We sell our seed garlic at the Stratford Garlic Festival, the Toronto Garlic Festival, mail orders and farm gate. Contact us for our descriptive catalog in PDF and to ask any questions. Buckwheat is sold mainly as a cover crop for farmers and gardeners. Pick up at our farm or possible delivery.
Please feel free to place an order on our website, by calling one of our friendly sales representatives, or by mailing in our order form from our catalog.
Supplier Description
High Mowing Organic Seeds is an independently-owned, farm-based seed company dedicated to supporting sustainable agriculture and providing farmers and gardeners with the highest quality certified organic seed.
Hope Seeds is a small but committed seed company, with a dedication to local and sustainable agriculture since our beginning in 1993. We offer certified organic and sustainably-grown, heritage and open-pollinated garden seed. We’re committed to high quality, organic growing, and local food.
Founded in 1928 in Montreal, initially under the name W.H. Perron, NORSECO is today one of the most important distributors of vegetable and flower seeds, as well as horticultural products, in Canada. Dominion Seed House takes care of all the needs of home gardeners for flower and vegetable seed as well as for gardening tools trough its mail and Internet catalogues. Our organic vegetable seed line is available since 2005.
2428 Old Hwy 99 South Road, Mount Vernon, WA 98273
Ordering instructions/details
Check out our online store at the link above. You can also request a catalog and order over the phone – 360-424-SEED (7333).
Supplier Description
Osborne Seed Company is celebrating our 30th year of serving the agricultural community! Catering to the needs of our growers is what drives our whole business; impacting how we source seed, do variety trials, share resources and information, and provide customer service. Give us a call, we may be the wealth of information you need! If you want more info, check out our trial blog: http://vegtrials.blogspot.com
Order by mail, phone or on our secure website. Payment by credit card or cheque.
Supplier Description
In business since 1992, Terra Edibles offers organically-grown (many certified organic), open pollinated seeds for heirloom tomatoes, vegetables, herbs and flowers.
Order through our on-line store, or down-line an order form from our web site and fax it to 416.504.7426. Or give us a call and we will happily take your order in person.
Supplier Description
Urban Harvest Organic Seeds was founded in 1997 to supply heirloom vegetable seedlings to urban gardeners. In 1999 we added 25 varieties of heirloom seeds. Since then we have expanded to over 380 varieties. We grow some of our seed ourselves in Schomberg, ON and in our greenhouses. We also contract several farms to grow seed for us. Our mission has always been to grow the highest quality open-pollinated organic seed in order to protect our food diversity.
Contact phone number 604.952.8820 or 1888.804.8820
Supplier Location Delta, British Columbia
Ordering instructions/details Order on-line 24/7, phone (open 7 days a week Jan 15 – May 15 each year) or fax 604.952.8828
Supplier Description West Coast Seeds established in 1983, with over 1,100 varieties of veggies, herbs, fruit, flowers, as well as microgreens, sprouts and new for 2019 Certified Organic cover crops. Canadian family owned with a passion to help farms and gardeners grow 12 months a year.
Sustainable Pulse interview with Axis Farms’ Partner, Mark Sanders, discussing the future of wheat farming in Canada and why they decided it is important to certify their harvest as Glyphosate Residue Free.
Glyphosate Residue Free certification is now being embraced by farmers, ingredient suppliers and brands around the world. You can find the latest certified brands and producers here.
Axis Farms is a 4500 acre conventional wheat farm in Altamont, Manitoba, Canada. Axis Farms is now a 4th generation farm that started in Canada after WWII. Immigrating from Belgium, The Sanders family has always strived to supply the food chain. Today, Axis Farm, the family’s company, is growing and supplying wheat to the food chain.
What brought you and your family into farming?
We started farming because we enjoyed the down to earth lifestyle that farming gives. From tilling the soil, planting seeds, to watching the seedling grow, to timely process of harvesting the crops, to the quieter times in the winter, farming offers a lifestyle that requires patience, endurance, and clear thinking, and the opportunity to experience nature’s beauty.
What crops have you concentrated on producing and why?
We concentrated on producing wheat because wheat is so important in society’s diet. People are turning away from wheat because of gluten intolerance and celiac disease. We believe that the reasons this is happening is the deficiency of plant nutrition when growing in the fields and the amount of chemical residue on the wheat. We grow our wheat with less chemical, and no glyphosate.
Axis Farms is leading a new wave of farmers that are certifying their produce as Glyphosate Residue Free. Can you tell us why you have gone down this path?
We have always felt that it is unnecessary to use glyphosate as a desiccant on wheat. There are other ways to dry the crop before harvest that do not increase the chemical residue on the grain. Today with the links of glyphosate to cancer, it makes the practice of not using glyphosate all the more important.
Does Axis Farms have any other certifications for their high protein hard red spring wheat or any other produce?
None yet, only Glyphosate Residue Free.
What do you believe the future is for wheat farmers in your region?
Wheat is still one of the primary foods for much of the world. But there is pressure to change the demand on wheat because of the health problems linked to it. The future of wheat farming, I believe, is going to have to reduce chemical inputs, as more and more people are turning away from wheat.
It is very important that we generate consumer confidence in the wheat grown in all of North America and that confidence is eroding. We need to make a ‘reduced chemical’ wheat. ‘Reduced chemical’ wheat would not have glyphosate sprayed on it for desiccation; have weeds controlled with minimal chemical inputs; and have plant diseases controlled by soil nutrition and biological sprays. ‘Reduced chemical’ wheat is achievable.
Are there any specific changes in the industry that you would like to see?
We need to build consumer confidence in the wheat supply. Consumers are looking for non-wheat diets and for expensive chemical-free foods (Organic). I want to see an affordable ‘chemical reduced’ wheat supply for the public and for food manufacturers. I want to see a food supply in all restaurants and grocery stores in North America that has items with ‘reduced chemical’ wheat flour that is attainable for everyone.
If you are a food manufacturer or ingredient supplier and you would like to source Glyphosate Residue Free wheat please contact Mark at Axis Farms here.
Ottawa, August 22, 2019. Canadian civil society groups the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network (CBAN) and Prevent Cancer Now (PCN) are calling for a review of the use of genetically engineered (genetically modified or GM) herbicide-tolerant crops in Canada, in response to Monsanto’s request for government approval of a GM corn that can withstand applications of four herbicides, including 2,4-D and dicamba.(1)
“This proposed GM corn demonstrates the breakdown of herbicide-tolerant crops,” said Lucy Sharratt of CBAN. “GM glyphosate-tolerant crops are no longer working due to the spread of glyphosate resistant weeds so companies are replacing them with GM crop plants that are tolerant to other herbicides. This is a short-term fix that will likely recreate the problem and further increase herbicide use. A government review of the impacts of using herbicide-tolerant crops is needed.”
Over twenty years, herbicide-tolerant cropping systems have not reduced herbicide use in Canada as promised. Instead, herbicide sales have gone up and the use of herbicides has led to the development and spread of more herbicide resistant weeds, particularly glyphosate resistant weeds, which are in turn leading to the use of yet more herbicides.
Monsanto’s new proposed corn MON 87429 (now owned by Bayer) is the first GM crop plant to be tolerant to both 2,4-D and dicamba. Most herbicide tolerant crop plants on the market are now tolerant to more than one herbicide. MON 87429 is genetically engineered to tolerate four herbicides: dicamba, 2,4-D, quizalofop, and glufosinate.
“In the escalating weed wars, as herbicide use is increasing the industry is returning to hazardous chlorinated chemicals such as 2,4-D, dicamba and quizalofop,” said Meg Sears, Chair of PCN. “Returning to multiple older herbicide formulations can put farmers and consumers at risk.”
In comments to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, CBAN and PCN call for comprehensive review of the environmental, health and economic impacts of using herbicide-tolerant crops in Canada.
“We need to evaluate the impacts of the whole system, not just assess individual products one by one,” said Sharratt.
Herbicide tolerant crops are designed to survive sprayings of particular pesticide formulations. Approvals of genetically engineered herbicide-tolerant crops since 1995 have led to a predominance of herbicide-tolerant cropping systems in corn, canola, soy and sugarbeet production in Canada. These systems are reliant on patented GM seeds and the accompanying brand-name herbicide formulations. Almost 100% of all the GM crops grown in Canada are genetically engineered to be herbicide-tolerant.
“A national pesticide-reduction strategy is urgently needed, to support biodiverse, resilient ecosystems and help transition to sustainable agriculture in the face of climate change,” said Sears.
Changes need to happen to agricultural practices, human consumption habits and forestry management.
OTTAWA — Canada will not be spared the impact of food shortages and price shocks if global warming is not kept below 2 degrees Celsius, a new report on land use and climate change suggests.
NICOLASMCCOMBER VIA GETTY IMAGES
The report, released Thursday by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, delivers stark warnings about the need for drastic changes to agricultural practices, human consumption habits and forestry management to prevent an escalation in the climate-change-related floods and forest fires that could lead to a global famine.
The Paris climate change agreement is straining to keep global warming below 2 C and as close to 1.5 C as possible, and Thursday’s report is the third in 10 months to lay bare the consequences if it fails. It also comes a week after the planet experienced its hottest month ever in July, following the warmest April, May and June on record.
Food shocks and disruptions
At warming above 1.5 C, the report predicts periodic food shocks, significant and widespread melting of permafrost and an increase in the length of wildfire seasons.
Above 2 C, there will be sustained disruptions in food supplies all around the world, widespread increases in wildfire damage and detectable losses of soil and vegetation that can be attributed to climate change.
It is projected that for every degree of global warming, the world’s yield of wheat will fall six per cent, corn by 7.4 per cent, and rice and soybeans both by a little more than three per cent each. Together those four crops account for two-thirds of the calories consumed by people, and with the population growing by 80 million people each year on average, the world needs to produce more food, not less.
Werner Kurz, a senior research scientist at Natural Resources Canada and one of two Canadians among 108 scientists who co-authored the report, said he doesn’t think most people understand the magnitude and pace of climate change, but he also said he believes reports like Thursday’s must be used to deliver potential solutions, not just nightmares.
“As scientists we need to be careful in sort of communicating doomsday scenarios because if we create a fearful world, then inaction will be the consequence,” he said. “People will be paralyzed and fearful.
“What instead this report is trying to do — and I hope is successful in achieving — is to, yes, lay out the consequences of inaction, but also then highlight the many opportunities we have for action and the co-benefits this has for livelihoods, for water.”
Kurz said to slow global warming, people need to burn fewer fossil fuels and improve how land is used, so that it not only contributes fewer greenhouse emissions, but also absorbs more of them.
The report suggests agriculture, forestry and other land use activities contributed almost one-quarter of the greenhouse gas emissions produced by human activity between 2007 and 2016.
That includes changing human diets to be more plant-based and less meat-based, because plant-based proteins require less farmland.
Forests aren’t carbon sinks
It also means diversifying the kinds of trees being planted in forests rather than focusing entirely on coniferous trees, which burn differently than deciduous trees. Using more wood to build things like houses and buildings and replanting with more diverse species can help regenerate forests, which become bigger risks for fires when they are old, he said.
But Kurz, whose job for Natural Resources Canada is to track the contributions forests make to Canada’s emissions, said there is a vicious cycle in play where climate change has made more forests vulnerable to burning, but that burning is then contributing to more climate change.
Catherine Abreu, executive director of the Climate Action Network Canada, said the idea of diversifying forests is critical to improving their management.
“Canadians and Canadian governments tend to think of our forests as carbon sinks rather than sources of emissions, but we know that has been false now for a couple of years,” she said.
Kurz acknowledged that the changes needed likely won’t come easily for many people, but he said understanding the implications of not doing it should help.
“What we need to realize is that how we choose to live will have an impact on future climate.”
Monday, December 3, 2018. Halifax – Twenty-eight environmental groups and seafood companies are together expressing concern over the introduction of genetically modified (GM or genetically engineered) salmon in Canada and calling on the Minister of Environment and Climate Change (ECC) to ensure precautionary and transparent regulation of GM fish.
“We need to set a stronger precedent for regulating such a potentially dangerous organism,” said Karen Wristen of Living Oceans Society in BC. “We cannot afford to make any mistakes with GM fish.”
“Without mandatory labelling of GM salmon, we risk undermining consumer confidence in Canadian seafood,” said Franz Perrot, Quality Control Manager at seafood importer Lagoon Seafood.
The Minister could soon grant permission for the company AquaBounty to produce its GM Atlantic salmon at one or more on-land sites in Canada. A review appears to be underway for multiple locations, not identified for the public. The GM salmon is approved for eating in Canada and has been on the market unlabelled since the summer of 2017.
The world’s largest pasta maker says it has had to cutback Canadian imports of durum wheat – a key ingredient in pasta – because of ongoing consumer concerns about the use of a popular weed killer – glyphosate.
Barilla’s purchasing director Emilio Ferrari told grain groups in Toronto last week the company has cut back their Canadian wheat imports by 35 per cent, despite the fact Canadian durum wheat is of exceptional quality. No contracts for Canadian durum are being signed right now, he said.
The reason is that some Italian consumers are fearful Canadian wheat has been “poisoned” because it tested positive for traces of the popular and widely-used herbicide glyphosate, he said………..
…..However, glyphosate has come under intense public scrutiny in Europe, with Italy banning the use of the chemical as a pre-harvest treatment in 2016. “We never use it but they banned the usage, because we don’t need it,” Ferrari said. He told attendees at the Canadian Global Crops Symposium his company is currently unwilling to accept shipments with glyphosate tracings above 10 parts per billion.
Concerns about glyphosate will continue to be an issue, he said – urging Canadian producers to find an alternative. However, Canadian producers argue the current limits set by Italy are simply too low to meet because glyphosate is commonly used within acceptable limits and traces of the herbicide are found throughout this country’s bulk handling grain system. The majority of Canadian durum wheat is not treated with glyphosate pre-harvest.
Italy’s decision followed a review of the herbicide by the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer’s (IARC) in 2015 that listed the herbicide as a Group 2a carcinogen, meaning it probably causes cancer in people…….
….Canada and Italy have been embattled in a simmering trade dispute over durum wheat exports for several years, stemming from a “Made in Italy” country of origin label.
Under the policy, which was set to take effect in mid-February, processors are required to identify where their durum wheat was grown and milled into the semolina flour used to make pasta. Similarly, rice packaging must identify where the rice was grown, treated and processed.
