THE RURBAN FRINGE

Reap the Benefits of a Corn Maze

In many rural areas, pumpkin-picking, corn-mazing and hayriding across crisp fields define the fall months - by far the busiest season for agritourism businesses. 
A growing number of tourists – largely urban and suburban families with children - are taking the time to explore such local attractions, broadening the potential for agritourism to provide additional income to support family farms … [...]

Farmers Become Ag Educators

In Ontario, a rural leadership and capacity-building project is offering communities, agencies and organizations the opportunity to identify and build the skills of local leaders through a series of relevant program and resource tools.
Part of this project asked rural communities to share what makes their communities great … with Harold and Shelley McPhail – the [...]

Help Develop Canada’s Next Agricultural Policy

Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada and provincial and territorial governments want to hear from Canadians and agriculture industry representatives to develop the next agricultural policy framework – Growing Forward 2.
Growing Forward 2 will build on the success of existing programs and leverage the ingenuity of farmers, processors and others in the sector to continue to generate economic [...]

Ag Boom Misses Small Towns

While many people think small towns and farming activities go hand-in-hand, Adam Belz, in the Des Moines Register, writes otherwise. 
Although agricultural land prices have increased in both Canada and the US, the spin-offs don’t always benefit the communities they surround.  “We have this decoupling of farms from their particular small rural communities,” says Cornelia Flora, a sociology [...]

Canada.com Featured Contributor: A Looming Agricultural Labour Crisis

In 2009, I posted on a looming crisis – that of a growing worker shortage in the agricultural industry.  Since that post, the issue remains a growing, albeit largely silent, concern.
Why should you care? 
Because agricultural employment is a major element underpinning our food system … if no-one at home is growing food in safe, regulated [...]

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