By Laura Rance Editorial director, Glacier FarmMedia It’s a dirty business, teaching farmers about soil — enough to drive Jay Fuhrer to eating cheese balls. As the “soil health specialist” prepared his show-and-tell before a Saskatoon audience recently, he joked the only reason he buys cheese balls at his local grocer’s is because they come […]
Thomson Reuters Foundation – Forget all those loud calls to eat less meat and more plants for better health and a stronger planet – new research shows the world is not producing nearly enough fruit and vegetables to feed everyone. Canadian researchers compared global agricultural production with the sort of diet backed by nutritionists – […]
American Society of Agronomy – In a newly published study, researchers dug into how fertilizing with manure affects soil quality, compared with inorganic fertilizer. Ekrem Ozlu of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his team studied two fields in South Dakota. From 2003 to 2015, the research team applied either manure or inorganic fertilizer to field […]
Cornell University – With bee pollinators in decline and pesky crop pests lowering yields, sustainable and organic farmers need environmentally friendly solutions. One strategy is to border crops with wildflower plantings to attract pollinators and pest predators. But scientists have suggested that such plantings may only be effective when farms are surrounded by the right […]
Exeley Inc. – Nematodes, also known as roundworms, are one of the most numerous animal species on earth. As simple as they seem, many of them live as parasites in plants, insects and animals; habitats also include, soil, sea as well as fresh water. Researchers perform studies on nematodes, since many of them are beneficial […]
Lund University – Pollinating insects are endangered globally, with a particularly steep decline over the last 40 years. An extensive 3-year study from Lund University in Sweden has found that organic farming methods can contribute to halting the pollinator decline. This beneficial effect is due to both the absence of insecticides and a higher provision […]
By Karen Briere Glacier FarmMedia staff Cody Straza encourages organic growers to use five soil health principles to improve their systems. Trying to implement all five is a challenge, he told a recent organic and low-input field day in Swift Current, but it can be done. Straza and his family operate Upland Organics on 2,100 […]
By Ashley Robinson Glacier FarmMedia staff CNS Canada – Even after a dry growing season the organic crop in Western Canada is looking good, according to buyers from across the Prairies. “I think we’re all hesitant and until it’s in the bin we don’t really know what we’re going to have. (But) I think for the […]
Maria Johnson Glacier FarmMedia staff One Alberta producer’s journey to the field began with a simple question: ‘where do you get your food?’ An innocent question from a subsistence farmer in Kenya in the mid 2000s affected Mike Kozlowski in ways he never imagined. He spent months in the east African country through a Canada Millennium […]
By Alexis Stockford Glacier FarmMedia staff Organic farmers may want to refine that manure before spreading it. Dale Overton, CEO of Overton Environmental Enterprises, urges organic farmers to add a composting step to their fertility programs, something he says will provide better long-term organic matter gain, fight off weeds and save money on fertilizer. Overton’s […]
