Local And Just

Why would you want to spend a week on a farm? Let’s say it’s your only week off from work in awhile. You could be sleeping in, watching Seinfeld reruns in bed, petting your kitten in your pjs at 3 in the afternoon, but instead you are volunteering to haul firewood, pull weeds, and carry [...]

I had an interesting discussion with my uncle in the Netherlands a couple of weeks ago when I was there visiting family.  Setting: Friday afternoon bike trip with the family, on a bike path surrounded by farms and livestock in Friesland, the agricultural province of the Netherlands. My uncle is not a farmer and neither [...]

When I lived in Japan six years ago, I was largely ignorant of food security issues the country is facing.  At the time, it seemed to me there was an abundant supply of safe, affordable food.  While the obvious depopulation of rural areas was a concern, the organic, local and slow food movements were several [...]

I believe that, as much as possible, the crops grown and animals raised on a farm should be thought of as food not commodity. So, naturally, I’m interested in how we move towards having more farmers/ranchers transition into direct relationships with eaters where food is grown and moved into the hands of eaters without being [...]

Statistics rarely tell the whole story, but they can give a pretty good indication of some trends.  It is no secret that Manitoba’s farms have faced many difficult years in recent history.  Despite exporting over $3 billion in agricultural commodities annually, Manitoba’s farming community struggles to make ends meet. So let’s take a look at [...]