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Mental Health and Missing Conversations
We have gotten so much better at talking about mental health in agriculture. However, when I look at the stories in my own family, I know some important people are missing. It’s time they got a seat at this table. I talk a lot here on The Commons about reading land. About reading my animals…
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All Hat, No Cattle
Bill 22 is now law. While I’m still supportive of the update to Alberta’s Animal Welfare and Protection legislation, a critical piece of the puzzle is mi$$ing. Back in April, when Alberta first introduced its long-overdue overhaul of the Animal Protection Act, I wrote about what the proposed changes might mean for farmers and animals.…
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Never Mind the Bollocks
Somebody once told me, “On every parade, a little rain must fall.” I’m afraid I’m about to bring the rain. I was recently being interviewed by one of the regenerative farming groups here in Alberta and they asked me what I thought the biggest threat to regenerative farming was. I answered promptly — I’ve given…
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Letter to YOUR MLA
You can send a message to your elected representative. Copy/Paste this letter into an email and send it to the MLA your community elected – to represent you and your concerns. Let them know our sisters, mothers, aunts, cousins, friends and family matter to us. And we are watching. If you’re not sure who your…
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The Ethics of Experience
Then they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling and those who were buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves, and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the…
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Why Doesn’t She Just Leave? Domestic Violence, Livestock, and Rural Women in Western Canada
“You don’t know me.” That’s how the message usually starts. “I found you on Facebook and I was wondering if you could help. . . Can you please give my sheep a good home?” The first time I got one of these messages, I was intrigued — there was something about it that felt a…
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No Way But Through
Human error. Human choices. Sigh. Farmers or not, we’ve all been there – staring down a decision we wish with everything in us we could undo. A recent video by a prominent YouTuber brought this home (again). In the barn, alone and struggling, she made a choice, one I’m sure she’d love, with every cell…
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What Makes a Farm “Real”?
In the heart-tugging children’s book “The Velveteen Rabbit,” the central question is the difference between what is “real” and what is not. The sage nursery resident, the Skin Horse, tells the rabbit that in the end, authenticity is determined not by what you look like to other people but by what you have endured to…
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Worth Their Weight: Looking at Labels, Part 2
So now we know that not all labels are created equal. For producers, where is it worth spending your time to get certified? And for consumers, which parts of the process of getting raw fibre into finished product are worth labeling? As in many things, it all comes down to where you think things need…
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Do Labels Matter? Looking at Labels, Part 1
Let’s take a look at labels! What are they for? What do they do and what lies below the label? To do this, we’re going to start at the Canadian Mint. Yes. Really. (This is Part 1. If you’re looking for Part 2 of this series, click here. ) Maybe you heard that the Royal…
Providence Lane Homestead 