Reading Time: < 1 minute Burnbrae Farms is one of the recipients of the Ontario government’s Excellence in Agriculture awards. The province made the announcement at the start of the recent Ontario Agriculture Week. Burnbrae Farms operates the largest solar-powered egg farm in Canada, operating off the electricity grid. Four barns use high-efficiency motors, lighting and ventilation systems to ensure […] Read more
Tag Archives Environment
Burnbrae solar farm wins Excellence in Agriculture award
Editorial: When good policy is foiled by bad additions
Biodiversity provisions are unworkable in clean fuel standards
Reading Time: 3 minutes The increase in demand for biofuels coming from the federal government’s Clean Fuel Standard should be a cause for celebration for farmers, but there’s concerning fine print in the regulations. It can be argued that ethanol policy over the past 20 years has been the most successful farm support program in history. It created a […] Read more
Low-carbon plan aims for premiums
Agriculture companies increasingly see carbon scoring as opportunity
Reading Time: 3 minutes Glacier FarmMedia – What does it take to produce a bushel of grain? How much fertilizer, fuel, chemical and carbon? These are questions a new company — Gro Network — hopes to answer. If things go as planned, farmers who participate in Gro Network’s low-carbon grain scoring program will receive premium pricing for every bushel […] Read more
The economics of cover crops
Ridgetown research highlights profitability gains and losses in grain and vegetable systems
Reading Time: 2 minutes The impact of cover crops on profit margins is a long-contested subject, but new data from the University of Guelph shows some clear winners and losers. Vegetable crop yields, specifically, benefit most – grains not so much, unless farmers get credit for carbon sequestration. Studies showing the economic costs and benefits of cover crops exist, […] Read more
Continually agitated manure system launches in North America
Irish-developed system installed in new Wellington County dairy barn
Reading Time: 4 minutes In an innovative new dairy barn near Moorefield, the centuries-old practice of composting solid manure is being combined with a new-to-North-America approach to continually agitating liquid manure. On May 12, Kristina and Simon Signer moved their 53 Brown Swiss from a tie-stall set-up in the Sigview Farms bank barn to a new composting bedded pack […] Read more
Farm group wants climate at forefront of COVID-19 recovery
Farmers for Climate Solutions says farmers should lead the way in providing solutions
Reading Time: 4 minutes A coalition of farm organizations, including several in Ontario, is calling for a Canada-wide recovery plan from the COVID-19 pandemic that puts a strong emphasis on agricultural resilience to climate change. A report released recently by Farmers for Climate Solutions (FCS) — members of which include the Ecological Farmers Association of Ontario (EFAO), National Farmers […] Read more
University proposal among food system prize semifinalists
Researchers hope vision for 2020 will be worthy of $200,000
Reading Time: 3 minutes Two researchers from the University of Guelph have reached the semifinalist stage of a $2-million competition striving for a more environmentally conscious future of food. The proposal, submitted by a professor and a PhD student from University of Guelph’s School of the Environmental Sciences, calls for “truly integrative agricultural practices” throughout southwestern Ontario by 2050, […] Read more
How green products are spreading around the world
From protecting pollinating insects to cutting the hoofprint of cashmere-producing goats, companies are aiming greener
Reading Time: 3 minutes Thomson Reuters Foundation – From helping Mongolia’s goat herders produce cashmere more efficiently to counting insects on “biodiversity plots” planted on farms, some of the world’s biggest brands are blazing a trail with innovative efforts to nurture nature. Sustainability researchers say businesses have shown a surge of interest in limiting the harm their operations do […] Read more
McCain builds farms to showcase sustainable practices
The company has committed to reducing the impact of its potato operations
Reading Time: 2 minutes Glacier Farmmedia – McCain Foods says it is building the farm of the future. The New Brunswick company announced in mid-July that it wants potato production to be more sustainable. To that end, McCain’s is establishing three Farms of the Future to learn how regenerative agriculture and innovation can work at scale in potato farming. […] Read more
Researchers say free trade can help climate change hunger
Science Notes: Climate change will impact regions in different ways
Reading Time: 2 minutes Researchers from KU Leuven, the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and RTI International investigated the effects of trade on hunger in the world as a result of climate change. They found that international trade can compensate for regional food shortages and reduce hunger, particularly when protectionist measures and other barriers to trade are […] Read more
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