OFVGA continues to lobby for adequate supports for Ontario horticulture, the province’s second largest agricultural sector.

Despite biopesticides now representing about 30% of total active ingredients registered in Canada, Chris Duyvelshoff points out that their use is nowhere near 30% of top crop protection applications.

In an age where it is easy for anyone and everyone to influence government through social media, having a single voice, even if representing thousands of fruit and vegetable farmers, is still only a single voice. Gordon Stock points out that government needs to demonstrate that it has heard from all sides. 

A couple of initiatives are underway, writes Owen Roberts, that will do more story-telling to consumers about how food gets to the table. 

Here are some practical tips to grow opportunities with different retailers. If you are struggling to think of how they are different, Peter Chapman advises to visit the store.

Katie and Phil Keddy are the winners of the 2020 Atlantic Outstanding Young Farmers competition. Besides growing strawberries at Lakeville, Nova Scotia, they are the largest growers of sweet potatoes east of Ontario. 

New survey results from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business reveal that 82% of farmers are hurt by the carbon tax. The association urges the federal government to exempt natural gas, propane and aviation fuel used for farming. 

The NDP provincial government has trimmed the budget for the agriculture ministry by almost $3 million, to $95.4 million. 

Two Canadians have been elected to the board of directors of the new Potato Sustainability Alliance. They are John MacQuarrie, Cavendish Farms as chair and Sanford Gleddie, The Little Potato Company as treasurer. 

The Canadian Produce Marketing Association and NSF Canada have scheduled the first of several food safety workshops for March 17-18. The meeting venue is the Ontario Food Terminal. More dates across Canadian cities will be announced.