I’m concerned that the inevitable public reaction to the spike in food prices (they’ve reached record levels over the past six months) will take farmers by surprise, again. The sector wasn’t ready for the 2008...
Read MoreI’m proud to co-chair a group of two dozen Canadian agricultural journalists and communications professionals who, after three years of planning and preparation, are welcoming up to 300 colleagues from around the world to...
Read MoreOur most traditional Christmas season flower, the poinsettia, needs to be manipulated for height, for more uniform shipping. This can be done with growth-inhibiting chemicals, which have limited availability in Canada because...
Read MoreWhen it comes to warmth, rats and mice are like the rest of us — they’d prefer a cozy nest (however you define it) rather than the frosty conditions that mark a Canadian winter. So they move indoors and become...
Read MoreIf we all ate what we should and exercised, we’d be healthier. There’s no shortage of warnings that tell us we’re digging our own graves by eating foods rich in fat and sugar, the kind we’ll devour in abundance over the...
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Owen Roberts is a faculty member in the Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communications program at the University of Illinois. As an agricultural journalist, he is the past president of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists and a lifetime achievement award recipient from the Canadian Farm Writers' Federation. His programs and research papers have been recognized nationally and internationally through awards from the Journal of Applied Communications, the National Agri-Marketing Association, the Association for Communications Excellence, and others.