On Wednesday June 29, 2011, Delft Blue Veal Farms (division of Grober Inc.) proudly hosted the event, Harvesting Clean Energy on Ontario Farms
Delft Blue's digester
by Patricia Grotenhuis, lifelong farmer and agricultural advocate
Food prices are drawing a lot of media attention lately. It seems everything is increasing in price, both at grocery stores and at restaurants. Many different factors have been blamed for these price increases, but regardless of the reason, the outcome is the same. In some cases, food prices rise at the store without any increase for the farmer.
A Manitoba study showed the cost of a week’s worth of groceries for a family of four rose by $6.01 from 2008 to 2009, but farmers received $0.86 less. In 2009, beef farmers received $2.05 for the 600 grams of sirloin tip beef that cost you $9.15 in the store. In 2008, by comparison, the farmer also received $2.05 for the same cut of beef, but you only paid $4.61.
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by Patricia Grotenhuis, lifelong farmer and agricultural advocate
There is a lot of studying which goes into farming.
Many farmers today have a college diploma or university degree. Some even have graduate degrees. Even after school, though, farmers have to constantly update their knowledge to stay on top of the latest research findings and newest technology.
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By Patricia Grotenhuis, Lifelong farmer and agricultural advocate
It’s a hot, sunny summer day, and pigs are all out wallowing in the mud, happy as could be. Or are they?
Pigs, when housed outdoors, will use mud to keep cool if necessary. They lack sweat glands (making it impossible to “sweat like a pig”), so the only way they can cool themselves is by getting moisture on their skin which can than evaporate and create a cooling effect. Mud would work for this cooling effect, as does water.
Although pigs are normally associated with messes (“your room is a pig sty” probably being the most common example), they actually like clean environments to live in. Pigs are quite comfortable living in a clean, dry barn with adequate supplies of food and water.
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Food From Greener Pastures
Beef Producers: Stewards of the land, for now and for the future
Kim Sytsma and her husband Charlie of Eighth Line Farm in Ontario, like many Canadian beef producers, work every day to ensure both the land they manage and the business they built are not only sustained, but improved for future generations of Canadians. “It’s my job to leave the land better than I found it,” says Kim.
Steve Buist, Hamilton Spectator, 2008.05.30
It’s 7 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 21, and it’s one of the coldest mornings of the winter so far. The snow crunches under foot, there’s just a hint of grey light along the eastern horizon and an icy mist rises off the nearby Grand River.
Two gleaming silver tanker trucks from the Wallenstein feed company have already started emptying their loads into the metal silos at Curtiss Littlejohn’s pig farm in the hamlet of Glen Morris.
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Manitoba Co-operator, 2/14/2009
A ranchers’ beef co-operative in Alberta and Saskatchewan has picked up certification from a U.S. group for meeting a long list of social and environmental standards for their product.
Food Alliance Certification Co-operative, based in Portland, Ore., has given Prairie Heritage Producers its certification for “sustainably-produced” beef. Prairie Heritage becomes the first company in Canada to meet Food Alliance standards, the U.S. group said Friday.
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Source: Farmers Weekly Interactive 22/11/2007
Poultry meat uses less global energy than other livestock systems and
intensive poultry uses less than free range and organic, according to new research.
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BY TOBI COHEN, OTTAWA SUN, 2003.06.22
Pulling up to Luc and Louise Secours’ Bainsville farm one would never guess it was home to as many as 6,000 piglets at any given time.
It’s located on a large chunk of property a kilometre or so east of their
family farm home which stands perched atop a small hill next door to their chicken coop along Concession 2 in tiny South Glengarry town.
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BY CRYSTAL MACKAY, ONTARIO FARM ANIMAL COUNCIL, London Free Press, 2006.04.22; Letter to the Editor
Regarding the letter, Meat products harmful to the environment (April 20):
I’d like to do something crazy and write in favour of something, which seems to be out of vogue these days. Eating meat is actually good for the environment and makes ecological sense.
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