By Alexis Kienlen Glacier FarmMedia staff Although Ben Campbell is a third-generation rancher, he didn’t have an operation he could take over. And when he looked at the math for starting his own ranch, it was worse than ugly — he figured he’d need $3 million in assets to generate an income of $50,000. “I […]
By sharing land, farmers increase their rotation options and produce enough to supply a major U.K. retailer By Ashley Robinson Glacier FarmMedia staff When Gerjan Snippe looked at how farmers were marketing their organic crops, he felt something was wrong. The Dutch commodity trader found himself importing organic products from Austria, even though the same […]
By Jennifer Blair Glacier FarmMedia staff In Canada, we might call them hippies or tree huggers but in Holland, organic farmers are called “grey woolly goat socks.” Gerjan Snippe, managing director of Bio Brass, doesn’t wear his grey woolly goat socks anymore, but he carries them in his back pocket. They’re a reminder of why […]
One in 20 Alberta farms are selling directly to their customers, and there’s room for plenty more By Alexis Kienlen and Jennifer Blair Glacier FarmMedia staff The year Mark Gibeau started growing heritage grains, a book called The 100-Mile Diet had just come out. Suddenly it seemed everyone was using terms such as ‘local food’ […]
By Gord Leathers Glacier FarmMedia contributor It all started with a request from a neighbour selling them land. About seven years ago Paul Harris, of Harris Farms near Stony Mountain, Manitoba, and his son Andrew bought some land. The land was organic so the previous owner asked them to keep it that way. They honoured […]
By Barbara Duckworth Glacier FarmMedia staff Hidden among the stylish cul de sacs in suburban Surrey, a thriving vegetable farm sits that has been in the Zaklan family for 90 years. For the last six years, Doug Zaklan and Gemma McNeill have been farming eight acres of land growing a variety of vegetables in fields […]
By Jennifer Blair Glacier FarmMedia staff Nancy and Chad Hewlett wanted to do things a little differently when they decided to start farming four years ago. So they moved away from the conventional farming of their childhoods and took a more holistic approach instead. “Shifting to permaculture was a huge learning curve. Some days, it […]
By Alexis Kienlen Glacier FarmMedia staff Being Alberta’s most northerly rural municipality isn’t Mackenzie County’s only claim to fame. “Right now, Mackenzie County has the highest number of organic farmers,” said Jacob Marfo, manager and research director of the Mackenzie Applied Research Association, (MARA). And the region may soon have more. MARA and Organic Alberta, […]
As Mike Kosaka and Adriane Skaros are learning, it takes determination, toughness, and plenty of smarts to succeed as a local-food startup. How many smarts? Read on By Madeleine Baerg Glacier FarmMedia staff Young Zoe Jones and Ava Kosaka have sized me up. The girls are ultra-enthusiastic entrepreneurs. They’ve got a marketing plan, they’ve perfected […]
High price of crop inputs drives decision to convert to organic production By Robert Arnason Glacier FarmMedia staff There are 25 grain bins in Travis Heide’s farmyard, including six massive ones with a capacity of 70,000 bushels each. In total, the bins can store around 550,000 bu. of grain. That’s enough for 10,000 acres of […]
