Gains Expanded Meat Access in Indonesia

Canada has secured a major expansion of market access for beef and pork exports to Indonesia, marking a significant milestone following the signing of the Canada–Indonesia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) last September. 

'Phone in one hand, beer in the other': High-tech automation is giving farmers more time

Anyone visiting Don Badour’s cow-calf operation in the last 18 months will have noticed his cattle sporting some spiffy orange bling around their necks. The bovine baubles aren’t just for looks, however. They’re part of a sophisticated virtual fencing system that helps the Lanark County farmer monitor and track his herd’s movement and wellbeing. Badour is quite pleased with the investment — and so are the cows. “I thought that the cows might be not too happy with them on, but we put them on, they gave their heads one or two shakes, and that's it,” Badour said during a panel discussion at the 2026 Northern Ontario Ag Conference, hosted by the Northern Ontario Farm Innovation Alliance in Sudbury Feb. 6-7. “They've come to realize they're there. So we haven't had any trouble with the cows rejecting them.”? ?Made by the New Zealand company Gallagher, the eShepherd neck bands weigh about eight pounds each and are powered by solar-charged batteries. They run on GPS and the system is ope

Trump EPA sued over reapproval of dicamba herbicide as farm and environmental groups warn of renewed crop damage

Farmers and environmental organizations have launched a new legal challenge against the Environmental Protection Agency, arguing its latest approval of the controversial herbicide dicamba ignores court rulings, scientific evidence and the interests of growers harmed by chemical drift. The lawsuit, filed Friday in federal court by a coalition that includes the National Family Farm Coalition, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Center for Food Safety and Pesticide Action & Agroecology Network, challenges the EPA’s decision to re-register dicamba for use on genetically engineered soybeans and cotton. The decision marks the latest chapter in a years-long dispute over dicamba, a weedkiller widely used in U.S. agriculture but criticized for its tendency to volatilize and drift, damaging nearby crops, orchards and natural vegetation. “EPA’s re-registration of dicamba flies in the face of a decade of damning evidence, real world farming know-how and sound science, and, oh-by-the-way, t

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