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.
Photo credit: ontariograinfarmer.ca
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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.
Photo credit: thegrower.org
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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.
Photo credit: thegrower.org
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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.