A truce is needed between farmers and animal advocates

Raising and marketing livestock in America is not going to get any easier.

In the US, a battle is being waged by animal activists against confined pork production. The main battlefield is California, but it’s going to affect the entire nation, and probably Canada, because of the anticipated ripple effect.

Photo credit: Getty Images

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King Charles would approve of Food Day Canada

If the King of England himself still approved Canadian laws, he’d surely delight at giving the royal nod to Bill S-227, An Act to Establish Food Day in Canada.

The bill, led by Senator Rob Black of Fergus, was passed in Parliament on Monday. It designates the Monday of the Civic Holiday (the first weekend in August) Food Day in Canada, an initiative created two decades ago by the late Canadian food activist Anita Stewart of Elora.

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For now, Mexican fruit growers have reason to smile

Jalisco, Mexico native Vivian Ibarra studied to be a dental hygienist – it’s steady work, decent pay and rife with opportunities to get in and out of the workforce to start a family. But upon graduation, she decided to forgo the dentist office. Instead, she returned home to help run the family berry farm…which these days, with the Mexican fruit sector in high gear, also means steady work and decent pay.

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Pork producers go whole hog with new cookbook

I like Ontario Pork’s commitment to social responsibility, and the way it’s expressed in a new consumer-facing initiative – a magnificent cookbook called The Whole Hog.

Over the past decade, Ontario Pork and its 1,000-ish producer members have donated nearly 300,000 pounds of pork to Feed Ontario, the umbrella organization for Ontario food banks. That’s close to two million servings. Photo credit: Ontario Pork

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Consumers say they’ll stay loyal to local

Inflation is likely to keep consumers home this spring.

A new poll of 50,000 panelists conducted for the Ontario Produce Marketing Association says over the next three months, rising costs will force people to cut back on spending money at restaurants and bars. About half of the respondents said they’ll make fewer trips out. Photo Credit: David Malan/Photographer’s Choice/Getty Images

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Urban Cowboy

Raising awareness and promoting dialogue about current food and agriculture issues.

OWEN ROBERTS

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Owen Roberts is a faculty member in the Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communications program at the University of Illinois. As an agricultural journalist, he is the past president of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists and a lifetime achievement award recipient from the Canadian Farm Writers' Federation. His programs and research papers have been recognized nationally and internationally through awards from the Journal of Applied Communications, the National Agri-Marketing Association, the Association for Communications Excellence, and others.

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