As a kid, I spent many days perched precariously on the fender of my friend Randy Burke’s John Deere tractor (his dad’s John Deere, actually), travelling from one field to the next, driving to the nearby village for a break...
Read MoreI almost never start a blog post, story, column (or speech) with a quote. I got pummeled for doing so back in the 1970s by an editor at the Windsor Star, and I’ve never forgot. But to me, this one bears our attention:...
Read MoreI tell my University of Guelph agricultural communications students that conflict drives the news. And having touched down in 2012, it’s pretty easy to find conflict in agriculture and food. Some of it simmers in social...
Read MoreFarmers where I grew up, near Wallaceburg in southwestern Ontario, had at least one common trait. They proudly proclaimed their name and their male heir on the sides of their barns. A half-century ago, I guess it was a sign of...
Read MorePrice wars are being predicted for food in 2012, thanks mainly to imminent arrival of the latest big box store to hit Canada. But in a strange twist, that could actually end up working in local food producers’ favour....
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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.