LOCAL HEADLINES

The wheels of government action may grind slowly. But Foreign Agricultural Resource Management Services (FARMS) President Robert Shuh believes they are grinding in the right direction.

A new space has opened in Downtown Simcoe, the aptly named Chill Spot. As assumed by the name, this new location offers a space for foreign farm forkers to relax, hangout with one another, and receive support when visiting Downtown Simcoe.

Branching Path Farm grows such a diversity of food, they even have a goji berry bush that is descended from a slip taken from Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow’s garden.

Marburg community activist and veteran purebred swine breeder Mary Field and her husband, Jim, married in the days when farm women were seen as “farm wives” who publicly went by their husbands’ first names.

When Sarah Judd (née Harrigan) of Meadowlynn Farms left for the University of Guelph to pursue her undergraduate degree, she vowed that she would never marry a farmer.

For Heidi Mungal of Generations Marketplace there is truly never a dull moment, everything from feeding livestock, and planting gardens, to teaching homesteading skills, and running a marketplace is all part of a day’s work.

The first time Jenn Schooley went looking for a pair of work boots in a local shop, there were only two options for women, “And they were pink. I was so pissed, because just because we’re girls, it doesn’t mean we want to wear pink.”

Despite her claims about having a “zero background in agriculture”, Jenn VanDeVelde’s willingness to adopt new ideas about farm diversification and community building fashioned her into becoming one of Norfolk’s emerging farm leaders.

Two MPPs who are actively seeking legislation to preserve Ontario’s shrinking prime food land insist that it will protect rural communities and culture, and quash developer speculation in farmland.

A third-generation Delhi area farm family is going artisanal this spring – with chickens.

Tobacco Mosaic Virus was the first virus identified more than a century ago, but it’s still around and causing problems today.

Cash crop farmers who attended this year’s Norfolk Soil and Crop Association (NSCIA) growers’ day in Courtland on March 12 gleaned many nutrient tips from agrologists, and even heard a long-term weather forecast.

Rola Elghonimy’s role as Farmer Outreach for Apidae Systems has allowed her to discover just how busy her clients are.

Megan and Maddison, two twins who live and operate their business on Cockshutt Road, have turned beef tallow, an often-forgotten by-product of cattle farming, into a skincare business.

A decade ago, two researchers from the University of Guelph, Dr. Andria Jones and Dr. Briana Hagen, conducted a study on the mental health of farmers across Canada.

One size does not fit all, particularly when it comes to hazelnut farming.

In a time when Holsteins dominate the Canadian dairy industry, and hockey sweaters and not cows come up first in internet searches for Jerseys, the Kyles of Ash Lawn Farm south of Ayr stuck to raising premium Jersey cows for a century.

This year marks the tenth anniversary of EMILI (Enterprise Machine Intelligence and Learning Initiative), the culmination of a group of community leaders working towards a common goal: to grow Canada’s economy, with a specific focus on advancing agtech in the Prairies.

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.

Attendees at the Grain Farmers of Ontario District 5 (Elgin/Norfolk) received insight into the latest on the fertilizer market from the head of the country’s largest farm co-operative.