Do you want easier access to Ontario spirits?
A province-wide effort is underway by a group of Canadian spirits producers to try to further modernize Ontario’s archaic liquor regulations.
Photo credit: Dixon’s Distilled Spirits
Read MorePosted by Owen Roberts | Jul 20, 2023 | Observer
A province-wide effort is underway by a group of Canadian spirits producers to try to further modernize Ontario’s archaic liquor regulations.
Photo credit: Dixon’s Distilled Spirits
Read MorePosted by Owen Roberts | Jul 13, 2023 | Prairie Farmer
Americans are nagged to no end about their diets. The Centers for Disease Control, for example, relentlessly chides consumers for eating less than 10% of their daily recommended fruit-and-vegetable intake.
The center says that leads to all kinds of health problems and disease. But who’s to blame?
Photo credit: Cushman & Wakefield Food & Beverage
Read MorePosted by Owen Roberts | Jul 6, 2023 | Observer
The global Fresh Produce Coalition and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization met last month to talk about creating a group to analyze how cost hikes and supply chain disruptions have affected the fresh produce industry.
But really, is another analytical effort really needed to tell us how bad it is?
Photo credit: Feeser’s Food Distributors
Read MorePosted by Owen Roberts | Jun 29, 2023 | Observer
Brazil swears a blue streak that it has stopped clear-cutting the rainforest to grow crops and raise animals. It admits that practice occurred in the past. But now, it says, much of the grazing that takes place in or around the rainforest is carried out on land that was already cleared. Having cattle on it helps it make a comeback, they say.
Photo credit: Jonne Roriz/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Posted by Owen Roberts | Jun 22, 2023 | Observer
Another fight is full-on between agricultural technology and the public, this time involving pesticide-treated seeds.
Earlier this month, New York became the first US state to put forward legislation to ban seeds coated with neonicotinoid (popularly called “neonics”) ingredients.
Photo credit: Purdue University
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.