Flower Sales Soar In February

Valentine’s Day will soon be here, and with it the annual rose promotion opportunity. While Old Man Winter is blowing icy breath at us, many of us take the most delicate of flowers home by the dozens. How long they last is anybody’s guess, but in the meantime, they have helped many a romance bloom.

No More Resolutions

So here we are – at the start of 2011. January is often the time we make New Year’s resolutions, and that for sure, we are going to do better with those promises than we did last year. Instead of making those useless resolutions, I will do something different this time. Lots of good things


Christmas Is For Sharing

For most people, Christmas is a time for family – a time to feast, share and enjoy each other’s company. One of my most lasting memories of my childhood Christmases is of my best friend Susi’s mother Anna, and the way she added a different twist to their celebrations. Anna and her husband were parents

Wal-Mart To Boost Buying From Small And Local Farms

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is planning to double the sales of fresh produce from local farms in its U. S. stores by the end of 2015, part of a strategy to revamp its global produce supply chain. The world’s largest retailer said it would also sell more than $1 billion each year in food from one

Biodiversity Of Planet In Peril, Says United Nations

The world’s countries are bankrupting their natural economies and must take bold action to reverse biodiversity losses caused by pollution, deforestation and climate change, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told a UN summit on biodiversity. Ban and other leaders want world leaders to agree on a formal plan on biodiversity – the preservation of animal and plant


Organic Agriculture Is The Future

Does organic agriculture have a future? For some, such as well-known plant scientist E. Ann Clark, organic is the future. In a paper released earlier this year, the University of Guelph professor joined those who say that the end of cheap oil will mean the end of conventional agriculture as it’s currently practised. “(T)he future

“Cow Chip” To Track Brazilian Cattle

Years after India broke into the high-tech business with information technology and China by way of manufacturing, Brazil may find its entrance in an unusual place – a cow’s ear. The South American giant is preparing to use its first locally designed microchip in cattle earrings, a device that could eventually help authorities crack down



Brazil Farmers Shown How To Profit By Conserving

Talk of ecological diversity or saving rare species does not fly very far in Mato Grosso. The state is Brazil’s top soy producer, churning out an annual harvest of about 18 million tonnes. Fields of emerald green line the highways, stretching out to horizons so flat they look drawn with a ruler. The crops have

Our Great Canadian Country Winters

A foggy night had spread lacy hoarfrost on every bush and tree and made the whole countryside look like a Christmas postcard. Many of us would not count winter as our favourite season – the cold weather, the piles of snow, the shovelling, the ice. Some avoid all this by moving to warmer climates for