We’re looking to learn more about the barriers, capacity, and overall needs of Canada’s organic workforce. Do you work on or operate a certified organic farm? You can help make recommendations for decision makers and organic stakeholders to address the sector’s needs by filling out our Workforce Needs Assessment Surveys! Operators can fill out the Farm Operator’s
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Climate change and agriculture are closely connected. Agriculture makes up 10 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in Canada, excluding on-farm fossil fuel usage and fertilizer production processes. Canada has pledged to lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across the economy by 40 percent and reduce agricultural emissions by 30 percent from 2020 levels by 2030. In order to meet these targets, changes across the agricultural industry are necessary.

There is a wealth of research that explores the diverse environmental benefits of organic agriculture. Many farmers may want to experiment with practices that carry environmental benefits, but are concerned about potential profit losses or unforeseen consequences. Read on to learn how organic agriculture can be just as profitable as, or even more profitable than, conventional agriculture.

Each organic or regenerative farm is as unique as the farmers who keep it running, especially when it comes to dealing with organic agriculture’s most infamous challenge: weeds. Read on to learn how five organic Ontario-based farmers and researchers use different approaches to achieve this goal in weed management.

All around the world, you’ll find farmers who are passionate about restoring their environment through organic and regenerative farming practices. There is a lot of variety in regional approaches to sustainable agriculture, and each of them has something to teach us about Canada’s organic sector.

In 2021, nitrogen fertilizer saw a huge price spike due to a string of severe weather events like Hurricane Ida and the February Texas cold snap. Alongside other supply-chain disruptions, these events have led to global shortages and decade-high consumer prices. Is there a way we can limit our dependance on nitrogen fertilizer?

Sustainability Miloš Rajkovi´c, et al., September 2021 Flame weeding is an alternative method of weed control. Essentially, it is a supplementto other physical and mechanical processes used in organic production. Weed control costs have a large share of the total cost of crop production. This study aimed to investigate hand weed hoeing’s cost-effectiveness, accompanied by
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European Commission, February 2021 In 2020 the new EU Climate Target Plan set a target of a 55% GHG reduction by 2030 compared to 1990 and carbon farming will play a key role in achieving EU’s climate targets. This report looks at the ways carbon farming will be managed and incentivized in the EU.

Farmers for Climate Solutions, 2021 In this report, Farmers for Climate Solutions, a national coalition of farmer-led and farmer-supported organizations, are calling for more robust incentives and supports for Canadian farmers wishing to take up environmentally-friendly farming practices, since even with recent funding, Canada still lags far behind other jurisdictions.

The European Union: May 2020 The EU is a world leader in the organic market and in May of 2020, they released their Farms to Fork Strategy, an ambitious plan that serves as part of Europe’s Green New Deal, a plan to make Europe the first carbon-neutral continent by 2050, including in their agricultural sector.
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Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development Charlotte E. Blattner, March 2020 Just Transition has become an established discur-sive and conceptual framework to transition eco-nomic industries toward a low-carbon and climate-resilient future. In the coal and mining industry in particular, it has gained a foothold and transformed politics and livelihoods. In other areas, like
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Darrin Qualman and the National Farmers Union, 2019 Farmers across Canada are in crisis. Left unchecked, the changing climate will dramatically deepen the income crisis on Canada’s farms as farmers struggle to deal with continued warming, more intense storms, and increasingly unpredictable weather. The very factors driving the climate crisis are also driving the farm
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