First place agricultural photo in the UK

Owen Roberts July 20th, 2010

Many member countries in the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists hold their own photo awards annually, with participants often competing in the federation’s yearly competition as well. Congratulations to UK agricultural journalist and photographer Joe Watson of Scotland for winning the people category — as well as the top prize overall — in his guild’s photo contest, with this dramatic shot of farrier Alex Sharman.

Click here to see other UK photo award winners.

Farmers in the middle of low-price retail battle

Owen Roberts July 19th, 2010

Here’s a brave prediction from the George Morris Centre: food prices won’t rise in our current competitive environment for groceries. Even though significant factors are at play behind the scenes, such as a recovering economy and rising production costs for farmers, the chronic grocery war between retailers will keep food prices in check.

It’s a conclusion found in a new report released last week by the Guelph-based centre. The report focuses on private labels—retailer-owned labels such as No Name and President’s Choice—versus national brands. Report author Kevin Grier says the two parties are slugging it out with increasing intensity, as the brands try to win back customers from popular and cheaper private labels.

That’s prompting all competitors to beef up their marketing, promotion, profile and pricing efforts, says Grier. And along with Wal-Mart’s foray into the cheap-food business, it’s a move that will keep Canadian food price inflation in line.

That’s good news for consumers. But it underlines how the primary production sector – that is, farmers – will need increased support to maintain a stable industry. Farmers are taking a hit and they’re fed up with platitudes about the importance of the sector, while many of them are struggling to make ends meet.

I cover the ins and outs of this situation in my Urban Cowboy column in today’s Guelph Mercury. 

Drought research helps feed a hungry world

Owen Roberts July 12th, 2010

Ever wonder what keeps ornamental plants going in staggering heat and drought as they wait for a new home, outside grocery stores and big box outlets? It can be a tough grind. When plants come from the comfort of a nursery into a store’s garden centre (such as it is), which is often perched atop part of the establishment’s blistering hot parking lot, it’s a shock to their systems. And considering most of the ornamentals consumers purchase in Ontario now come from megastores, losses can be huge.

One way to deal with this is to beef up the plants’ abilities to withstand drought and harsh conditions, get retailers to help sponsor research, and serve consumers needs. Ornamentals have all kinds of value, environmentally and economically. And in the even bigger picture, what researchers learn about drought tolerance in ornamental plants can be applied to food crops, too.

With climate change (apparently) upon us, new knowledge that sheds light on how to cope with temperature extremes and extraordinary growing conditions could potentially help in areas where drought is already prevalent and seems to be getting worse, such as certain underdeveloped countries. This kind of research is underway at the University of Guelph and the Vineland Research and Innovation Centre, where they’re using petunias for their ornamental drought studies. I cover this issue in my Urban Cowboy column today in the Guelph Mercury.

The petunia photo below is from annecyhs’ photostream.

SPARK and ag com grads among new farm writers’ executive

Owen Roberts July 9th, 2010

The 2010-2011 version of the Eastern Canada Farm Writers’ Association board brings a broad range of experience and ambition to the table.  The board held its inaugural meeting this week, and president Clare Illingworth says the group is determined to carry on the ECFWA’s tradition of offering value to its members. “I know that this executive will be able to build on that reputation, as we gear up to host our international colleagues at IFAJ 2011,” she says. 

It’s great to see so many former SPARK participants and ag communications graduates among the executive. The group, from left, comprises president Clare (SPARK),  second vice-president Karen Dallimore, director Kathie MacDonald (ag com diploma), secretary-treasurer Andrew Campbell (SPARK*AIR liaison with farms.com), newsletter editor Claire Cowan (ag com undergraduate course), director Terry Stevenson (ag com diploma), first vice-president Sarah Andrewes and past president Kelly Daynard.  Absent from the photo are directors Jane Robinson and Christina Franc. 

What a competent group! Good luck to the new executive. 

There’s more to life than deficit reduction

Owen Roberts July 5th, 2010

The deficit reduction measures that consumed discussions at the G20 summit in Toronto are no-brainers. Few can argue with globally agreed upon efforts to reduce the crushing debt that leaves borrowers with a chronic black cloud over their heads, and lenders wondering if they’ll ever get their money back. It would irresponsible for world leaders to avoid it, given the economy’s still-fragile comeback and experts’ warnings that we are far from out of the woods.

But that said, there’s more to life than deficit reduction. It’s not what protesters or police put life and limb on the line for at the summit. I believe in their respective ways, they were stepping up for democracy and all it entails, although their definitions of it were appreciably different.

For example, people rail against deficit reduction when it makes the vulnerable elements of society even more exposed than they already are. To me, that’s something to peacefully protest against. And by the same token, it’s something to defend.

However, even moving the public opinion meter on domestic versus imported food pales in comparison to the effort needed to move the world toward real support for some of the most vulnerable members of our global society – that is, the poverty-stricken souls in underdeveloped countries. People might be surprised to learn upwards of 80 per cent of them are farmers … not farmers as we know them in North America, but rather subsistence farmers who grow food for their own family and a few others.

These farmers are not a threat to our agricultural sector. They are not an enemy of Canada’s economy, or anyone else’s. Rather, they are people who would truly benefit from a global investment in agriculture.

I write about the need to keep them in sight in today’s Urban Cowboy column in the Guelph Mercury.

The photo below, from the Agriterra website, depicts rural life in Burkina Faso.

Peaceful development messages hard to hear amid violence

Owen Roberts June 28th, 2010

An estimated 80 per cent of those who need assistance in underdeveloped countries are farmers. So, programs targeted at helping farmers can likewise help economies recover. Farmers who are profitable, however you measure it and wherever they farm, can feed their families and some of those around them who aren’t able to feed themselves.

Farm leader Ron Bonnett of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture hoped that message got through to G20 leaders last week when they met in Toronto. Most of their interest was in economic recovery…and that’s exactly what Bonnett emphasized in his invest-in-agriculture video, offered up through the International Federation of Agricultural Producers.

Bonnett’s hoping politicians don’t lose sight it while they try to remain cost conscious. I write about his position in the latest edition of my Urban Cowboy column in the Guelph Mercury. He thinks, though, positions such as his about agriculture and other less contentious topics were probably muted by the angry and violent demonstrations at the G20, such as that captured by Toronto Star photographer Bernard Weil below.

G8, G20 make Farmers Fighting Poverty campaign timely

Owen Roberts June 25th, 2010

The G8 and G20 activity in Ontario makes it timely to introduce an anti-rural poverty campaign I learned about at the recent International Federation of Agricultural Journalists congress in Belgium, called Farmers Fighting Poverty. It’s led by an NGO based in The Netherlands, Agriterra, whose head of communications, Jose van Gelder (pictured below), provides the guest blog posted on the Agriterra site. Be sure to check out the campaign’s new video there.

World leaders say they want to end poverty and promote ecomonic stability. That’s great, but without farmer stability, any significant measure of recovery will be shortlived.  

Jose van Gelder, Agriterra head of communications

Bomb scare prompts calls for security overhaul

Owen Roberts June 21st, 2010

Ever since anti-government terrorist Timothy McVeigh killed 168 people by blowing up an Oklahoma City federal government building with 40 bags of ammonium nitrate — a farm fertilizer than can also be an explosive — authorities everywhere have been on high alert for unusual purchases of large quantities of fertilizer.

Earlier this month, with G8 and G20 summits right around the corner, fears of another terrorism plot surfaced when a farm supply store in southern Ontario told police of a suspicious purchase.  After an investigation, the fertilizer purchase turned out to be legitimate. But although the scare was a false alarm, it was a red flag for the farming community. It underlined how extremely vulnerable farming is to terrorism, not just in wide open spaces such as pastures and fields, but in the very stores where farmers (and non-farmers) buy supplies.

I write about the agricultural community’s $100-million plea for help in response to this bomb scare and others, in today’s Urban Cowboy column in the Guelph Mercury.

The photo below is from the Oklahoma City national memorial and museum, which includes 168 chairs in nine rows, to represent each floor of the building that was destroyed by the blast. Each chair bears the name of someone killed on that floor. Nineteen smaller chairs stand for the children killed.

When plants talk, this scientist listens

Owen Roberts June 14th, 2010

It’s a special time of the year. Tiny crop plants such as corn and soybeans are poking through the ground, creeping skyward to capture the sun’s warming rays.

And they’re screaming their little green heads off about their no-good, sun-sucking neighbours.

At least, that’s what University of Guelph plant scientist Prof. Clarence Swanton hears when he puts his ear to the ground and listens, so to speak, to plants’ response to their environment. A lot of the talk actually occurs between the plants, and many of the messages are the same: Get lost!

Clarence describes the listening phenomenon in my Urban Cowboy column today, in the Guelph Mercury. He’ll also be presenting the topic at an open discussion Friday, June 25, as part of the U of G-OMAFRA News@Noon series, from noon – 1 p.m. in the Ontario Veterinary College Lifetime Learning Centre, room 1714. Admission is free.

The photo of Clarence (below) is from Chatham-area farm writer and broadcaster Blair Andrews’ Farm Connection blog.

Research writers ramp-up activity with SPARK Speaks blog

Owen Roberts June 11th, 2010

Students Promoting Awareness of Research Knowledge (SPARK) is the name of the student research-writing program at the University of Guelph, which is ramping up its blogging activities through the newly named SPARK Speaks. You can subscribe to new post notification emails — such as SPARK participant Natalie Osborne’s online radio news award from the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists — at the bottom of the right hand navigation bar.

Below is this summer’s SPARK contingent (from left): Carol Moore, Joey Sabljic, Matt Hawes, John Roberts, Vanessa Perkins and Natalie Osborne (photo by Hayley Millard).

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