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Complexity and Complication
Small farms often get judged by the wrong metric. In a world built to understand and optimize complicated systems, small farms can be outliers of complexity. So how are the two systems different? What problem is the complex system trying to solve? There’s a distinction I wish more people understood when they start planning a…
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The Sacred Discipline of Transparency
What role does radical truth-telling occupy in the culture? What is “real life” in the culture of Ag? There’s a saying I’ve always loved: “There are three things that don’t stay hidden for long — the sun, the moon, and the truth.” I used to think that meant the truth has a way of forcing…
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Not As Bad As *That* Guy
When we talk about animal welfare, we often look sideways — at other countries, other systems, other headlines. But is that fair? Which questions *should* we be asking? “We’re not as bad as they are.” I’ve heard it since playground days — usually shouted through grubby hands by the child who’d just been caught doing…
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On Social Media, Boundaries and Farming
What happened on that summer day back in 2001? I’ll tell you. A letter arrived from the Special Handling Unit in Quebec and changed the way I thought about “public” and “private” forever.
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Resilience or Efficiency?
Small farms can’t compete on scale, we must compete in our capacity to adapt. What happens when we prioritize resilience over efficiency? On March 21, I will shear sheep. Some of them anyway. It’s unlikely all of them will feel the whirring buzz of Alex the Shearer’s handpiece. And make no mistake, that’s an intentional…
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You Can’t Go Home Again
Are you a salmon, or a hermit crab? Either you never leave, or you can never go home. It’s a phrase most of us have heard, and if we’ve moved more than once in our lives, we’ve probably felt it. People who move often begin to catalogue places not by geography, but by seasons of…
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Steer To Your Mirrors
What do bear crawlers and Metallica have in common? Trailering, hauling. . . Whatever you want to call it, is a skill. I don’t care what anyone says, when you’re pulling a trailer of any kind behind your vehicle, it does tend to spike anxiety levels. When it’s a trailer full of hay, I always…
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Canada Grows a Lot of Food. So Why Does Our Food System Still Feel Fragile?
Do Canadians have a skewed understanding of agriculture, subsidies and how these systems work internationally? Do Canadian farms produce what Canadians eat? When I talk about supporting small and mid-scale farms, someone inevitably says: “Well, farms survive in Europe because they’re heavily subsidized.” It’s true that European farmers receive more direct public support than Canadian…
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A Shepherd in the Blood
What would you do if you discovered a family heirloom proved your ancestors were doing hundreds of years ago exactly what you’re doing today? Unlike so many of the people who have guided me along on my sheep adventure, I didn’t grow up knowing I came from shepherds. I did grow up knowing I came…
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What We Count Becomes What We Build
Beyond “Fast Fashion,” what about Fast Furniture and Canadian Wool – is it time to broaden the conversation? Everyone knows about fast fashion — that relentless cycle of cheap trend-driven clothing that’s wreaking havoc on global ecosystems and supports exploitative labour systems. But far fewer people are talking about fast furniture, the home-goods equivalent that…
Providence Lane Homestead 