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A new generation farmer weighs in on beef

Anna Bowen

Ian McCormick is one of the new generation of Canadian farmers.  Thanks to programs like FarmStart and CRAFT (Canadian Regional Alliance for Farmer Training), new farmers — young people and folks who often didn’t grow up farming — are trying their hand at small-scale production.  FarmStart helps develop a new generation of farmers by leasing […] More »
March-April 2012

Lorraine Johnson breaks the law to keep chickens in her Toronto yard

Paul McLaughlin

For the past three years urban gardener and author (City Farmer: Adventures in Urban Food Growing) Lorraine Johnson has kept chickens in her Toronto west-end backyard. As Toronto considers ending its current ban on urban fowl, Johnson, 51, serves up her reasons for overturning the bylaw. THIS: What inspired you to get chickens? LJ: I […] More »
March-April 2012

In the quest for just and sustainable food practices, why is nobody talking about the organic farming’s dependence on migrant labour?

Annie Crane

The organic food industry in Canada is booming. As of 2009, more than 3,900 certified organic farms were in operation across Canada, accounting for just under two per cent of the country’s total farms. This number is growing fast, too—along with knowledge and consumer preference for organic food. Retail sales from 2008 (the most recent […] More »
November-December 2011

Ontario risks losing a huge swath of prime farmland to the Melancthon quarry

Matthew Strader

Carl Cosack wonders who is standing on guard for his piece of Ontario. The 52-year-old rancher manages a herd of black angus cows and 30 horses, making him one of Ontario’s last traditional trail hands and proud owner of one of the province’s few remaining amateur ranches (don’t call it a “dude ranch”). Thanks to […] More »
July-August 2011

How Ontario’s Greenbelt is failing farmers—and the local food movement

Chelsea Murray@chelsea_murray

The greenbelt saved 1.8 million acres of green space from urban sprawl. So why are the farmers who live and work there moving away? Photos by Ian Willms Robert Beynon’s dairy farm sits just north of the Toronto suburb of Richmond Hill, on one of the southernmost edges of Ontario’s greenbelt. It’s a small operation […] More »
September-October 2010

Out of the media glare, the honeybee die-off still threatens the food chain

Claudia CalabroWebsite

Stories of Colony Collapse Disorder swarmed the mainstream media in 2006. Report after report claimed pollinating bees were dying en masse, abandoning their hives, and putting our entire modern food system at risk. Today we rarely hear about CCD, even though the number of bee colonies that survive each winter continue to drop at abnormal rates. […] More »
July-August 2010

Is Canada’s genetically engineered “Enviropig” headed for your plate?

Julia Prinselaar

It may be anticlimactic for those who picture transgenic animals as products of zany laboratory cut ’n pastes, but Canada’s first genetically engineered animal to be raised for food looks just like the ordinary farm pig that shares its DNA. Dubbed “Enviropig,” its creators at the University of Guelph say it’s a boon to the […] More »

Canadian Water Summit 2010: Q&A with Tony Maas of WWF-Canada

Alixandra GouldWebsite

[Editor’s note: Alixandra Gould is attending the 2010 Canadian Water Summit on Thursday, June 17. In advance of that, she interviewed a few of the experts who will be speaking at the event about some of the key issues in current Canadian water policy. Yesterday she contributed a report on the sorry state of water infrastructure […] More »

This contributor Jenn Hardy nominated for PWAC Writing Award

Graham F. Scott

Congratulations to This Magazine contributor (and former intern!) Jenn Hardy for her nomination in the inaugural Professional Writers Association of Canada Writing Awards. Jenn’s cover story on permaculture, “Cleanup in Aisle One,” in the July-August 2009 issue of This was a reader favourite from last year, so it’s great to see it getting some more […] More »
May-June 2010

Borneo experiment shows how saving the apes could save ourselves

Shawn ThompsonWebsite

A reforestation scheme in Borneo could radically reshape wildlife protection, land conservation, and indigenous stewardship—simultaneously. Halfway around the world, on the eastern side of the island of Borneo, near the oil city of Balikpapan, a new tropical rainforest is being created out of what was once a poisonous wasteland. It is a story of radical […] More »

Stop Everything #22: "Transition Towns" find peak oil's silver lining

darcy higgins

With any legitimate climate work being continually ignored by government, Canadians are growing weary. In tandem with our American friends, we’ve for years been witnessing the leadership void at the federal level being filled by some provincial, state and municipal governments, universities and businesses. With Earth Hour showing that widespread participation in environmental initiatives is […] More »