The cost of production has increased during the past decade until apple growing now requires one of the highest capital investments per unit of land in agriculture today, according to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Lower-priced imports, rising production costs, the higher Canadian dollar and the absence of a government-assisted replant program in Ontario have slowly eroded the province's 200-year-old industry. Huisman warns the decline in Ontario's apple industry may accelerate when the...

Unfortunately, the typical American diet, dominated by refined, preserved and processed foods and unhealthy fats and animal protein, contributes to nutritional imbalances in the body that can result in high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity, diabetes, hormonal imbalances and ultimately cancer and hardened arteries. Unfortunately, the typical American diet, dominated by refined, preserved and processed foods and unhealthy fats and animal protein, contributes to nutritional...

Wooster, Ohio June 27, 2007 Downy mildew has been found on cucumber farms in northern Ohio, and Ohio State University vegetable experts are asking growers to take measures now to prevent damage from this potentially devastating disease. Sally Miller, a plant pathologist with the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC) and a vegetable-crops specialist with OSU Extension, said the fungal disease was confirmed in single fields in Medina County (June 21) and Erie County (June...

Take a shortcut and buy tomato plants already started in gallon containers and search out squash, pumpkin and broccoli starts from a nursery as well. When it comes to adding flowers this late in the season, look for young plants that are short and chubby like a toddler, not tall and leggy like a fashion model. Geraniums, marigolds and impatiens are three annual flowers to add now that will still give you months of blooms either in containers or planted directly into the ground. Just be...

Asingle raffle in Emerald raised $250,000 for growers, whereas an industry wide campaign by fruit and vegetable producers group Growcom raised just$5000. The industry at Emerald was decimated three years ago when citrus canker was discovered, forcing a governmentaldeclaration of a quarantinezone and hundreds of thousands of citrus trees to be destroyed. Citrus canker is a highly contagious bacterial disease of citrus crops, which causes trees to lose their leaves and fruit prematurely,...