New initiative supports school gardens

Nutrients for Life Foundation Canada, a registered Canadian charity, has launched a network to support the growth of school gardens in Canadian middle and high schools. The hub is a new website, www.schoolgardennetwork.ca that provides a showcase for existing gardens, links to new curriculum resources and points to community resources that can help schools interested

CSA pioneers say market gardening works for them

Most of the local food grown 
by Theresa and Geoff Dyck is 
consumed in Winnipeg 
but they would love to 
sell to the cottage crowd

Geoff and Theresa Dyck drop tiny pepper plants into pressed earth squares with the ease of people who have done it before — many, many times before. “We always remind ourselves when we are tired or cranky and there are mosquitos… that we are not punching a clock,” says Theresa. “We are making our own


Here’s your chance

It’s a common rant in the coffee shops and at the microphone of farm meetings. It’s been the subject of conferences and multi-stakeholder think-tanks. People outside of agriculture just don’t understand what it means to be a farmer. Farm Credit Canada recently consulted with its Farm Vision Panel on the matter and came up with

Agency says female farmers key to boosting global food supply

Reuters / Empowering female farmers in developing countries is crucial to solving the world’s food problems, according to the chair of a panel which advises governments and donors on agricultural development in sub-Saharan Africa. “If we’re going to feed the world and in particular if Africa is going to be fed, we need every tool



Plenty on the plate for food security groups

Residents of Winnipeg’s St. Vital neighbourhood are digesting the results of a newly released study that reflects what matters to them about food. The Winnipeg suburb is one of several sites in Manitoba to undergo community food assessments in recent months, an initiative to better understand where residents buy or access food, if they grow


UN-backed land use rules ready for final OK

milan / reuters / After three years of debate, the United Nations is issuing guidelines on responsible land use as part of an effort to regulate so-called land grabbing and boost food security. The guidelines include promoting equal rights for women in securing title to land, creating transparent record-keeping systems accessible to the rural poor,

Strategic plan sought to secure future of food and the farm

Late winter was historically the time of the “hunger moon.” The larder of winter food was low and people waited anxiously for the land to produce again. People could only dream of a time when they would not have to worry they had enough. In Canada “Food Freedom Day” a designation of Canadian Federation of


Professor says farmers and ranchers are “an endangered species”

The rural landscape is changing, and not for the better. “Farm and ranch people are an endangered species, without the benefit of protective legislation,” Roger Epp told farmers attending a recent grazing conference in Winnipeg. “Their habitat has also become subject to persistent encroachment over time.” Agriculture and rural life on the Prairies were once

Funding For Food Programs Facing Cuts

In China, dairy cows revolve on carousels in synchronized milking, while in Kenya, small farmers are planting a new high-yielding sweet potato. These projects, and scores more, are shaping a new century of agriculture. Whether it be cattle herders in sub-Saharan Africa or rice growers in rural Asia, farmers and ranchers need help to produce