Digging into Community Darcy Smith Mel Sylvestre has been farming for almost 20 years, and she’s pretty sure she’ll never run out of lessons learned. From last year’s heat dome, to this year’s cold, wet weather, to figuring out just what type of kale customers want, every farming season brings new challenges—and new opportunities. She… Keep Reading
Anna Helmer The title of this column is borderline pretentious and potentially misleading. We are not a certified biodynamic farm. I am certain we do not meet the requirements and have faint hope of doing so because we fall well short of the ideal farm Rudolph Steiner describes in his lectures: we have no cattle,… Keep Reading
A Cooperative Energy Flow By Marjorie Harris Mother Nature is an ocean of electromagnetic waves traveling at the speed of light. It is now understood that nothing happens in the natural world that isn’t an electromagnetic event at some level. It was just over 175 years ago in 1846, that Michael Faraday, known as the… Keep Reading
Emily Lorenz This article first appeared on the FarmFolk CityFolk website and is printed here with gratitude. Agroforestry integrates trees or shrubs with other crops and/or livestock. Trees can capture greenhouse gases through their branches, leaves, trunks, and roots, making them an important climate solution and aid in reducing emissions in agriculture. In addition to… Keep Reading
Mary Paradis Most of Canada’s agricultural policy is delivered through five-year policy frameworks, co-developed and co-negotiated by the federal, provincial, and territorial governments. Meant to strengthen and grow Canada’s agriculture sector, the framework is agriculture’s primary policy document that guides how government supports farmers and has historically encompassed approximately $3 billion in public spending. Farmers… Keep Reading
Andrew Adams Trees, shrubs, and seeds all wait to begin a lifetime or two of photosynthesizing sugars for human and animal consumption and enjoyment. The road where Walter’s backhoe broke in a muck of two summers of nonstop rain is now ditched and has a new layer of gravel. Part of me broke in that… Keep Reading
Anna Helmer I have found it too cold to even consider applying Biodynamic Preparations so far this year. There’s no rule about it being too cold—it’s just a feeling I have. A shivery one. Instead, I have been contenting myself Biodynamically with further fiddling in our forested areas. The idea is to open things up… Keep Reading
The Relationship Between Religions, Agriculture, and Civilizations Marjorie Harris “The way we see the world shapes the way we treat it. If a mountain is a deity, not a pile of ore…if a forest is a sacred grove, not timber; if other species are biological kin, not resources; or if the planet is our mother,… Keep Reading
By Ron Berezan This article was first published by The Canadian Organic Grower magazine in Summer 2011, and is reprinted here with gratitude. “When the well is dry, we know the worth of water.” – Benjamin Franklin, 1746 Turn on the tap and there it is; that shimmering, miraculous substance that flows through our rivers… Keep Reading
Our Best Case for a Climate-Changed Food System Brian MacIsaac and Rebecca Kneen Fifty years ago, the combination of climate crisis, income inequality, and environmental toxification led to a massive change in North America. The polar ice melt raised the ocean by several feet, drowning cities all over the coast, including all the coastal agricultural… Keep Reading
