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Small Farms, Food Businesses to Lose Vital USDA Support

By Pamela S Kan-Rice

Apryl Sims was excited to sell 100 bottles of her cold-pressed, fruit and vegetable-based juices to a local store in South Los Angeles. Sims, the owner of Apryl’s Life in a Bottle, received marketing advice from Diaspora Groceries, which helped complete a business plan and refine her product pitch to bring vitamin-rich beverages to urban food deserts. 

With support from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Southwest Regional Food Business Center, Diaspora Groceries has been offering technical assistance to Los Angeles-area food entrepreneurs to launch their small businesses. 

The dairy farming Smith family in rural Utah worked closely with Utah State University to learn how to navigate regulations, access grant opportunities, and expand agritourism and local food offerings to preserve Oliver’s Place, their six-generation family farm, and adapt to changing markets.

Source : ucanr.edu

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Developing disease resistance in new wheat varieties

Video: Developing disease resistance in new wheat varieties


Dr. Colin Hiebert, research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada – Morden, is focused on developing new tools that wheat breeders can use to improve, diversify and strengthen disease resistance in new wheat varieties. This includes new genomic tools that address resistance to five diseases including: Fusarium head blight, leaf rust, stripe rust, stem rust and common bunt.

Learn more about how research conducted at AAFC-Morden will impact wheat variety development, production and profitability for the future. This research is part of the Canadian National Wheat Cluster and funding is provided through the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Alberta Grains, Sask Wheat, Manitoba Crop Alliance, Western Grains Research Foundation and Canadian Field Crop Research Alliance.