Social media has revolutionized how people search for and access information.  It has also become one of the most powerful (and cheapest) of marketing channels.  Today we take the 3 most popular social media platforms - Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram - and look at how you can build thriving social media pages that drive buzz and traffic to your farm, without taking up too much of your valuable time.

This week the Canadian government published what the Canadian Produce Marketing Association calls the most significant overhaul of food safety regulations in the nation's history.  Effective January 15, 2019, the new "Safe Food for Canadians Regulations" address food safety and traceability and will have several ramifications for Canadian growers and processors.  One of the collective goals of the update is to ensure faster recalls and prevent the spread of food-borne illnesses.  The announcement comes in the wake of this year's deadly U.S. outbreak of E. coli; which has ignited grower, legislative, and consumer concerns about the efficacy of food safety measures.

Millennials yearn for careers with purpose.  Farming, an incredibly rewarding calling, certainly fits the bill!  But Millennials are also a generation with crushing debt anxiety, a need for social connection, and a fondness for instant gratification.  Farming, on the other hand, is a career path of significant barriers to entry, social challenges, and delayed reward.  As fewer and fewer young people enter the ag/hort sector, the question of how to attract the next generation of food producers becomes more and more pressing.  In today’s blog post, we’ll examine the challenges facing young potential entrants, and add to the discussion of how to foster the next generation of growers.

Food loss leaches $31B out of the Canadian food industry alone every year and constitutes a huge global sustainability problem.  In the fruit and vegetable industry, between 20-40% of fruit and vegetables gets rejected for cosmetic reasons.

Today we look at how growers use a variety of means - from operations management, to software, to NASA technology - to reduce food loss and make the most of their lower-grade produce.