One innovative experiment to inject youthful vitality into Canada's aging farm sector looks a bit like the cast of the TV sitcom Friends transported from Manhattan to an organic farm 45 minutes east of Montreal. In this case, the "friends" are Frederic Theriault and couples Renee Primeau and Reid Allaway, and Emily Board and Dan Brisebois, ranging in age from 28 to 31. The five met while studying agriculture and environmental science at McGill University. Though all grew up in urban settings, they desperately wanted to farm according to what Theriault calls applied environmental science - organics. Daunted by the challenges of entering the high-risk agricultural sector, they joined forces, established a workers' cooperative and developed a unique business plan that has delivered what has largely eluded Canadian farmers over the past few decades: financial stability, creative fulfilment, companionship in an often lonely pursuit, and pride in producing healthy food. They represent the most optimistic future for food production in Canada. The other future? Not so bright.

Beyond an arched cedar gate in Old Ottawa East lies a luxuriant new public garden, planted with sunflowers, lavender, parsley, pumpkins, tomatoes and more. This is Ottawa's first Children's Garden, located in Robert Legget Park. The organic garden, created by community volunteers and children, has won a special jury award in the City of Ottawa's 2009 Ottawa Urban Design Awards.

After some Canadian flax was found to be contaminated with GM flax in September, it has now been determined that the contamination has affected flax shipped to 28 countries now. The contamination means the flax cannot be used as human food. The finding of flax in the Canadian crop in September meant the flax market was not offering good prices, after what was poised to be a very good year for flax farmers. Canadian flax was not being accepted by Europe after the finding of GM flax. The September contamination was found in a German food processing plant. How the GM flax ever contaminated any Canadian crops is a mystery, as the flax has been banned in Canada since 2001.

Taiwan has officially and unilaterally recognized Canada's Organic Regime. This means that farmers and processors certified to the Canadian Organic Standards do not require further paperwork in order to export products to Taiwan. With U.S. recognition of Canadian standards, this makes two countries who recognize Canada's regime as being equivalent to their own. Canada is in the process of reviewing the Europe Union's program and standards as a prelude to equivalency negotiations. So far the EU has answered the CFIA's questions concerning substances that are not listed on the Canadian Permitted Substances List.

The Alternative Land Use Services (ALUS) project in Norfolk County [southwestern Ontario], is developing a new model for farm support that could shift Canadian agriculture into a greener future. The farmer-driven initiative has cobbled together a small, $1 million budget from 16 funding sources to run a three-year pilot that pays farmers $150 annually for every acre they devote to ecological functions, the rental rate for cropland in the area. The project is a small green example of what agriculture, globally, must pursue on a grand scale. Agriculture and food production in North America and Europe are major contributors to greenhouse gasses (accounting for up to 20 per cent of emissions per country), and industrial agriculture is responsible for extensive degradation of the world's waterways. The European Union overhauled its agricultural subsidies to support environmental stewardship and ecological food production. But Canada's new agricultural policy, unveiled this year, remains stuck in the past, with no strong targets for reducing the sector's environmental impacts.

It's taken a long time, but the issue of global climate change is finally getting the attention it deserves. While enormous technical, policy, and economic issues remain to be solved, there is now widespread acceptance of the need to confront the twin challenges of energy security and climate change. Collectively, we are beginning to acknowledge that our long addiction to fossil fuels - which has been harming our national security, our economy and our environment for decades - must end. The question today is no longer why, but how. Unfortunately, this positive shift in the national zeitgeist has had an unintended downside. In the rush to portray the perils of climate change, many other serious issues have been largely ignored. Our use of land, particularly for agriculture, is absolutely essential to the success of the human race. But we are demanding more and more from our global agricultural systems, pushing them to their very limits. Meeting these huge new agricultural demands will be one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century. At present, it is completely unclear how (and if) we can do it.

The environmental impact of the lifecycle and supply chain of animals raised for food has been vastly underestimated, and in fact accounts for at least half of all human-caused greenhouse gases, according to Robert Goodland and Jeff Anhang, co-authors of Livestock and Climate Change. A widely cited 2006 report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Livestock's Long Shadow, estimates that 18 per cent of annual worldwide GHG emissions are attributable to cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats, camels, pigs, and poultry. But recent analysis by Goodland and Anhang finds that livestock and their byproducts actually account for at least 32.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year, or 51 per cent of annual worldwide GHG emissions.

IPCC projections and models used to discuss climate change in the future tense: something we could head off. No more. As we've noticed, climate change discussions have switched tenses - glaciers will melt has become glaciers are melting. Agriculture will be stressed has become agriculture is stressed. There's a corollary. Talk of climate change prevention has become talk of mitigation and adaptation. For cities, that means flood walls. For farms, it means a transition to agro-ecological farming methods, ways of farming that harmonize with natural processes rather than relying on external, artificial-or-chemical inputs, or genetic engineering, to increase yields. In addition to cutting fossil fuel use and decreasing carbon emissions, a shift to organic farming and the resultant increases in carbon sequestration will make agriculture more resilient and more resistant to onrushing anthropogenic climate change.

The Irish Government will ban the cultivation of all GM crops and introduce a voluntary GM-free label for food - including meat, poultry, eggs, fish, crustaceans, and dairy produce made without the use of GM animal feed. The policy was adopted as part of the Renewed Programme for Government agreed between the two coalition partners, the centre-right Fianna Fail and the Green Party, after the latter voted to support it on [October 10].

A federal judge has ruled that the government failed to adequately assess the environmental impacts of genetically engineered sugar beets before approving the crop for cultivation in the United States. The decision could lead to a ban on the planting of the beets, which have been widely adopted by farmers. In a decision issued [September 21], Judge Jeffrey S. White of Federal District Court in San Francisco, said that the Agriculture Department should have done an environmental impact statement. He said it should have assessed the consequences from the likely spread of the genetically engineered trait to other sugar beets or to the related crops of Swiss chard and red table beets.

When organisers of an international conference on climate change and the food crisis first scheduled the Penang, Malaysia event for late September, little did they realise the event would be sandwiched by two typhoons buffeting the region. Ironically, the first typhoon, 'Ketsana,' delayed the arrival of conference delegates from the Philippines. The typhoons in the region brought into sharp relief the issue of climate change as farmers struggle to cope with changing weather patterns. It is not just the sudden storms and heavy rainfalls that are disrupting farming but also the blurring of the seasons. Some farmers are now trying to adapt to climate change by taking another look at traditional seeds and farming practices. Such initiatives are precisely what may be needed. A new report published by GRAIN, an international group working to support community-controlled and biodiversity-based food systems, shows that more sustainable agriculture can put much of the excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere back into the soil.

Shoppers can now be confident that the goods they choose are truly organic with the publication [October 9] of the first Australian Standard for organic and biodynamic products. The standard outlines the minimum requirements to be met by growers and manufacturers wishing to label their products organic and biodynamic. It establishes an agreed set of procedures to be followed for the production, preparation, transportation, marketing and labelling of organic and biodynamic products, including food and processed food. The standard bans the use of genetically modified products and requires the "almost absolute restriction of pesticides and fertilisers produced from the synthetic chemicals."

The U.S. organic food industry has grown rapidly over the past decade, mirroring similar growth trends in Europe and Japan. In general, federal officials view this emerging market in a very positive light, establishing certification standards and implementing measures to ease the entry costs of potential producers. In the United States, the healthy effects have been downplayed while the environmental benefits of organic food production have been emphasized. While U.S. consumers have increasingly embraced organic foods, U.S. agricultural producers find themselves competing with foreign growers. The latter can claim many advantages such as lower labor costs, cheaper raw materials and fewer state regulations. Recent federal and state regulations have sought to lower barriers to entry and operating costs for organic producers in the United States. Such pieces of legislation are framed as environment-friendly, but also constitute subsidies to domestic producers in a newly globalized marketplace.

Dr Andrew Monk, Biological Farmers of Australia Director and Standards Committee Convenor, is visiting the Falklands to help farmers to bring their products up to organic standard. [In] a presentation about his work in the Falklands, [he indicated that] ten Falkland Island farms have gained 'in conversion' Australian Certified Organic status and that options are open for more farms are joining the scheme. Of the 1.1 million hectares of agricultural land in the Falkland Islands, approximately 40 per cent of the area is certified 'in-conversion' organic and the Islands have a marginal and unspoiled farming environment. This environment lends itself to a more natural production system - perfect for organic farming.