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Tag Archives Sustainable food system

Columns, Crops

Sask. and QC couples earn national OYF honours

Working with natural systems appeals to OYF-winning diversified producers

By
What’s the world coming to? When it comes to well managed farming operations recognized as Outstanding Young Farmers it appears to be leaning toward a natural field cropping operation in Saskatchewan and an organic market garden operation in Quebec. Derek and Tannis Axten of Axten Farms Ltd. near Minton, Sask., and Véronique Bouchard and François Handfield of Mont-Tremblant, […] Read more
Vegetable producers Francois Handfield and Veronique Bouchard with their children: Philomène, eight, and Éméric, 10.
Crops, Features, Fruit/Vegetables

Canada’s OYF: Quebec nominees

Francois Handfield and Veronique Bouchard embrace organic farming


By
They were two non-farmers who started out with $500, a wheelbarrow and a dream. Less than 10 years later, Francois Handfield and Veronique Bouchard have a thriving organic market garden, community shared agriculture business supplying produce to about 4,000 people, they employ up to 20 seasonal workers, and gross about $800,000 annually. A lot of […] Read more
Derek and Tannis Axten with their children Kate, 13, and Brock, 11, know if they look after the soil it will produce.
Crops, Features

Canada’s OYF: Nominees from Saskatchewan

Derek and Tannis Axten focus on encouraging soil biology

By
Daring to be different may enrich your spirit, but it can also leave you cash poor. If you’re Derek and Tannis Axten, however, you wind up having your fungicide-free cake and eating it too. While the 2017 Outstanding Young Farmer (OYF) Award winners for Saskatchewan began their farming career on a well-trodden path, the route […] Read more
Lystek takes municipal waste and turns it into a rich fertilizer for your land.
Crops, Features

Turning city waste into good fertilizer

Soil Management: Lystek International’s CFIA-registered fertilizer takes waste from sewage to nutrition

By
One man’s trash is another’s treasure. It’s a familiar idiom at the heart of a Canadian company’s process for turning municipal sewage into fertilizer. Faced with the challenge of dealing with sludge, Canadian municipalities have done everything from dumping it in landfills to letting it flow into the ocean. Lystek International, based in Cambridge, Ontario, […] Read more
This tillage radish is in the early stages of getting to work.
Crops, Features

The economic value of growing cover crops

Not all of the economic benefits of cover crops can be measured easily, but it’s worth a try

By
The first question that comes up when cover crops are discussed is “Do they pay?” Net returns from cover crops will be determined by what goals were set, what species were grown and other intrinsic benefits from the cover crop. In any business, net profit is the difference between costs and revenue. The two ways […] Read more
Planning large-scale agricultural landscapes requires a lot of organization and co-ordination.
Crops, Features, Soybeans

Studying the whole ecosystem

Matthew Mitchell’s research looks at how soybeans are affected by nearby forests

By
How can farmers produce food while also providing more environmental and societal benefits from the land they’re managing? That is a million dollar question that Dr. Matthew Mitchell is trying to answer. While completing his PhD in natural resource sciences at McGill, Mitchell was part of a larger, two-year study looking at how people affect […] Read more
soybean field
Crops, Features

Manage your fields like a business

Changing your thinking about your cropping plans can make you more money

By
Farmers can make more money from their cash crops if they’re more selective about the land that they farm. This means focusing inputs and capital only on the most profitable areas of a field, limiting expenditures on under-performing areas — and perhaps taking some land out of agricultural production entirely. That was advice for growers […] Read more
Farmers weigh in on “consumer demand”
Crops

Farmers weigh in on “consumer demand”

Consumers need to be educated, but also willing to pay

By
Responding to “consumer demands” isn’t necessarily about making some wholesale changes in farm operating practices, say Prairie farmers contacted for the February Farmer Panel. Those often heard claims that “the consumer is demanding…” everything from healthier, safer food, to reduced environmental footprint, to improved livestock and production practices need to be heard, say panel members. But sometimes […] Read more
Agricultural sustainability and feeding the world
Columns, Crops

Agricultural sustainability and feeding the world

Sustainability, organic farming, and feeding the world: not as simple as they sound

By
Sustainability is a major ag buzzword today, mostly peddled by folks with little concept of what a farm is. It is being used in both crop and animal production but I will just talk about crops. To get on the “sustainable” list to market certain crops I see very strange requirements. You must not push […] Read more

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