Groups across Canada’s agriculture and food sectors feel the time is right for a national food policy.

Farm and food talks bring new voices to the policy table

The national food policy development process will pull many out of their comfort zone

The meeting the Canadian Federation of Agriculture hosted in Ottawa June 5 wasn’t the usual assembly of farmers. Participants included a broad spectrum of stakeholders with an interest in food, including Food Secure Canada, the Nutrition Resource Centre of the Ontario Public Health Association, the Maple Leaf Centre for Action on Food Security and the

packed frozen food in a freezer in a supermarket

Conference board issues provincial food ‘report card’

Manitoba rates high on food safety but low on security and manufacturing growth

Saskatchewan has earned nearly all As for industry prosperity, household food security and other areas in Canada’s Food Report Card 2016. Funded by the Conference Board of Canada and released last week, the report is a series of provincial report cards looking at domestic food by comparing the 10 provinces against each other. The report


Parliament Hill in Ottawa.

Government support for agricultural innovation vital

With the agriculture policy framework up for renewal, 2018 promises to be a critical year for the future of research

The federal government has been applauded by leaders in agriculture, research, and agribusiness up and down the value chain for the promises contained in the 2017 federal budget, released just over two weeks ago. The government’s goal is to increase Canada’s agri-food exports to at least $75 billion annually by 2025. With such an ambitious

Plants like this rose of Jericho are said to be ‘resurrection plants’ because they can appear all but dead, only to rapidly revive after they receive rainfall.

Could ‘resurrection’ crops survive drought and feed a hungry planet?

Desert plants all but die, then are resurrected when the rains come, says one African research scientist

Could harnessing the power of “resurrection plants” — with the ability to survive severe water shortages for years — hold the secret to feeding a hungry planet? Jill Farrant, a biology professor at Cape Town University, hopes that by putting resurrection plants’ survival skills into crops, making them drought tolerant, the world’s population could be


Food banks plant roots for the long term

Food banks plant roots for the long term

Canada’s food banks are embracing gardens and greenhouses, cooking classes and more 
to help clients achieve greater food security

Facing declining donations, an increasing number of Canadian food banks are growing their own food. Canadians may feel guilty for not giving enough but they shouldn’t. This is really about food banks adapting for the betterment of society. The Mississauga, Ont., and Surrey, B.C., food banks recently launched vertical farms using hydroponics and aquaponics. The

Farmers will have to produce more food to feed a growing population, but maybe not as much more as many think.

Food demand predictions could be inaccurate

Lots of people say food demand will double by 2050 — but some researchers say the numbers don’t add up

The widely held view that food production needs to double by 2050 to feed a growing world population may be inaccurate. In a study published in the journal Bioscience, researchers from Penn State’s agriculture college have challenged that view, saying the required increase may be as high as 70 per cent — or as low


A crop-eating army worm is seen on a sorghum plant at a farm in Settlers, northern province of Limpopo, February 8, 2017.

Pests, disease seen hitting southern African food output

A fall army worm outbreak is causing serious concern over food security in the region

Crop pests and diseases sweeping through southern Africa pose a threat to food security in a region where production has yet to recover from drought, a senior UN food agency official said Feb. 14, calling for a swift and co-ordinated response. At the start of an emergency conference called by the Food and Agriculture Organization

A new genetic study could make quinoa more consumer friendly over time.

Genetic study may make ancient Inca’s quinoa a grain of the future

The findings could pave the way to breeding out the bitter saponins that must currently be washed off post-harvest

Quinoa, the sacred “mother grain” of the ancient Inca civilization suppressed by Spanish conquistadors, could become an increasingly important food source in the future thanks to genetic secrets revealed in a new study. Scientists on Feb. 7 said they have mapped the genome of quinoa and identified a gene that could be manipulated to get


A woman at work pounding millet in Ndiael, Senegal, December 9, 2016.

Women lead battle to save Senegal’s shrinking farmland

Female-led work is vital to rural communities in Senegal — now women are organizing 
to lead the fight against multinational agribusiness

The women of Thiamene, a tiny straw hut village in northern Senegal, used to scrape together a living by collecting wild baobab fruit and selling milk from their cows. But their earnings have plummeted since an Italian-Senegalese agribusiness, Senhuile, took over the surrounding land five years ago, blocking their paths to the local market and

The view of ruins that once formed the centre of the Roman Empire from the rooftop terrace of the UN FAO headquarters in Rome, Italy. The empire failed for many reasons, but declining health of its population was among them.

Radical transformation of food system needed

The focus of future investments in the food system must be on nutrition — not calories

From its offices overlooking centuries-old ruins of the fallen Roman Empire, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is grappling with an issue many consider a threat to modern civilization. Global rates of malnutrition are growing at an unprecedented pace, despite progress that has been made reducing hunger and poverty. Sandwiched between the two extremes