(Photo courtesy Canada Beef Inc.)

Feds open up consultations for sustainable ag strategy

Producer groups to have reps on advisory committee

The federal government has enlisted farm groups on the ground floor of consultations toward development of a long-term strategy to “amplify” the adoption and use of sustainable practices in agriculture over the next year. Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau on Dec. 12 announced the launch of public consultations on strategy development, running from now through March

File photo of a rapeseed field in southern China’s Yunnan province. (YuenWu/iStock/Getty Images)

One-third of China’s land protected under ecological ‘red line’ scheme

Authorities crack down on farm encroachment

Shanghai | Reuters — Nearly a third of China’s land is now off-limits to development under a scheme known as the “ecological protection red line,” a senior official said at a news briefing on Monday, bringing the country in accord with global biodiversity targets. China first proposed its “red line” scheme in 2011 to put


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Home to roost

Wildlife habitat on the Cuthberts’ land along Delta Marsh will last, no matter who holds the title

Nestled on the south edge of Lake Manitoba’s Delta Marsh, where it meets Portage Creek, there sits a pastoral slice of paradise. The tract covers 31 acres of riparian habitat, wetland, forest and meadow, and is home to hundreds of species of wild animals and birds — plus two humans, Cal and Elaine Cuthbert. For

Organic farmers more likely to leave space for biodiversity, study says

Organic farmers more likely to leave space for biodiversity, study says

Biodiversity concerns became part of the Canadian Organic Standards in 2020

Organic farmers leave more semi-natural vegetation in their fields than their conventional counterparts, according to a recent study out of Dalhousie University. Out of 71 organic and conventional field pairs mapped in a Saskatchewan-based study, the organic fields contained just over nine per cent mixed perennial, or semi-natural, vegetation whereas conventional fields contained about six per

Sites like the Princes Creek Dam on Swan Lake First Nation have become a major location for the federal Living Labs initiative.

How First Nations priorities are informing novel ag practices

Swan Lake First Nation is a major player in a multi-stakeholder initiative looking for new solutions on land and water management

The goal was to capture the best of both worlds — a productive agriculture landscape while protecting the surrounding natural ecosystem. The unlikely scene is 13 acres of potato land, owned by Swan Lake First Nation (SLFN), and rented out to a neighbouring farmer. The land has newly installed tile drainage to manage water and


Comment: Biodiversity targets for 2030 under negotiation

World leaders are pondering new targets to protect flora and fauna in the coming years

Putting biodiversity on a path to recovery is a defining challenge of this decade.” So begins the Kunming Declaration on biodiversity, adopted at the 15th UN biodiversity conference on October 13, 2021, otherwise known as COP15. The purpose of the online gathering was to get governments from around the world to agree a new set

A multi-species cover crop can mimic how soil was initially created, with a collection of root exudates from each individual species.

Cover cropping improves land and bank balance

Ontario farmer Blake Vince has harnessed the power of cover crops on his operation

Despite not having cattle on his operation, Blake Vince says he is still a livestock farmer. “Where my livestock are is below my feet and sadly we forget that. The soil is alive, it is a collection of living organisms,” Vince, a Canadian Nuffield Scholar and fifth-generation Ontario farmer, said during a presentation at the

Dairy farmer Markus Legge is coping with the European “dairy crisis” by lowering costs and increasing his margins through organic milk production.

German agriculture under the microscope

International Agriculture: Farmers are pursuing sustainability against a backdrop 
of increasing public scrutiny

Rommerskirchen, Germany – Here are our ‘plant protection’ products,” Willi Kremer Schilling told a delegation of foreign journalists as they entered the fortress-like warehouse at the Buir-Bilesheimer Agricultural Co-operative. “I never say ‘pesticides,” he said. “These are ‘medicines’ for plants.” Willi is one of the 1,150-member co-op’s farmer-directors and he proudly hosts tours of its new


(Photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

France moves toward all-out ban on neonics

Paris | Reuters — French lawmakers approved plans for a total ban on some widely used pesticides blamed for harming bees, going beyond European Union restrictions in a fierce debate that has pitched farmers and chemical firms against beekeepers and green groups. The EU limited the use of neonicotinoid chemicals, produced by companies including Bayer

Ron and Janice Apostle received the 2014 Intermountain Conservation District award after implementing a number of conservation efforts on their cow-calf operation.

Bale grazing for a healthier pasture and wallet

Conservation Champions: A Gilbert Plains producer says switching to a bale-grazing system has saved money, 
labour and created positive changes in pastures

Ron and Janice Apostle run their second-generation cow-calf operation on the outskirts of Gilbert Plains with the intent of leaving the land better than they found it. “Everything starts with the environment,” said Janice. “We used to have our corrals right by the creek and we wanted to apply to move them. During that process