I’ve been fortunate over the past several months to work on an agricultural journalism ethics research project with Dr. Jim Evans, a giant in the field, and Karen Simon, the newly-elected president of the American...
Read MoreMembers of the Canadian pork sector are asking for the public’s help in bailing out their industry — by buying local food. I write about their pleas in this week’s Urban Cowboy column in the Guelph Mercury, and...
Read MoreThe World’s Longest Barbecue takes place this weekend, and founder Anita Stewart is more determined than ever to try to get August 1 dubbed a national food holiday in Canada. It’s already a holiday here, (Civic...
Read MoreI was sorry to miss the Ontario Agricultural College 2004 class 5th anniversary reunion last weekend. But circumstances will change and I’ll look forward to those that follow. Thanks to Krista Wydeven for circulating the...
Read MoreI came across an op-ed criticizing non-local food from U.S. politician Bob Haefner recently, but it wasn’t against imports from Canada or elsewhere, as I expected — it was against products grown in his own country. ...
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Owen Roberts is an agricultural journalist and communications instructor based in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. He is a trustee on the Global Foundation for Agricultural Journalism and an associate editor (communications) for the Journal of Agromedicine. Previously, Owen was president of the International Forum for Agricultural Journalists, an agricultural communications faculty member at the University of Illinois, and research communications director at the University of Guelph. His programs and research papers have been recognized through awards from the Journal of Applied Communications, the National Agri-Marketing Association, the Association for Communications Excellence and the Canadian Farm Writers' Federation.