Canadian agriculture has an enviable track record of making trade deals with foreign countries. Look what trade has done to strengthen so many subsectors of the agri-food industry, from east to west, from row crops to livestock, to fruit and vegetables.
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Hope has been dismissed as a management strategy. That’s understandable; as a producer, you need to do more than hope things work out. You need to take action to make sure they do. Like the saying goes, God helps those who help themselves.
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Americans aren’t feeling the love for the media these days. And while that reality hasn’t much affected farmers until now, going forward might be a different story.
Here’s why. Gallup polls show trust in U.S. media is at a record low. Just when you think it’s bottomed out, it gets worse. (Interestingly, trust in media is at the same low level as trust in Congress.)
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These days, with political leaders in both Canada and the U.S. pounding their chests over trade and resources, rhetoric is running high.
But away from the din, another story is emerging.
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For four decades, Bill Allen crossed the globe as a consumer packaged- goods executive. He kept a particular eye on packaging trends and innovative manufacturing to meet high standards for quality products that promote healthy eating. In 2020, he formed Allen Family Foods with his wife, Leah, and sons, Billy and Tanner.
Photo credit: Allen Family Foods
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Some American food producers claim the U.S. Farm Bill has been dying for years. They say that the country needs a modernized Farm Bill that recognizes realities such as climate change and new global trade developments that didn’t exist in the 1930s when the original bill was drafted, or even six years ago when the last bill was written.
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Research has been pivotal to advances in agri-food production globally, with few champions mightier than the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. But the promise of modern science, including agricultural research, is threatened by those who consider science an enemy, a frill, a waste of government money or an injustice imposed on the public.
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I don’t like the stories going around about agriculture right now — especially the ones about farmers poisoning America. I suspect you don’t, either. But the reality is that political opportunists with antifarming agendas have turned up the jets on their rhetoric like never before.
Photo credit: Ontario Federation of Agriculture, ofa.on.ca
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Aaron Richardson was surprised and honored when his pastor asked him to bring a special guest to Sunday’s service: his tractor. The pastor planned to recognize the importance of agriculture to the rural community of Dunnville, Ontario, and believed that having Aaron’s tractor parked outside the South Cayuga Community Church would send a clear message to the congregation.
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Efforts to curb food waste are succeeding. A new report from Value Chain Management International (VCMI) shows that, compared to just five years ago, overall food waste in Canada has dropped by nearly 20 per cent. Despite these gains, though, the two biggest causes of avoidable food waste — excess inventory and date coding – are not easy to quell.
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Gone are the days when men were the only ones who counted statistically as farmers.
Through the agricultural census, we’re seeing more women identify as farm owners or co-owners, a nod to the equal partner role they’ve long had on farms.
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In this era of misinformation and mistrust, it’s easy to understand why modern foundations like government, the media and science are viewed with skepticism. Many people on the receiving end of information don’t know what to believe and whom to trust (other than farmers — more on that later), so they side with whomever makes them feel the safest, facts aside.
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This year, global tourism is on track to recover to pre-pandemic levels. Restless travelers are fed up waiting for COVID to disappear (it won’t); they’re spreading their wings and seeking adventures.
That’s great news to world leaders such as Francisco Betti, head of the Global Industries team at the World Economic Forum. At a forum meeting in May, he gushed about this encouraging milestone and its potential impact.
The most compelling stories to come from your farm this fall and winter will not be how you’re getting walloped by external forces, but rather, how you’re fighting back.
You’re facing a real Hydra, a multiheaded monster that has its eyes on your operation. The anticipated drop in farm income, the stalled farm bill, astronomical input costs, record trade deficits and wrong-headed, misguided politicians trying to convince America that the crops you raise are poisoning them and their kids are but a few of the issues beating down your door.
Photo credit: Canadiangeographic.ca
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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.