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Upcoming Events | |
October 24, 2013 - Ontario Harvest Gala
Watch future newsletters for details on all upcoming events. |
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New on our Website | |
Farm & Food Care salutes the efforts of the 10 Ontario farmers involved in the new Dinner Starts Here social media initiative.
They're posting regularly about many aspects of their farming life: from planting strawberries to picking stones, cutting wood, boiling maple syrup and more. |
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Find us online | |
On Twitter: @farmfoodcare
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Welcome to the June, 2013 edition of the Farm & Food Care e-newsletter.
As our members are busy with unending summer farm work, our staff are busy working on many initiatives on behalf of all of Ontario agriculture.
In this newsletter, we'll update you on plans for our widely-anticipated Breakfast on the Farm program as well as our recent Toronto Farm Media Tour and more.
We're also looking for feedback on the initiatives you'd like to see Farm & Food Care undertaking on your behalf. Details on a member/stakeholder survey are also included in this edition.
We wish you all a safe and enjoyable summer season. |
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Breakfast on the Farm - June 22
We're now less than four weeks away until the inaugural Breakfast on the Farm event in Ontario, presented in partnership with Egg Farmers of Ontario and Foodland Ontario. More than 1,100 complimentary tickets have already been reserved for the all Ontario breakfast, farm tour, and more. The event will be held at Heritage Hill Farms near New Dundee.
To order your free ticket or to volunteer please visit www.farmfoodcare.org.
Event sponsors, to date, include:
- Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada
- Agriculture More than Ever
- B-W Feed and Seed
- Conestoga Meat Packers
- DuPont Pioneer
- Dairy Farmers of Ontario
- Egg Farmers of Ontario
- Einwechter Ltd.
- Foodland Ontario
- Gay Lea Foods Co-operative Ltd.
- Gray Ridge Egg Farms
- GROWMARK, Inc. and FS Co-operatives
- Ontario Apple Growers
- Ontario Beekeepers' Association
- Ontario Fruit & Vegetable Growers' Association
- Ontario Veal Association
- Oxford Federation of Agriculture
- P & H Milling Group
- Plattsville Grist Mill/Embro Farm Supply
- Stratford Farm Equipment
- Stonaleen Farms
- Tavistock Veterinarians
- Thomas Carberry Insurance Ltd.
- Turkey Farmers of Ontario
- Wilmot Orchards
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Farm Photo Library Updates
Farm & Food Care has partnered with the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers, Ontario Apple Growers and Ontario Tender Fruit Growers to add two new galleries of photos to our well-used photo library at www.farmissues.com/pages/mediaGallery.php The Northern Ontario Aquaculture Association has also contributed a number of images from its collection for a new aquaculture gallery also to be added to the site.
 | | Ontario aquaculture |
Each year, Farm & Food Care receives about 150 requests from media, educators, government and members for high resolution images for use in brochures, presentations, websites and more. The library was started in 2004 as a project of the former Ontario Farm Animal Council and many Ontario livestock organizations. Efforts have been ongoing over the last two years to add images of commodities not previously included in the collection.
A reminder that the gallery only includes a sampling of the photos in the library. If you're looking for something that you can't find there, email info@farmfoodcare.org and we'll see if we've got a suitable image.
 | | Tomatoes on the vine |
 | | Nectarine trees in bloom |
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2013 Toronto farm media tour
Farm & Food Care partnered with Croplife Canada, Foodland Ontario, the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers (OGVG), Ontario Goat and Pick Ontario for its ninth annual Toronto media tour on May 30.
43 Toronto area journalists, food writers, bloggers, chefs, recipe developers and professional home economists participated in the day-long event.
The tour's first stop was at Beverly Greenhouses, a 22 acre English cucumber facility, owned by Jan and Dale VanderHout. The group learned about this family farm and were treated to bags of recipe booklets and fresh produce courtesy of OGVG.
Lunch, sponsored by Croplife Canada, was hosted at the Halton Region Museum and was also attended by several Halton area farmers. Dr. Joe Schwarcz, director of McGill's Office of Science & Society was the event's entertaining lunchtime speaker.
The final stop of the day was at Escarpment's Edge Dairy Goat farm, owned by Jason Lyons. There, guests met Lyons' 300 Saanen and Alpine-cross milking goats and their young offspring and tasted a sampling of Ontario goat cheeses.
The program's next media tour will take place on Thursday, October 10 in the Ottawa area. Farm & Food Care is looking for suggestions of farm visits, lunch locations and partnership opportunities for the event.
 | | Jan VanderHout explains his cucumber greenhouse system. |
 | | Where else would you sample goat cheese but in a goat barn? |
 | | Dr. Joe Schwarcz |
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WRAMI projects now on YouTube
The 17 projects funded, in part, through the WRAMI (Water Resource Adaptation Management Initiative) are now underway, with most projects in the initial stages of development and installation.
Farm & Food Care's Environmental team is taking video during site visits and uploading it to Youtube under FarmandFoodCare's channel.
Staff will also be active on the twitter front at @FarmFoodCare and @MicahKudel.
Updates to the progress of individual WRAMI projects will be posted to the Farm & Food Care website as they become available. Throughout the summer, staff will be making regular site visits to check up on projects and report developments.
YouTube video updates have been prepared for three of the projects:
Variable Corn Population Planting
Drip Tape Installation
Crop Residue Calculator
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Stakeholder survey
Farm & Food Care is evaluating its programs and member services: what we do, how we do it and why we do it.
We would like to know what our members and stakeholders think as we work to continuously improve.
We are asking our members and stakeholders to complete a short survey to help us serve you and the interests of Ontario's agri-food sector better. The survey can be accessed online at: www.surveymonkey.com/s/FarmFoodCare.
A hard copy of the survey will be mailed to Farm & Food Care members in the next week. We ask that you complete the survey on or before July 5, 2013 online, or by filling in the hard copy of the survey and returning to the Farm & Food Care office. |
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Foundation Highlights
Donation of proceeds from art auction
The Farm & Food Care Foundation has received a unique donation from artist Emma Caldwell of Carp.
Caldwell, with the help of the website www.thebullvine.com, recently auctioned one of her paintings entitled "Hailey" (of RF Goldwyn Hailey), and donated a portion of the proceeds from the on-line event to the Farm & Food Care Foundation. The painting sold for $1,450 to Gen-Com Holsteins.
Caldwell draws inspiration from her "own experiences growing up on a dairy farm". She added, "I think I learned to respect and appreciate life from an early age and my paintings are reflective of that."
 | | Emma Caldwell and her painting "Hailey". |
She chose the Farm & Food Care Foundation as the recipient of the project because of her belief in the need for agricultural advocacy.
Said Caldwell, "When the Bullvine offered to help auction off the painting I saw an opportunity.
I knew that 'Hailey' would be getting a lot of attention over social media, and I thought that if every time someone clicked on a picture of the painting on Facebook and they were introduced to the Farm & Food Care Foundation, then my art would be helping to accomplish my goal of promoting agriculture advocacy."
She added, "I am, of course, so happy to donate to the Foundation, but what I am really excited about is that a painting of what I think is beautiful in a dairy cow is helping to get agriculture into the conversation. Communication between producer and consumer is so important in the future of farming so I am thrilled that my art is getting people talking!"
To learn more about this talented young artist, visit her website at www.artbyemmacaldwell.com, her blog at http://artistemmacaldwell.blogspot.ca/ or her facebook page at www.facebook.com/ArtByEmmaCaldwell |
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If you've misplaced a copy of the newsletter or want to check an item from a past issue, they're all archived on our website under the Media Centre section.
We encourage you to forward this newsletter to other members of your company or organization who might be interested. They can also subscribe directly by emailing info@farmfoodcare.org. |
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100 Stone Road West, Suite 106
Guelph, ON
N1G 5L3
519-837-1326
www.farmfoodcare.org
Twitter: @farmfoodcare
Email: info@farmfoodcare.org |
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