‘Honeycrisp’ apples are susceptible to bitter pit, a physiological disorder that impacts peel and adjacent cortex tissue.

It’s no secret that locally sourced products are becoming increasingly important for today’s shopper and the spotlight is shining on fresh food categories like produce. Consumers are hungry for fruits and vegetables that are grown nearby, and also factor in environmental sustainability when making purchases.

The Laurier Centre for Sustainable Food Systems (LCSFS), based at Wilfrid Laurier University, has launched a new podcast series to showcase research that drives positive changes in the ways we produce, gather, eat, dispose of and understand our food.

The Canadian Grapevine Certification Network (CGCN-RCCV) has received funding from the Canadian Agricultural Partnership (CAP) program to test vines used for propagation for Grapevine Leafroll associated Virus 1 (GLaV1), GLaV3, Red Blotch Virus (GRBV) and Pinot Gris Virus (GPGV).

Farmers and landowners who want to increase pollinator habitat while also improving water quality should consider the benefits of saturated riparian buffers enhanced with native wildflowers.

A map identifying the areas suitable for establishment of the spotted lanternfly (SLF) in the United States and other countries has been published in the Journal of Economic Entomology by Agricultural Research Service scientists.

Virus diseases, particularly those caused by the grapevine leafroll associated viruses (GLRaV) and grapevine red blotch-associated virus (GRBaV), are a serious threat in all Canadian wine producing provinces due to their rapid spread and severe impact on grape and wine production and quality.

Reducing our environmental footprint is on every farmer’s agenda. We’re always looking for ways to improve water quality and preserve natural wildlife habitats as we continually adjust our farming practices to leave our soil and water in better shape for the next generation.

Thanks to a seed grant from Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF), an interdisciplinary team of researchers at Vineland Research and Innovation Centre (Vineland) has discovered a new approach to control and eradicate invasive plants and weeds. Vineland’s innovative solution utilizes the unique natural chemistry of invasive plants as a source of new sustainable control tool.

Prof. David Wolyn, department of plant agriculture, is the University of Guelph’s Innovation of the Year award winner for 2019.

Fruit & Vegetable (F&V) magazine and BASF Canada are celebrating the hard work that goes into producing Canada’s fruit and vegetable bounty with the What’s Growing Canada video contest!

Last May, a Turlock almond grower noticed nearly all the nuts on a row of trees in his orchard had fallen to the ground.

Canadian vegetable growers spend hundreds of thousands of dollars each year on herbicides that don’t kill the weeds they are targeting. Not only do these herbicide-resistant weeds cause farmers yield losses, but also the farmers often find themselves paying for multiple weed control strategies, including hiring workers to manually remove the weeds.

“Samurai Wasps vs. Stink Bugs” is not the title of the latest Avengers film. But it does describe new efforts by Cornell scientists to control a household nuisance and agricultural pest.

Food-borne illness can create big problems for both public health and a business. Most recently, an outbreak of E. coli made headlines across Canada and the U.S., with 29 confirmed cases in Canada. Romaine lettuce and other leafy greens were recalled by producers and food manufacturers after the outbreak was traced back to farms in California.

UPL AgroSolutions Canada recently announced that the Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) has granted registration for Manzate Max liquid fungicide for use on fruit, including apples, potatoes and vegetable crops.

Protecting the health and safety of Canadians and the environment is a priority for the Government of Canada. This includes helping to protect the health of bees and other pollinators by minimizing their exposure to pesticides.

The University of Guelph Ridgetown Campus recently released a number of new tables outlining fungicide efficacy for management of diseases in field tomatoes. 

The Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) recently announced the approval of URMULE registrations for Presidio Fungicide for control of downy mildew on field and greenhouse basil and downy mildew of hops, and suppression of Phytophthora blight and pod rot and downy mildew on edible-podded beans in Canada. Presidio Fungicide was already labeled for use on a number of crops in Canada for control of several diseases.

BASF introduces new Versys insecticide for the 2019 season. Versys controls aphids and whiteflies in fruit and vegetable crops.

The Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) recently announced the approval of a minor use label expansion registration for Avian Control bird repellent to reduce feeding damage to ripening bushberries (crop subgroup 13-07B), grapes and sweet corn caused by birds in Canada.

The Agriculture and Agri-Food (AAFC) website is undergoing a renovation, and as a result the Pest Management Centre pages have been relocated to join the AAFC Research and Development Centres’ web pages. Along with this migration, the pest management centre homepage has been updated.

Gestion AgrIA has received a financial contribution of $4.7 million from the government of Quebec, through the Green Fund, to complete a key research project that is helping growers boost their productivity while significantly reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Agriculture is a hugely diverse industry with a host of challenges. In a competitive market, farmers are under increasing pressure to improve productivity and profit. However, striking a balance between this and safety is crucial to protect workers and prevent workplace fatalities.

Whoever said that “A potato storage is not a hospital” was absolutely right. Diseased or bruised tubers that are stored will not get better. Tubers bruised at harvest are easily invaded by soft rot and/or Fusarium dry rot, which can cause serious economic losses in storage.

With harvest in full swing in some parts of the province, farmers need to be aware of the risks associated with worker fatigue.

Farmers have had long-running battles trying to keep birds of many varieties from eating their sweetcorn. They’ve used propane cannons, visual deterrents and even shotguns, but none succeed for very long.

Sustainability is a hot topic, with companies around the country taking steps to make their businesses “greener” and more eco-friendly. For the agriculture industry, sustainability will be especially important in the years and decades to come as a compromised environment has a direct impact on the ability to produce fresh, healthy food. The good news is that there are many techniques facilities can adopt to reduce their environmental footprint, including a sustainable approach to pest management.

A hot plant is an early warning sign of an under-watered, unhealthy plant, which makes monitoring crop temperatures a priority for many farmers. But to do so, they need the right equipment. Infrared cameras can detect heat and convert it into an image, but they are large, unwieldy and expensive. Infrared sensors are less expensive, but they don’t provide images, which makes accurate monitoring difficult for medium and large-sized fields.

While farm machinery innovation often means bigger sizes and more complex technology, one Ontario farm is proving smaller and simpler may be the way of the future for harvesting row crops.

Growers sizing up the impacts a changing climate could have on North America are well aware of two key challenges. One is greater rainfall earlier in the winter, meaning smaller snow packs and less runoff during the growing season. This will contribute to drier summers. Compounding the effects of a drier growing season is a rise in temperatures.

Keep cool is the motto in cherry orchards, where heat rapidly degrades picked fruit and turns stems brown. That’s why nearly all B.C. cherry growers use Mylar covers. White on the outside, reflective on the inside, the tarps keep heat out and humidity in.

In a greenhouse in Belgium, a small robot moves through rows of strawberries growing on trays suspended above the ground, using machine vision to locate ripe, flawless berries, then reaching up with a 3D-printed hand to gently pluck each berry and place it in a basket for sale. If it feels that a berry isn’t ready for harvest, the robot estimates the date it will be ready for it to return and pick it.

A new committee is exploring ways to help Island farmers better handle farm-related environment issues, strengthen a core sector of the economy and help farm families build a strong future.

Since 2017, the McCain Foods Adjustment Fund has helped to create 140 new jobs for Islanders in the Borden-Carleton region.

Hensall District Co-operative, Inc., a leading farmer-owned co-operative in the Canadian agricultural sector, recently announced that it has pledged $100,000.00 towards the proposed new Ontario Sustainable Crop Research and Innovation Centre at the University of Guelph’s Ridgetown Campus.

Every farmer works in concert with the natural environment. Water, air and soil are the backbone of our farm businesses, and we understand the importance of sound resource management. We follow, with keen interest, any government decisions that impact water management to ensure the agricultural community is included and informed.

For every plant that grows in a field, there are plenty of things that may prevent it from growing healthily. Our crops must contend with up to 10,000 species of insects, 3,000 types of nematodes, and 50,000 diseases caused by bacteria, fungi and viruses.

A new soil health test is available to Island farmers to measure soil quality and provide additional tools to assist them in understanding soil health.

The Ontario Farm Fresh Marketing Association and Farmers' Markets Ontario, two important organizations that connect farmers with consumers through direct sales experiences, recently received an investment from the provincial government. 

Cavendish Farms’ newest plant is officially open for business. Cavendish Farms president Robert K. Irving was joined by Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, Lethbridge Mayor Chris Spearman and other dignitaries to celebrate the largest private sector investment in the history of the City of Lethbridge.

Agrinos’ proprietary organic biostimulant, iNvigorate, is now registered for use by Canadian growers. The soil-applied microbial product enhances crop quality and nutrient uptake under variable growing conditions while increasing the total productive capacity of both the soil and the crop.

The Ministry of Agriculture has recently updated the guidelines regarding organic certification in BC. Changes were made to provide greater clarity as to how to be in compliance with B.C.’s Organic Certification Regulation.

Both the federal and provincial governments are stepping up to help Ontario's berry farmers to increase sustainability, implement new technologies and increase awareness of their products.