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Separating the Grain from the Chaff in Agriculture & Food
Browsing All Posts filed under »Organic«
“Big Organic”: Threat or Opportunity?
I’m proud of the growth in the organic sector. According to the Organic Trade Association, organic sales in the United States have increased from $3.6 billion in 1997 to over $39 billion in 2014. This double-digit rate of growth holds true for Canada, too, which is now the fourth-largest organic market in the world. This […]
Trading Places: Two farmers step out of their comfort zones
December 18, 2015
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to step across the “conventional/organic divide”? During the first week of December, we (Jen Christie and Rob Wallbridge) did just that. Rob (an organic vegetable grower) had been invited to speak on a social media panel at Agri-trend’s Farm Forum Event in Saskatoon, SK; an annual […]
Infographic: Weed Control Strategies
May 27, 2015
I get asked a lot about how organic farmers control weeds without the use of herbicides. (And with the rise and spread of herbicide-resistant weeds, the issue is on the mind of many conventional farmers, too.) Some naturally assume that in the absence of herbicides, hand-weeding or deep tillage, along with all the drawbacks of […]
End the Food Wars: Let’s Fight for Understanding Instead
February 10, 2015
What would our conversations about food and agriculture look like if we strove for mutual understanding rather than a conversion to our way of thinking? What if the loser of an argument was the one who had failed to gain any understanding or appreciation for the viewpoints of their opponent?
Wordless Wednesday: Late Summer Tillage and Cover Crops
August 20, 2014
This seed drill is an antique from the horse-drawn era, but it still gets the job done! This morning I sowed a mix of oats, peas, and radish into a field I ploughed recently. By doing primary tillage this time of year, I’m giving the soil life time to recover before winter sets in. Establishing […]
Feeding the World: Beyond the GMO/Organic Dichotomy
August 19, 2014
We should all recognize by now that “feeding the world” is much more a logistical and political challenge than an agricultural one. As a farmer, however, I spend a lot of time thinking about producing food economically, efficiently, and ecologically. Conventional wisdom dictates that genetically-engineered crops are a vital part of the overall solution, while organic […]
Organic Farming and Modern Technology: Friend or Foe?
June 27, 2014
I just listened to a recent interview with Julie Borlaug, associate director for external relations for the Norman E. Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture at Texas A&M. Julie is the daughter of the scientist who is often referred to as the ‘father of the Green Revolution,” which saw the introduction, beginning in the late 1950s, of […]
Academics Review: Selling the Fear of Organic Marketing
June 6, 2014
It’s been a little over four years since I joined Twitter and a year since I started blogging. What I originally considered a way to share information about my farm has evolved into something that feeds my passion for informed discussion and logical debate. The farmers, scientists and bloggers I’ve encountered have radically altered the […]
Walmart and Organic Food: Help or Hype?
April 10, 2014
According to a news release published yesterday and widely parroted around the web, Walmart is poised to take its “lowest price is the law” approach to some of its organic offerings, promising to make organic food “affordable” to all. According to their own research, 91% of its shoppers would buy organic food if the price […]
An Organic Farmer Walks into Monsanto…
December 13, 2013
The story of how I came to be touring Monsanto starts back in late April and a blog post where I questioned the current tenor of the GMO debate. It caught the attention of Janice Person, a Social Media Director for Monsanto, who commented, “if you ever want to see what we do at Monsanto, I would love […]
The Blog of Rob Wallbridge
Occasional posts on food, farming, and related topics from an organic farm in Western Quebec, Canada.
The Fanning Mill 
February 10, 2016
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