However, Charlebois cautioned at the time, unpredictable heat, cold and rainfall continue to influence farming in ways never experienced in modern-era agriculture. He warned that could send their numbers askew.

“If the weather co-operates, our predictions will be fine,” he said. “But how can we know what Mother Nature will do?”

He could hardly have imagined his climatic caveat would be so prophetic. Record high temperatures this winter sparked extremely early blossoming. Then many of those delicate blossoms took a pummeling late last month by the latest of several killing frosts. The damage is done, and when blossoms die, so does the foundation of the tree’s fruiting process.

The result, said fruit industry officials last week, is predicted losses of up to $100 million for Ontario’s fruit industry, particularly for apples and for what’s called tender fruit, such as peaches, cherries, pears, plums and nectarines.

Take $100 million out of any sector and see what happens. This may not officially be deemed a disaster — not yet, anyway — but at the farm level, it’s a real mess. I write about the problems it’s causing in my Urban Cowboy column in the Guelph Mercury.

In the photo, above Ontario’s Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, Ted McMeekin (right) discussed frost damage to apple and tender fruit orchards with Rich Feenstra, owner of Mountainview Orchards near Beamsville. Photo by OMAFRA.

Those are among the questions a Guelph and Waterloo research group have been trying to figure out. With support from the Ontario Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Rural Affairs, researchers have been looking at the challenges and opportunities facing local food producers. And they’ve found there are plenty of both, particularly in Ontario’s health-care system.

For example, they say healthier and fresher meals in hospitals and long-term care facilities have the potential to improve patient care. Ideally, they’d like to see the local food quotient in those institutions rise to 20 per cent by 2015.

That presents challenges, they say, which includes actually defining local food, for sourcing and purchasing purposes. The definition — like local food itself — is all over the map. That makes it tough for something as massive as Ontario’s health care system to rally around it, when it can’t easily define, let alone find it in quantities it requires.

Budgets are another matter. Hospital food budgets are $30 to $35 per patient per day — but that includes everything, such as wages and food preparation. Only $7 to $8 remains for actual food purchase. And that’s for three meals. No wonder then that hospital food managers are tempted to seek out big food suppliers that make available large, cheap and consistent quantities.

I write about the need for a broader approach to local food in my Urban Cowboy column in the Guelph Mercury.

The image here is from http://www.triolearnconsulting.com/

But there’s no doubt wind energy — or more specifically, the turbines that turn wind into energy — has raised hackles with citizens here and elsewhere in rural Canada, and with farm organizations concerned about health and the environment.

As evidence, look at the reaction to wind energy from the Ontario Federation of Agriculture.

In January, it issued a missive urging the province to stop approving new wind energy projects. The federation says wind energy pits rural Ontarians against each other. Escalating concerns about industrial wind turbines means the province should suspend further development until farm families and rural residents are assured that their interests are adequately protected, according to the federation.

OK, but what about this: the pro-wind energy group, the Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA), said last week Canada is on track for another record year for wind energy development in 2012. Rural Ontario, the home of what the wind-energy cautious federation says is a hotbed of wind-energy consternation, will lead the way for new installations. And, says CanWEA, farmers will continue their pivotal role as land-lease holders in the wind energy system.

Indeed, CanWEA predicts about 1,500 megawatts of new installed capacity will be added in Canada this year. The country is sixth in the world for new installed wind energy capacity, and how has 5,403 megawatts of total wind power, enough to service more than 1.2 million homes.

I write about this issue in my Urban Cowboy column in the Guelph Mercury.

Like the rest of us, Caron, who co-ordinates the hunt on a campground she runs with her husband Virgil Wilson on the Chippewa-of-the-Thames First Nation outside London, laments (but begrudgingly accepts) the fact that we need food banks in seemingly prosperous Ontario.

In fact, we need them more than ever. The price of food and shelter is rising, and the cash-strapped provincial government is making tough decisions about social program funding. “It’s still hard times for a lot of people,” says Debra Hubner, member and government relations co-ordinator for the Ontario Association of Food Banks. “They haven’t been bouncing back from the recession.”

Ontario is home to 120 food banks. The association says 400,000 people use hunger-relief programs every month. Sadly, the biggest users, numbering nearly 150,000, are children.

Worse still, those figures are on the rise.

Such statistics frustrate anyone who hears them, including Caron, a grandmother of five. But this year, after she finished shaking her head in anger and disbelief, she decided to pitch in. She normally gives the proceeds from her community-supported Easter egg hunt (now in its 10th year) to a children’s charity. And while that’s not how you’d normally describe the Ontario Association of Food Banks, she thought it was a great fit, given the huge number of children the association helps.

Read her story here in my Urban Cowboy column, in the Guelph Mercury.

Greed is the only reason that’s emerging after last week’s mean-spirited spike at the pumps. Other excuses — such as switching from winter to summer gas, problems in the Middle East and shortages due to refineries closing — have been written off as lame by industry experts.

Thanks for ripping off Canadians.

Some people say complaining about the price of gas is like a junkie complaining about the price of dope. But I don’t accept that. Mass transit works well in many situations, but it doesn’t always fit the bill in an expansive country such as ours. In many case, driving a vehicle is a necessity.

Periodically, advances are made in renewable fuel, an energy source that’s already arrived and shows great promise for further refinement. Efforts are underway in labs and facilities across the country, including the University of Guelph, to create and improve reasonably priced bio-based fuels and products made from feedstocks, or biomass, which can be grown in Canadian farmers’ fields. As an example, a consortium of 10 scientists from seven Ontario universities came together last month, led by Guelph-based Ontario Agri-Food Technologies, to form what they’ve called the Ontario Biomaterials A-team, to zero-in on these opportunities.

Biomass production comes with its own critics who say using land to grow crops for energy is diverting it away from food production. Others say it’s not and argue farmers should be able to grow whatever they want. It’s their land. We need to recognize that despite whatever altruistic image we have of farmers — stoic, humble, serving society first — they must make a profit on whatever they grow. If we won’t pay them a reasonable price to grow food, then who can blame them for growing more lucrative crops that are turned into renewable energy, particularly if they help lessen our dependence on Big Oil and prove to be easier on the environment?

I write about this issue in my Urban Cowboy column in today’s Guelph Mercury.

The Reynolds Center for Business Journalism, Arizona State University, provides a continuing stream of ideas to help news reporters find local stories related to agriculture. Here are samples of recent tips:

• What is happening locally in government-supported conservation reserve program  contracts and rural development projects
• Local impacts of rising commodity prices and farmland values
• How hunting seasons affect local businesses and communities
• Keeping tabs on influences of new leases of land for drilling shale gas wells
• Local angles in cases of food recalls and outbreaks of food-borne diseases
• How a mild winter may influence local food and agriculture interests

You can follow such leads by visiting the Reynolds Center website at http://businessjournalism.org and reviewing information on the agriculture beat.

I’m lucky my three kids have all, in some way, made agriculture and food their profession, either by choice, luck or marriage. I think they’ve made wise choices, and everywhere I look their decisions to be part of the industry are confirmed, particularly as the world wakes up to the need for a new emphasis on ag and food.

It hit me again last week when I looked at conclusions from a group of scientific leaders from 13 countries (not Canada, sadly), called the Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change. They called for an “enabling environment” globally for all stakeholders in the agri-food sector — from small farmers to national governments — to invest in the economic and environmental resiliency of their land resources.

A key part of the commission’s position is its inclusion of government reform. Too often, the emphasis is all put on farmers to make production changes that will help them address current and future hunger. But that won’t happen unless governments help create a working environment and culture that supports agri-food development.

I write about the possibilities related to being part of the agri-food sector and global development in my Urban Cowboy column in today’s Guelph Mercury.

 
- Does supply management belong in Canadian agriculture?
- A national food policy: challenges and opportunities for Canada
- The main things people need to know about farming today are…
- Here are farmers’ biggest opportunities
- The importance of water for agriculture and globalization

The 2012 competition takes place Saturday, November 3 at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto, Ontario. Participants in two age categories, from 11-24 years old, are invited to prepare and present five- to seven minute speeches in English or French.

For more information check http://www.cysa-joca.ca.

Riding on the fender was not safe and is heartily discouraged now. But that’s what rural kids did. You held on for dear life. It was a rural fact of life.

Fortunately, farm safety is a higher priority now than it was back then. Tractors have grown to be much, much bigger, as farms have grown, too. I think farmers drive them with more respect for their power than they did 40 or 50 years ago.

Tractors aren’t the only things that are bigger. Other farm machinery — planters, sprayers, combines, you name it — have likewise grown to meet new farming demands. When I was riding around on Burke’s fender, people were making a living on farms 100 to 200 acres in size. A farm 10 times that size now is not unusual. Double it again for farms in western Canada.

In Ontario, or anywhere else in Canada, drivers are bound to encounter big farm machinery on the road.

What should you do?

Take a deep breath, thank the farmer driving it for producing your food, and if you’re behind him or her, pass when safe.

The Grain Farmers of Ontario are embarking on a new road safety awareness campaign. A lot of their work occurs in the spring, and at this time of year they have a particular interest in making sure the roads are safe … for you, and them.

I write about the road safety awareness campaign in my Urban Cowboy column in the Guelph Mercury.

I almost never start a blog post, story, column (or speech) with a quote. I got pummeled for doing so back in the 1970s by an editor at the Windsor Star, and I've never forgot.

But to me, this one bears our attention:

"The world cannot afford a failure as big as China."

That's a warning from Chinese agricultural journalist Zhou Siyu, in his fine 2012 outlook story about his country's projected agricultural fortunes, published in the China Daily.

Zhou, who visited Guelph in September as a participant in the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists congress, says China's farmers are fighting a battle on two fronts.

"They are simultaneously contending with a surge in demand stemming from the ever-increasing population, and with a decrease in the amount of arable land, water and other natural resources that can be exploited, " he says.

According to Zhou, the country's looming troubles help explain why it has imported more agricultural goods in recent years. Not until 1996 did the country begin to import soybeans. By 2010, though, China was bringing in 54.8 million tons of soybeans a year, making it the largest importer of that farm product in the world.

Here's the Canadian angle: in 2011, China surpassed Canada to become the largest importer of US agricultural goods. It's a very hungry country.  And, says Zhou, it's spending a lot of money on food, with its imports helping keep economies such as the US afloat.

That's why the world can't afford China to fail, says Zhou. Globally, who else is spending money?

The photo in this blog post is from China Daily, of harvesting at a farm in Nantong, Jiangsu province.