ANTI-FRACKING CAMPAIGN DAMPENS BRITISH BUZZ OVER SHALE… FARM MARKET ECONOMICS MEASURED … CAAP FUNDING DOESN’T MEAN MUCH TO NOVA SCOTIA… ACORN INVITES LOCAL ORGANIC FOOD ENTHUSIASTS TO JOIN ORGANIC CONSUMER GROUP… OTHER NEWS OF INTEREST

ANTI-FRACKING CAMPAIGN DAMPENS BRITISH BUZZ OVER SHALE
Source: The Globe and Mail
The walk from the village of Balcombe to the drill site takes less than half an hour on a footpath that winds through the dense West Sussex forest, past a farmyard, and then down the overgrown verge of a rural road. It reaches the spot where a group of anti-fracking protesters encamped and police converged in a high-profile standoff last summer. (read more)

FARM MARKET ECONOMICS MEASURED
Source: FCC
It’s a busy Saturday morning at the Historic Farmers' Market in downtown Halifax. Farmer Ted Hutten and his staff weigh and bag fruit and vegetables from Hutten's 50-acre family farm in the Annapolis Valley. Hutten has been a market mainstay for nearly 30 years (he grossed a grand total of $55 his first week), and in that time, he's watched as the number of markets in the province has grown. A newly released study notes that over the last 10 years, their number has shot up from 15 to 45, which gives Nova Scotia the largest number of farmers’ markets per capita in the country. (read more)

CAAP FUNDING DOESN’T MEAN MUCH TO NOVA SCOTIA
Source: NSFA
Recently the Federal Minister of Agriculture, Gerry Ritz announced a renewed Canadian Agriculture Adaptation Program (CAAP) for Canadian agriculture. Under the CAAP program, $50.3 million dollars is being made available over the next five (5) years to “help the agriculture sector adapt and remain competitive, respond to emerging issues, and look at new approaches to deal with new and ongoing challenges.”
Dennis Boudreau, President of the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture says, “This program is too broad and won’t do much to help the industry here in Nova Scotia. It is fifty million over five years for the entire country.” (read more)

ACORN INVITES LOCAL ORGANIC FOOD ENTHUSIASTS TO JOIN ORGANIC CONSUMER GROUP
Source: ACORN
ACORN has several consumer education projects planned in the months ahead, and in order to ensure we’re really effective, we’re hoping to form a small group of engaged and informed consumers to: Bounce ideas off of and brainstorm new ideas for our consumer education activities; Build connections amongst local organic enthusiasts, so that together we can grow the organic movement in Atlantic Canada! (read more)