Children run through the pathways of a corn maze designed to honour children who died while attending residential schools. Photo: supplied

Every child matters

A corn maze commemorating the lost children is a place to reflect and remember

Children run through the pathways of a corn maze designed to honour children who died while attending residential schools.

Students from the File Hills and other residential schools were not only recruited to become model farmers, they were selected to join the Canadian Expeditionary Forces sent off to fight in the First World War.  Photo: Courtesy of University of Regina archives “A Failed Experiment” Collection.

Reconciling the painful past creates hope for a more promising future

The File Hills Colony near Balcarres, Sask. epitomized everything that was wrong about colonial attitudes towards Indigenous peoples. But new models for Indigenous agriculture are emerging

More than a century after its creation, there is no visible sign remaining of the File Hills Farm Colony in southern Saskatchewan. But the painful memories of an experiment that epitomized the culture of assimilation permeating that era’s attitudes towards Canada’s Indigenous peoples still live in the collective memories of residential school survivors. Likewise for some of the racist attitudes and policies that still exist today. 


Treaty land sharing: Farmers and Indigenous communities gather to discuss their common connections to land. Photo: Bill DeKay

Sharing the countryside

Finding a new way of living together is key to the future of rural Canada

The launch of the Treaty Land Sharing Network was about people who share the countryside, together setting a different course than the one scripted for them.




Marco van Leeuwen is the president of the International Seed Federation and managing director of seed company Rijk Zwaan. Photo: John Greig

World Seed Congress addresses global supply chain challenges 

The World Seed Congress is on in Rotterdam, Netherlands with a discussion of the major issues facing the seed and crops sector. The major issues on the agenda include the challenges that the decline in free trade and globalization brings to major suppliers of seeds, the acceptance of gene editing and the technology involved in that process.

Researcher Amélie Gaudin says severe weather conditions becoming more normal and the agriculture sector must adapt to these conditions.

Rotational advantages

More is uncovered about the long-term benefits of crop rotation

It’s one thing to have research projects geared to the long-term effects of crop rotation, but it’s quite another to have research data that stretches across a wide geographic area, allowing for more useful predictions. Amélie Gaudin has been following the results from long-term studies on rotational diversity since earning her PhD from the University […] Read more