Rural Ontario Institute

AALP Class 19's International Study Tour: Day 4 in Athens

Date: January 26, 2023

The first stop of the day brought us to Dionyssos Marble Quarry, which is a family company dating back to 1890. The exporting of Greek marble is approx 70% of the total production. Watching the diamond wire that is used to cut through the marble is pretty impressive.

AALP Class 19's International Study Tour: Day 1-3 in Athens

Date: January 23, 2023

The Advanced Agricultural Leadership Program Class 19 has headed to Greece for their International Study Tour. During the trip Class 19 participants will enhance their global orientation by examining Canada and Greece relations in the context of resource-based production, processing, marketing, and distribution.

Rural Local Governments Need to Pursue Entrepreneurial Strategies to Support Rural Futures

Date: January 3, 2023

Local governments are a key partner in the future of rural communities throughout Ontario. Over the past 30 years, the realities of local governments have changed dramatically. As part of a national initiative, University of Guelph Professor Ryan Gibson and John Dale (PhD student in Rural Studies) recently published a new report titled, “Do more, with less: The realities of local government in rural Ontario” in The Canadian Geographer.

AALP Class 19 and Lead New York: Connecting and Exploring in Ottawa

Date: December 13, 2022

AALP Class 19 and Lead New York had a joint seminar in Ottawa on November 13 - 16, 2022. The leadership groups spent their time connecting with each other and discovered similarities and differences between USA and Canadian policy, trade, and governance.

What is there to learn about leadership in America?

Date: August 26, 2022

The Advanced Agricultural Leadership Program Class 19 is just back from the North America Study Tour. We spent two days in Washington D.C. and four in Louisiana. A visit with our closest neighbours gives us some insights into how America is dealing with the challenges of our times: labour shortages, difficult weather, and changing consumer expectations.

Urban farm connects with community and creates opportunity

Date: July 21, 2022

It all began in 2013 with a modest desire to cultivate their own food and awareness of the path from seed to plate humbly. Today, Jacqueline Dwyer, MES and Noel Livingston are the Farm Managers and co-founders of the Toronto Black Farmers Collective, Afro-Indigenous Food Security Festival, and The Collective Group. Their mission is to promote and supply healthy and clean food for urban residents through spaces like the Welcome and Teaching Garden at the urban farm, with a focus on underserved populations.

AALP International Study Tour Class 18: Portugal and Morocco

Date: May 31, 2022

There is no corner of the world that does not rely on agriculture to feed its people, to provide income for families and to bring money into the economies of the countries themselves. In late March and early April of 2022, the Advanced Agricultural Leadership Program (AALP) Class 18 visited Portugal and Morocco...

Big Data for Small Places

Date: May 20, 2022

In our work in rural research and consulting, my colleague and I were frequently asked for assistance with local data. We believed staff in rural municipalities and NGOs should be able to find and interpret relevant data without employing a consultant. When we inquired about the obstacles rural staff faced, some recurring themes emerged.

Supporting Rural Development by Embedding Financial Capital: Community Investment Fund Programs

Date: May 13, 2022

While businesses in rural Ontario can face challenges like changing local populations and rising supply chain costs, one major obstacle that can prevent rural business development is access to financial capital. Seed money (such as from loans and equity investments) is vital for starting and growing a business, and this may be hard to find in rural areas.

What Are the Impacts of Worker Housing Location on Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program Participants

Date: April 20, 2022

Louis Helps, a PhD student in the Rural Studies program at the University of Guelph shares the results of his MSc (Rural Planning & Development) thesis which focused on Mexican participants in the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) and investigated the impact of the location of worker housing on their access to services, their mental and physical wellbeing, and their relationship with their employer.

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