By Robert Arnason Glacier FarmMedia staff Organic is back. After a period of sluggish growth and a decline in the number of producers in the early 2010s, organic farming is expanding in Western Canada. Certified organic acres on the Prairies reached 1.824 million in 2017, up 29 percent from 1.4 million acres in 2015. The […]
Organic Alberta –Organic Alberta has released the Organic Agriculture in Alberta Statistics Report. The data contains information on organic operations in Alberta, including regional and production statistics. Overall, the report shows trends and areas of growth in Alberta’s organic operations. “This report highlights the continued strong growth in organic production in Alberta, which is driven by continually increasing […]
University of Guelph – If everyone on the planet wanted to eat a healthy diet, there wouldn’t be enough fruit and vegetables to go around, according to a new University of Guelph study. A team of researchers compared global agricultural production with nutritionists’ consumption recommendations and found a drastic mismatch. “We simply can’t all adopt […]
Wisconsin | Western Producer — A couple of years ago, Adam Seibel received US$35 per hundredweight for his organic milk — nearly double the price of regular milk. Then the price fell off a cliff. This year, Seibel is getting about $19 per cwt. — only a few dollars more than the price paid to […]
By Jennifer Blair and Glenn Cheater Glacier FarmMedia staff A surge in the number of organic crop producers in Alberta has boosted organic production on the Prairies to a level not seen since the 2008 financial crisis. That’s a key highlight of a new report from the Prairie Organic Grain Initiative, an alliance of Organic […]
A big part of going organic is getting things in shape before starting the transition. That’s according to Martin Entz, a professor and natural systems agriculture researcher at the University of Manitoba. Entz has spent years asking organic hopefuls to take a hard look at their management pre-transition and to take advantage of conventional tools […]
The numbers look slim, but experts say Manitoba’s modest processing increases in 2016 miss part of the story. By Alexis Stockford Glacier FarmMedia staff Manitoba had one more organic processor in 2016 than 2015, according to the last Organic Agriculture in the Prairies report, but provincial organics expert Laura Telford says the view might be more optimistic […]
By Alexis Stockford Glacier FarmMedia staff Manitoba and Saskatchewan couldn’t match Alberta’s explosion of new organic producers in 2016, but local experts say their gains have been in acres, not farms. Alberta gained 82 certified producers (counting livestock operations) from 2015-16, according to the 2016 Organic Agriculture in the Prairies report. Saskatchewan and Manitoba, meanwhile, […]
By Laura Rance OrganicBiz Editorial Director Farm-to-fork eating is fashionable among consumers, but it puts more pressure on those producing and handling crops to keep contaminants out of the food system, the agronomy manager for Fresh Hemp Foods says. Darrell McElroy said recent media reports and product recalls after people were sickened by E.coli- contaminated […]
By Laura Rance OrganicBiz editor If asked to describe the ‘typical’ organic consumer, many would think of a West Coast hippie crunching on granola. Well, think again. It turns out the stereotypical organic customer is more likely to live in Alberta than British Columbia, and is a university educated 30-something male with a family, new […]
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