In the E-News this month...
Canada
 Proposed improvements to loans act will give farmers better access to credit
Agriculture's future is organic, farmer says
Ontario organic farmers help to feed the unemployed
Canadian organic pioneer to receive OTA organic leadership award
Making a change: An Alberta dairy farm becomes organic
Biotech
Genetic engineering fails to boost U.S. crop yields despite industry claims
Having ruined canola, Monsanto threatens alfalfa
Credit crisis puts Canada's biotech industry at risk: Study
Research
Organic apples beat conventionals on antioxidants
Can organic cropping systems be as profitable as conventional systems?
Opinion
Food industry pursues the strategy of big tobacco
GM crops and the gene giants: Bad news for farmers
Trends
Re-thinking food logistics
Growing your own 'vogue thing to do'
U.S. organic sales up over 17 per cent in 2008
Global Snapshots
Mexico: Was boy first to get flu?
Different shades of green in Africa
India: Corporation Bank to promote organic farming
UK organic food sector 'resilient' but sales growth slows
China to boost organic and innovation
No dogging it as WWOOFers work hard to earn their keep
Coming Events
|
Canada 
|
Proposed improvements to loans act will give farmers better access to credit
New release: Agriculture Canada
| Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz introduced new legislation [May 4] to guarantee an estimated $1 billion in loans over the next five years to Canadian farm families and cooperatives, most of which will go to farmers and cooperatives who were previously ineligible. On [May 1], Prime Minister Stephen Harper [announced] the introduction of legislation that would expand the scope of the Farm Improvement and Marketing Cooperative Loans Act. To ensure the new program remains responsive to producers' needs, a full review of the program will be done in five years. [More specifics in the full news release.] The FIMCLA program remains in place while the amended Act goes through Parliament. |
|
| Agriculture Canada - 05/04/09 |
Agriculture's future is organic, farmer says
Full story: Moncton Telegraph-Journal
| Standing in the four acres of field behind her Grande-Digue home, Rowena Hopkins, a former chemistry teacher, is an organic farmer. And while Canada has lost 17,550 farms in just five years according to most recent census numbers, the numbers go the other way when talking organic. The number of certified organic farms in the country grew by 1,325 in the same time frame. New Brunswick alone had a 68 per cent increase. "If farming is to survive, the only way for it to survive is by going organic," Hopkins said. "Organics could absolutely feed the world as long as we get away from the giant farm mentality and shipping produce all over the place." |
|
| Moncton Telegraph-Journal - 05/09/09 |
Ontario organic farmers help to feed the unemployed
Full story: Canada.com
| Every Sunday, a group of volunteers, many themselves unemployed, gather on a donated plot of land to conduct an experiment in human compassion, with a goal of cultivating an organic farm in Barrie, ON, solely to feed the poor. The project, which began this spring, is the brainchild of Andrew Miller, a 30-year-old organic farmer, who says he is driven by an altruistic passion to ease the growing poverty in Simcoe County, north of Toronto. With the help of about 20 volunteers, donated equipment and an acre of land, Miller has launched his project with success. Laura Telford, the national director for Canadian Organic Growers, believes Miller's project could be the start of a growing trend. "I think if you're into organics you feel this responsibility to help feed people healthy food," she said. "I do think they feel this social conscience to do something about hunger." |
|
Canadian organic pioneer to receive OTA organic leadership award
Full story: Progressive Grocer
| The Organic Trade Association (OTA) has named the recipients of its Organic Leadership Awards: Canadian organic advocate Paddy Doherty and the United States' first and most influential organic rice growing family, Eldon, Wendell, Harlan and Homer Lundberg. "Paddy Doherty and the Lundberg brothers are hard-working, committed organic heroes whose determination, passion and vision have helped the organic industry survive and thrive, despite often difficult and challenging times," said Christine Bushway, executive director of OTA. The award in the "Achievement in Growing the Organic Industry" category is going to Doherty for helping to develop the organic standards and system in Canada. |
|
| Progressive Grocer - 05/11/09 |
Making a change: An Alberta dairy farm becomes organic
Full story: Calgary Herald
| Van Os Dairy is going organic. After four years of work and many changes to the way the dairy is operated, they will receive their formal certification later this year. Deciding to make his dairy operation organic was part of a lifestyle decision for Arnold van Os. The father of eight children has always believed in alternative medicines and natural treatments for illness and after a cancer diagnosis for his father-in-law, the family decided to change their diet to include more organically-produced food. It just made sense to start the process of converting their dairy to an organic operation. But change is never easy and converting the dairy to an organic food operation has taken work and cost money. "It took three years to certify our fields as organic," says van Os. In some ways it's like turning back the clock and going back to the way dairies were operated in the 1950s." |
|
| Calgary Herald - 05/17/09 |
|
|
Biotech
|
Genetic engineering fails to boost U.S. crop yields despite industry claims
Full story: Union of Concerned Scientists
| For years, the biotechnology industry has trumpeted that it will feed the world, promising that its genetically engineered crops will produce higher yields. That promise has proven to be empty, according to a new report by the Union of Concerned Scientists. Despite 20 years of research and 13 years of commercialization, genetic engineering has failed to significantly increase U.S. crop yields. The report, Failure to Yield: Evaluating the Performance of Genetically Engineered Crops, is the first to closely evaluate the overall effect genetic engineering has had on crop yields in relation to other agricultural technologies. The increase in yields for [corn and soybeans, the two primary genetically engineered food and feed crops grown in the United States] over the last 13 years, the report found, was largely due to traditional breeding or improvements in agricultural practices. "Traditional breeding outperforms genetic engineering hands down."
|
|
| Union of Concerned Scientists - 04/14/09 |
Having ruined canola, Monsanto threatens alfalfa
Full story: The Bulletin (Toronto)
| Eighty groups including farmer associations and food businesses from across Canada joined the growing call to stop the introduction and field-testing of genetically modified alfalfa. The alfalfa in question is genetically modified by Monsanto to be tolerant to the company's brand name herbicide Roundup. Alfalfa would be the first perennial GM crop on the market. "The contamination of alfalfa would be inevitable and irreversible. We've already seen an end to organic canola due to GM contamination and we can't afford to lose alfalfa," said Arnold Taylor of the Saskatchewan Organic Directorate. "Because it's pollinated by bees, genes from Monsanto's GM alfalfa would spread out of control." |
|
| The Bulletin (Toronto) - 04/29/09 |
Credit crisis puts Canada's biotech industry at risk: Study
Full story: Ottawa Citizen
| The global credit crisis threatens to put many of Canada's biotech companies out of business and choke off the country's role in a key sector of the future economy, a study says. "Our concern is that the number of companies in the sector will decline significantly without an injection of new capital within the next year or so," Gord Jans, head of the life sciences group at PriceWaterhouseCoopers, said. |
|
| Ottawa Citizen - 04/20/09 |
|
|
Research
|
Organic apples beat conventionals on antioxidants
Full story: NutraIngredients
| Organically produced apples have a 15 per cent higher antioxidant capacity than conventionally produced apples, says a new study from Germany. Findings published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry add to the on-going debate over whether organically grown produce is more nutritious than conventionally grown produce. A report published in March 2008 by the Organic Center at America's Organic Trade Association argued that organic produce is 25 per cent more nutritious than conventional foodstuffs. However, these claims were countered by Joseph Rosen, emeritus professor at Rutgers University and scientific advisor to the American Council on Science and Health. |
|
| NutraIngredients - 04/24/09 |
Can organic cropping systems be as profitable as conventional systems?
Full story: Eureka! Science News
| Which is a better strategy, specializing in one crop or diversified cropping? Is conventional cropping more profitable than organic farming? Is it less risky? To answer these questions, the University of Wisconsin's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and Michael Fields Agricultural Institute agronomists established the Wisconsin Integrated Cropping Systems Trial in 1990... This study indicates that governmental policy that supports mono-culture systems is outdated and support should be shifted to programs that promote crop rotations and organic farming practices. |
|
| Eureka! Science News - 04/06/09 |
|
|
Opinion
|
Food industry pursues the strategy of big tobacco
Full story: Environment360, Yale University
| Kelly Brownell has long studied the relationship between rising levels of obesity in the U.S. and the way our food is grown, processed, packaged, and sold. In [this] interview, he discusses the common marketing and lobbying tactics employed by the food and tobacco industries. [The latter] successfully fought off regulation for decades, thereby contributing to the deaths of millions of Americans. The common strategies include dismissing as "junk science" peer-reviewed studies showing a link between their products and disease; paying scientists to produce pro-industry studies; sowing doubt in the public's mind about the harm caused by their products; intensive marketing to children and adolescents; frequently rolling out supposedly "safer" products and vowing to regulate their own industries; denying the addictive nature of their products; and lobbying with massive resources to thwart regulatory action. |
|
| Environment360, Yale University - 04/08/09 |
GM crops and the gene giants: Bad news for farmers
Full story: SciDev
| The global North's super-sized carbon footprint has already trampled the South's farmers, most recently in the form of energy crop plantations, which have been directly responsible for deforestation and farmer evictions in some developing countries, including Indonesia and Tanzania. Now the world's largest seed and agrochemical corporations are stockpiling hundreds of monopoly patents on genes in crops genetically engineered to withstand the environmental stresses associated with climate change. But the huge number of patent filings does not mean that these companies have found the key to unlocking how plants withstand environmental stresses. What is clear is that their appearance in the marketplace will increase the concentration of corporate power, drive up costs, inhibit independent research, and, most alarmingly, undermine the rights of farmers to save and exchange seeds. |
|
|
|
Trends
|
Re-thinking food logistics
Source (no link available): Plumbline
| It is happening - slowly, to be sure - the movement of food from store to door will be very different in the decades ahead. Locavores have made food transportation an issue. Critics of locavore initiatives are quick to point out that transportation is not the big toe of food's ecological footprint. Right. But they forget that consumers can easily influence transportation and logistics - if they choose. In the UK, one of the more interesting supermarket chains created a fresh option back in January for consumers to modify their food hauling footprint. Waitrose stores offered their customers bicycle trailers for carrying their groceries home. The trailers are equipped with a large canvas shopping bag. Waitrose lends them to customers free of charge. |
|
Growing your own 'vogue thing to do'
Full story: Edmonton Journal
| "Growing your own" is taking on a new and wholesome meaning this season as enthusiastic, young gardeners line up for vegetable-growing classes and pore over seed packets. "We had almost 100 people here, just for a tomato class," says Deb Sirman of Greenland Garden Centre. This new and younger variety of veggie-grower is less interested in the old-school, farm garden that requires hours of weeding, watering and fertilizing. Instead, they're mixing salad greens in their flower beds, or growing tomatoes and mini-cucumbers in pots on their decks, she says. "It gets me excited because people are doing what I think is such a natural thing, gardening. For a while it was not in vogue. Now it is a vogue thing to do." |
|
| Edmonton Journal - 05/07/09 |
U.S. organic sales up over 17 per cent in 2008
Full story: Progressive Grocer
| According to the Organic Trade Association, which has released the results from its 2009 Organic Industry Survey, U.S. sales of organic products, both food and nonfood, reached $24.6 billion by the end of 2008, growing an impressive 17.1 per cent over 2007 sales, despite tough economic times. While the overall economy has been losing ground, sales of organic products reflect very strong growth during 2008. "Organic products represent value to consumers, who have shown continued resilience in seeking out these products," said Christine Bushway, OTA's executive director. |
|
| Progressive Grocer - 05/04/09 |
|
|
Global Snapshots
|
Mexico: Was boy first to get flu?
Full story: BBC News (VIDEO)
| The authorities in Mexico say they think they have pinpointed where the swine flu virus began. ABC News' Jeffrey Kofman speaks to a boy who is believed to be the first sufferer, in La Gloria, Mexico.
|
|
| BBC News (VIDEO) - 04/29/09 |
Different shades of green in Africa
Full story: Time Magazine
| In Africa, AGRA [Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa] is funding scientists working on new seed strains, bankrolling the breeders who produce them, and helping wholesalers expand their inventory. Yet AGRA also has its critics - those who support a revolution in an entirely different shade of green. For them, the fact that African farming hasn't changed in over a century is a feature, not a bug. It provides an opportunity to replace industrial farming with organic practices that can be just as productive, but far more sustainable. |
|
India: Corporation Bank to promote organic farming
Full story: Business Standard (India)
| Corporation Bank [has] signed a memorandum of understanding with the Karnataka State Organic Farming Mission (KSOFM) for the promotion of organic farming in the state. According to the agreement, Corporation Bank will be nominated as the preferred bank by KSOFM for financing farmers and their entities in taking up organic farming activities. The bank will also assist the mission in undertaking various developmental activities for promoting organic farming by setting up seed banks, marketing outlets, computer training centres, libraries. Organic agriculture has been gaining acceptance in India in recent years. Many state governments have been promoting the conversion of chemical farming to organic. |
|
| Business Standard (India) - 05/08/09 |
UK organic food sector 'resilient' but sales growth slows
Full story: The Scotsman
| Consumers throughout the UK in 2008 spent about £80 billion on food and drink: that figure looks set to be even higher in the current year, with the food price inflation running at well over 10 per cent. During the past decade there has been a huge upsurge of interest in organic production, but sales of food and drink from this minority movement still only amounted to £2.1 billion last year - a modest increase of 1.7 per cent on the 2007 sum. |
|
China to boost organic and innovation
Full story: Green Planet
| During the latest meeting of the Chinese State Council, a motion has been discussed and approved in favor of "policies on the promotion of acceleration of the organic sector's development." During the meeting, the role of organic agriculture, organic production and environmental protection has been emphasized in order to develop and increase the competitiveness of organic companies.
|
|
No dogging it as WWOOFers work hard to earn their keep
Full story: Canada.com
| Gitte Mueller is a "WWOOFer." For the last two weeks, WWOOFing - which stands for World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms - has allowed the German tourist to visit northern Alberta on the cheap. In exchange for helping out with the chores at the Greens, Eggs and Ham family farm in Leduc County, Mueller receives free room and board. Owners Andreas and Mary Ellen Grueneberg said being one of 42 Alberta farms listed on WWOOF Canada's website has been a big help, particularly in the spring. "We help them, but they really help us with all the little projects that never get done," Mary Ellen said. WWOOF began in the U.K. in 1971 to give urbanites a chance to spend a weekend in nature. Back then, it was known as Working Weekends on Organic Farms. Today, the non-profit organization covers the globe. Denmark, Germany, Kazakhstan, the U.S. and Canada, are among the roughly 90 countries involved. |
|
|
| Coming Events
|
To stay current on organic happenings between e-newsletters, check out COG's online calendar.
Bowmanville community organic garden - Grow your own organic fruit & vegetables
Bowmanville, ON
The Canadian Organic Growers, Durham Gardeners, would like to extend an invitation to anyone who would like to take part in the Bowmanville Community Organic Garden (BCOG). Founded several years ago through the hard work of COG members, the garden provides space for organizations and individuals who would like to explore nature through the art of gardening.
For more information, call Vincent Powers at 905-263-9907 or Peggy Clark at 905-623-5278.
|
Spring Registration
Growing Up Organic camps
Ottawa, ON
COG Ottawa in partnership with Glebe Neighbourhood Activities Group (GNAG).
Food & Garden Camp
-August 17-21, 2009, Ages 12-16, $140
Youth Farm Apprenticeship Camp
- August 24-28, 2009, Ages 12-16, $199
Visit the website for more information, or call 613-233-8713.
Website: www.gnag.ca
|
Summer 2009
CRAFT - Summer Farming Internship Opportunities
Ottawa, ON (area)
Become an intern on an ecological farm this summer!
Are you interested in being an intern on an ecological farm in the Ottawa area this summer? CRAFT (Collaborative Regional Alliance for Farmer Training) connects interns with farms who will take them in a season-long exchange of work for knowledge. Farms usually offer a weekly stipend and room and board, while interns are expected to be motivated, hard working and committed to the ideals of ecological agriculture. Interns will also have the chance to participate in a series of on-farm training workshops and visit other farms in the region. Summer interns exchange their labour for room, board, a stipend and education that touches on all aspects of farming.
Please visit the CRAFT website for the details on farms in the Ottawa area and elsewhere in Ontario, and to learn more about a CRAFT internship.
Website: www.craftontario.ca
|
Summer, 2009
Farm Life Ecology Program Seeking Applicants
Green Mountain College is seeking applicants for its Farm Life Ecology Summer Program. The 13 week, 12 credit summer intensive program allows students to manage all elements of the farm's operation while gaining a strong curricular foundation in sustainable agriculture. Details at the website.
Website: Green Mountain College
|
May 23 and 30, 2009
COG PWW's Plant Sale
9:00am - 12:00pm
Come early for the best selection - last year even in the pouring rain many vegetable varieties sold out by 10:00am! We are now taking pre-orders for orders over $30. Click here for a list of what is available and how to order. Don't forget to bring your own boxes to carry your treasures home!
Contact us via email or phone 519-885-9584 for more information.
Email: cogpww@sympatico.ca
|
May 27, 2009
COG Durham's Annual Plant Auction
Durham, ON
This is your opportunity to get lots of great plants and seedlings at bargain prices!
Website: www.cog.ca/durham/index.htm
|
June 6, 2009
OFCM-COG AGM
1:00pm-4:30pm - Norbert Arts Centre, Winnipeg, MB
Come out to the St. Norbert Arts Centre (SNAC) for updates on OFCM-COG's activities, programs, and financial status. We'll also host an organic standard and regulation info session and a panel discussion where you can get answers to your questions about organic and other sustainable farming methods. We're currently accepting nominations for new OFCM-COG executive committee directors. Nominees must be members in good standing and should have 5-10 hours per week for OFCM activities and correspondence. Submit your nomination by phone at 204-779-8546 or via email.
Website: organicfoodcouncil.org/
Email: ofcm@cog.ca
|
June 16-18, 2009
The Organic Trade Association Presents All Things Organic
Chicago, IL (Lakeside Center, McCormick Place)
Three days packed full with over 50 hours of education sessions, 12 tracks, and 4 keynote presentations. More info at the website.
Website: OTA Organic Expo
|
July 4-5, 2009
COG Ottawa's first Organic Farm Tour of 2009
Ottawa, ON (area)
The farm tour starts at 5 pm on Saturday, July 4, at the farm of COG-Ottawa Chairman, Michael Ilgert, with a brief tour of his organic chicken and turkey operation followed by a mostly organic barbecue and entertainment by live local musicians! A donation of $10 to cover costs for the evening would be appreciated.
Visitors from out-of-town can either bring a tent and camp out at Michael Ilgert's farm or book a room at a nearby B&B called Bonnechere Lodge. This B&B is located on the south shore of Golden Lake and features a fantastic view; free swimming; and organic coffee, tea, and eggs for breakfast! Book your room at Bonnechere Lodge by calling 613-625-2659 or visit their website: www.bonlodge.com.
The tour starts again on Sunday morning at 9:30 with a visit to Steven and Megan at the Algonquin Tea Company, located just north of Golden Lake. They grow the ingredients for their six kinds of tea from their own organic gardens or wildcraft it from wilderness areas. The tea is then dried in their barns and bagged and distributed throughout North America and Europe. To learn more about the Algonquin Tea Company, visit their website at www.algonquintea.com. We are still developing plans for an organic lunch at this time.
At 1:30 pm, we will travel 20 minutes to Ron and Linton McCoy's organic dairy farm near Cobden. The McCoys milk about 50 Holstein cows twice daily and sell their milk to the Organic Meadow Cooperative.
More information and updates are available via email.
Email: Michael Ilgert
|
|
|
|
Note:
|
Whenever possible, stories are linked to the original source. Some sites may require registration, and/or not archive the stories. All links were active at the time of publication.
Articles reprinted in this newsletter are not necessarily endorsed by Canadian Organic Growers.
|
|
This newsletter is produced by Canadian Organic Growers.
If you would like to be removed from this list, please send an email to laura@cog.ca.
Please feel free to redistribute all or part of this newsletter.
| Prepared by: |
|
|
|
|
