The Canadian Farm Writers’ Federation held its annual awards in Winnipeg, September 20, 2025, recognizing The Grower’s excellence in production photography, technical reporting and current affairs reporting. 

Freelance photographer Glenn Lowson captured a silver prize for his shot of asparagus grower Mike Chromczak, Brownsville, Ontario sizing up his field sprayer. This was the cover shot for the March 2024 story: The big stride to adopting biologicals. 

Editor Karen Davidson won a silver prize for current affairs reporting in the June 2024 cover story: Building community in a global village improves retention rates. The story highlighted the teamwork of Amanda Doughty, human resources manager at Sandy Shore Farms, Port Burwell, Ontario, her assistant, Guatemalan Pancho Chanquin and Jamaican field manager, Curtis Dixon. Together they coach 200 temporary foreign workers during the intense eight-week asparagus harvest. 

Davidson also scored a silver prize for technical reporting in the August 2024 cover story: Artificial intelligence eyes auto-labour. This story chronicled how robots are moving from the twilight zone to reality with researchers from the University of Prince Edward Island. They are perfecting a robot that can identify potatoes with potato virus Y. The story pivoted to Ontario growers Ian and Paul Smith who are working with different challenges in muck soils. Their robot is seeding and weeding onions. 

“These CFWF awards point to the consistency of The Grower’s monthly print offering to 10,500 readers across Canada,” said Karen Davidson, editor. “We’re grateful to the many growers and researchers who generously share their time for photo shoots and interviews. Without them, we couldn’t show the face of modern horticulture to a host of stakeholders.” Source: Canadian Farm Writers’ Federation September 19, 2025 awards.

Source: Canadian Farm Writers' Federation September 19, 2025 awards