“The Real Dirt on Farming” 2023 is now available

Nov 24, 2023

GUELPH — Farm & Food Care officially unveiled the sixth edition of The Real Dirt on Farming, its flagship public-outreach publication, at its Harvest Gala on November 16, 2023.

The Real Dirt on Farming is a nation-wide initiative designed to help Canadians connect with their food and the farmers that produce it – who they are, what they do, and why they do it. Using both stories and science, the 60-page publication addresses common questions and misconceptions about Canadian food and farming, as well as other subjects that the general public has indicated are important to them.

The 2023 edition features farmer and researcher profiles from across the country – from the Yukon to Newfoundland and all points in between. It covers big topics being talked about currently in Canadian agriculture – from farmer mental health to the critical work done by seasonal agricultural workers; sustainability,food inflation, food insecurity and food waste, climate change, plant breeding, animal welfare and more.

The booklet is created through a partnership of the three Farm & Food Care organizations in Saskatchewan,Ontario and Prince Edwards Island and was written by freelance journalists Lilian Schaer and Matt McIntosh. An expert committee comprised of researchers, commodity and subject matter experts were also involved in reviewing and vetting content.

This is the sixth edition published since the project’s inception in 2006. To date, approximately five million copies have been distributed across Canada.

The booklet is available in English and French. By early 2024, a digest version will be available as a digital educator resource coming from Agriculture in the Classroom Canada and a new 4-H manual being created by 4-H Ontario. Distribution of the booklet will also begin in earnest in 2024 with plans for mainstream media inserts and mailings to politicians across Canada.

The publication is currently available online at www.RealDirtonFarming.ca. Hard copies may also be ordered from the website www.farmfoodcare.org

Source : Farmersforum

Video: Spring 2026 weather outlook for Wisconsin; What an early-arriving El Niño could mean

Northeast Wisconsin is a small corner of the world, but our weather is still affected by what happens across the globe.

That includes in the equatorial Pacific, where changes between El Niño and La Niña play a role in the weather here -- and boy, have there been some abrupt changes as of late.

El Niño and La Niña are the two phases of what is collectively known as the El Niño Southern Oscillation, or ENSO for short. These are the swings back and forth from unusually warm to unusually cold sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean along the equator.

Since this past September, we have been in a weak La Niña, which means water temperatures near the Eastern Pacific equator have been cooler than usual. That's where we're at right now.

Even last fall, the long-term outlook suggested a return to neutral conditions by spring and potentially El Niño conditions by summer.

But there are some signs this may be happening faster than usual, which could accelerate the onset of El Niño.

Over the last few weeks, unusually strong bursts of westerly winds farther west in the Pacific -- where sea surface temperatures are warmer than average -- have been observed. There is a chance that this could accelerate the warming of those eastern Pacific waters and potentially push us into El Niño sooner than usual.

If we do enter El Nino by spring -- which we'll define as the period of March, April and May -- there are some long-term correlations with our weather here in Northeast Wisconsin.

Looking at a map of anomalously warm weather, most of the upper Great Lakes doesn't show a strong correlation, but in general, the northern tiers of the United States do tend to lean to that direction.

The stronger correlation is with precipitation. El Niño conditions in spring have historically come with a higher risk of very dry weather over that time frame, so this will definitely be a transition we'll have to watch closely as we move out of winter.