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Ottawa to hold second Rural Summit - April 5, 2008 Local farmers can join food guide Farm Financial Survey Farmers plant willow as energy crop Using genetics to stamp out bugs Farmers reminded to register their farm business Organic crops healthier for soil Outback 360 offers a bird's eye view of fields |
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Ottawa to hold second rural summit by Laura Cummings (Courtesy OttawaEast.ca) |
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Hoping to bring further improvements to Ottawa’s rural sections and increase dialogue with that area’s
population, the city will hold its second rural summit in coming weeks. Residents from the east end’s outlying areas are invited to attend Rural Summit II – Building on Success on April 5 at Confederation High School, which is located at 1645 Woodroffe Ave. Ottawa’s first rural summit was held in the fall of 2005, after results from the 2004 Citizen Satisfaction Survey illustrated that the city’s rural residents were considerably less happy with municipal services than urban dwellers. Participant recommendations from the city-hosted event – which boasted over 400 attendees – ranged from creating a rural section on the city’s website to allocating a greater portion of the city budget for road maintenance in rural areas. Derrick Moody, rural affairs officer for the city, explains that next month’s event is being framed as a follow-up to the original summit, as well as the continuation of an ongoing initiative. Read full story. Check out the City of Ottawa's Web site for Rural Summit II - where you can get all the information on the upcoming summit, including the results of the First Rural Summit, and a Sign up link for Rural Summit II e-mail updates.Click here. Back to top |
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Local farmers can join food guide By Patrick Meikle |
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Local farmers who live within the City of Ottawa and the surrounding Ottawa Valley and who
have farm-gate sales of fruit, vegetables, eggs, dairy, meat, honey, syrup, etc., may wish to be a part of the
new Ottawa Buy Local Guide coming out this May. One of the Council's initiatives is to develop a "Buy Local" campaign and logo, similar to the Foodland Ontario guide. Besides this campaign, the Ottawa Food Security Council is focussing on other program areas. They include:
The Ottawa Food Security Council is composed of farmers, restauranteurs, food processors, chefs, to name a few. It started its work in April 2003. The Council has a part-time co-ordinator and includes a diverse group of individuals interested in the complex organizations, transactions and issues that make up our local food systems. To be part of the Guide, to get your farm on the map or to get more information, please contact the OFSC at 236-9300, Ext: 301 by March 31st, 2005 and leave them your contact information. They will contact you to confirm what information you would like in the Guide. To see a draft example of the map or obtain further information regarding the project, you
can also visit their web-site at www.spcottawa.on.ca/ofsc. |
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Farm Financial Survey | ||||||||||||||||||||
The Farm Financial Survey, an initiative by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and Statistics
Canada, provides data on farm assets, liabilities, capital investments and capital sales for 2001. Custom
data requests are available by region, farm type and revenue class, on a cost recovery basis. The Farm Financial Survey (21F0008XIB, free) will be available in December on Statistics Canada's Web site (www.statcan.ca). From the Our products and services page, choose Free publications, then Agriculture. It will also be available on Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's Web site. To order data, contact Client Services (613-951-5027; agriculture@statcan.ca). For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods and data quality of this release, contact Phil Stevens (613-951-2435; stevphi@statcan.ca), Agriculture Division. Back to top |
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Farmers plant willow as energy crop | ||||||||||||||||||||
Farmers plant willow as energy crop Willow sprouts vigorously after cutting, so it can be harvested every three or four years without replanting.
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Using genetics to stamp out bugs | ||||||||||||||||||||
British scientists develop new breed of sterile insects It beats a rolled up newspaper: British scientists have developed a new breed of sterile bugs that could slash insect numbers without the need for costly and environmentally damaging pesticides. DR. LUKE ALPHEY and colleagues at Oxford University say they have established a spin-out company, Oxitec, to commercialize the process and are already discussing control of cotton pests with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Sterilization itself is not new. It has been used to control cattle screwworm in North America and Libya, and to control tsetse flies on the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar. But the standard method of sterilizing males using radiation has serious drawbacks because it often damages the insects which reduces their effectiveness. To get round the problem, the Oxford scientists have genetically modified their bugs, altering the creatures’ metabolism so that they are dependent on a dietary supplement used in the rearing program. “Our technique improves on the current approach as the released insects will be sterile but not damaged by the treatment and so can compete effectively with wild insects,” Alphey said. The Oxitec insects, when released, mate with their natural pest counterparts and transfer their lethal gene before they themselves die, thereby controlling the population. Cheap and non-toxic pest control could be a boon for both livestock and arable farmers, as well as improving human health in developing countries. The United Nations earlier this year lent its support to an ambitious campaign to wipe out the deadly tsetse fly from nearly 10 million square kilometers of sub- Saharan Africa, by releasing millions of irradiated male insects. The biting tsetse fly transmits a deadly parasite, trypanosome, which attacks the blood and nervous system of its victims, causing “nagana” in livestock and “sleeping sickness” in humans. Back to top |
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Farmers reminded to register their farm business | ||||||||||||||||||||
Farmers who have not registered their farm business with AGRICORP's Farm Business Registration Program must do so now. Under the Farm Registration and Farm Organizations Funding Act, Ontario farmers who have a gross farm income of $7,000 or more per year are required to register their business. The farm business registration number is one of the eligibility criteria for the Farmland Property Class Tax Rate and the Ontario Farm Income Disaster Program. Click here. Back to top |
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Organic crops healthier for soil | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Outback 360 offers a bird's eye view of fields | ||||||||||||||||||||
The new Outback 360 is a computerized visual aid system. It features a high-resolution color display screen that offers farmers a 360-degree bird's eye view of their fields. Using the Outback 360 in conjunction with the Outback S, farmers can effectively look down from the sky - monitoring the progress of their tractors, sprayers, cultivators and other farming equipment as they move across fields. Click for more. | ||||||||||||||||||||
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