LOCAL HEADLINES

A fire may have destroyed her beloved barn, but it hasn’t extinguished Carolyne Siebert’s passion for farming.

For 30 years he’s spent countless hours in meetings and poring over reports in an effort to keep Ontario’s grape and wine, and fruit and vegetable sectors on firm ground, but Bill George is a farmer at heart.

Simply put, he’s a farmer, but ask Drew Spoelstra what kind of farmer he is and be prepared to wait a while as he responds.

He could measure success by how much money he makes, how high his yield is, how much land he manages, or any other number of variables.

There’s so much potential packed into each tiny seed: the promise of a beautiful plant, delicious produce, and for Madelaine Legault, a sense of optimism.

The 2026 Ontario Bean Growers annual general meeting was held in Stratford last month, where dry bean growers from across the region came together to discuss growing concerns around exports, particularly trade, transportation and domestic demand.

At the Ontario Agri-Food Discovery Centre’s 2026 annual general meeting March 26, board chair Steve Dolson introduced the team from Moriyama Teshima Architects, which developed concept designs for the future 10-acre site in Listowel.

Use of an amino acid that’s already naturally occurring in fruit trees could help tender fruit farmers offset rising labour costs associated with hand thinning.

There’s never a good time for war, but for Ontario’s grain farmers, there might not be a worse time. As farmers from across the province came to Niagara Falls to celebrate the industry with the Grain Farmers of Ontario March Classic, the situation on the other side of the globe was on the minds of many.

The word uncertainty was thrown around a lot at the Grain Farmers of Ontario March Classic last month, and for good reason given the state of the world.

Agritourism Ontario (AO) Chief Executive Officer Kevin Vallier was permitted a quiet moment of celebration this past December on the one-year anniversary of provincial Bill 186, The Growing Agri-Tourism Act.

It may be hard work, but it’s never been hard to convince Andrea Veldhuizen to head out to the barn.

Ongoing economic uncertainty is likely one of the main reasons farmers in Ontario are continuing to spend less on new machinery and other farm investments, and otherwise staying the course.

A crucial step in the process from barnyard to barbecue is getting some help from Niagara College. This fall the college will be launching an artisanal butchery program, following through on a long held priority to support an industry that could use an injection of fresh talent, said Craig Youdale, dean of culinary, tourism and beverage studies.

For anyone worried about the robot takeover, fear not. Matt Stevens has a perfectly simple solution should the machines try to rise up against humanity.

A Washington State University researcher sees opportunity in a new approach to a key step in agriculture that has remained virtually unchanged for thousands of years.

An organization that started with a small handful of Ontario farmers who wanted to share ideas on how to grow food responsibly has grown over the years to include 1,000 members, offering a wide variety of research and education.

When Sun Tzu wrote about the importance of knowing one’s enemy, he probably didn’t have stone fruit on his mind.

In a province as big as Ontario, there are always going to be a lot of worthy recipients for any industry award.

She was creating tradition, but at the time, Alexis Szarek felt like all she was doing was creating headaches and a failed business.