Cash for agroforestry project

A$160,000 federal grant has been awarded to a Manitoba conservation district study the environmental and economic benefits of shelterbelts on ranches. The Upper Assiniboine River Conservation District will use the funding to study how agroforestry can reduce the costs associated with livestock production and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. The project will evaluate various beneficial management

Home Isn’t Where The Heart Is

Word the province will build 150 more housing units for Manitoba’s senior population is good news, say economic development officers who know their burgeoning numbers of 55-plus need it. But they also say 150 more homes for low-to moderate-income renters will make barely a dent in what’s become a critical housing shortage in the province.


Leafy Spurge Losses Continue To Mount In Manitoba

More than 10 years after it was identified as a major weed pest in Manitoba, leafy spurge is now a much worse problem than ever. A new survey says leafy spurge infests over three times as many acres and produces twice as much financial damage as it did in 1999, when the last survey was

Local Food Activists Urged To Seek Common Cause With Farmers

The modern warehouse-on- wheels food distribution system, with its just-in-time delivery from producers to processors, and finally to retailers, works just fine. But there is a dark side. Not only is it totally dependent on a smoothly functioning economy and uninterrupted supplies of fossil fuel for powering every link in the chain, it is also


McKenzie Seeds Shows Off Its New Location

The recession has actually helped Canada’s largest packet seed company and the local-food trend and food scares are also boosting business. “We have noticed that there has been an increased interest in gardening in the last couple of seasons, which may be attributed to the uncertain economy and contributing factors such as food safety,” said

New Blood Needed, Not Just In Rural Areas

If present demographic trends continue, it won’t be just rural areas emptying out. In fact, by 2030, the population of Canada overall will begin shrinking, as deaths outnumber births, according to Ray Bollman, a statistician from the Agriculture Division of Statistics Canada. “Why are we worried about immigration? If there’s no immigration, there will be


In Brief… – for Oct. 21, 2010

Baltic stake:Viterra Inc. is opening a new marketing office in Kiev, Ukraine. “By establishing our company in key geographic areas such as Ukraine, we extend our ability to manage trade flows of food ingredients, freight activities and arbitrage opportunities, while managing price risk,” said Christian Joerg, vice-president and managing director, Europe.Net trade exports of wheat,

Growth In Diversity Will Be Concentrated In Cities, StatsCan Report Says

“My big concern has always been having a divide between rural and urban this way.” – MARTY DOLIN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, MANITOBA INTERFAITH IMMIGRATION COUNCIL Statistics Canada is projecting greater diversity among Canada’s future population, but not for small towns and rural areas of Canada. By 2031, one in three Canadians will belong to a visible


Southwest Explores Strategies For Immigration

Southeastern Manitoba has scored big in their efforts to attract thousands of new immigrants to work in industries there. Now towns in southwestern Manitoba – Deloraine, Melita and Virden and others – want to attract them too. “We’ve seen the success stories out of places like Morden and Winkler,” said Shirley Bell, an economic development

“Alternative” Systems Get Mainstream Funding

“We’re thinking about more diverse ways of building relationships across the Prairie provinces. We’re not talking about 100-mile diets here.” – STPHANE MCLACHLAN The federal government is providing $1 million for a five-year project in Manitoba to develop more community-based alternative food systems for rural, urban and northern Manitoba. The Community University Research Alliance (CURA)