Spoiler Alert…RAIN is a Collaborator! In a remarkable recognition of innovation and collaborative prowess, the Weston Foundation’s Homegrown Innovation Challenge has provided a game-changing grant of $1,000,000 to 11 teams who are “future-proofing food production in Canada”. At the forefront of this groundbreaking endeavor is the Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre’s RAIN (Rural Agri-Innovation Network) division, and partners Collège Boréal, …
After months of outreach, business planning, and presentations, RAIN is one step closer to leading the Harvest Algoma program – a food resource hub located in central Sault Ste. Marie that plays an important role in alleviating food insecurity across the Algoma region.
The New Era of E-commerce for Small Business For small business owners, the Internet can be one of the most effective and inexpensive ways to market your business and sell products or services. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, shopping habits have changed dramatically with e-commerce, or online shopping, seeing a huge surge over the past three years (E-Commerce Sales Surged During …
[L’article en français suit ci-dessous] Demand for locally grown cut flowers is growing, and Ontario’s local cut flower industry is growing alongside it. The floriculture industry is divided into bedding/spring plants, potted flowering/foliage plants, and cut flowers. The flower industry in Ontario accounts for $800 million in sales and half of that gets shipped to the United States. Ontario flower …
[L’article en français suit ci-dessous] The climate crisis and rising grocery store prices are increasing uncertainty for consumers. This situation is driving more and more people to grow their own food and plant native plants to restore ecological habitats. Concurrently, farmers in the north are becoming more invested in seed cultivation due to its potential environmental benefits and market need. …
The Challenge- What if you could turn the challenge of Northern Ontario’s short growing season into an opportunity for optimizing cover crop integration? That’s what RAIN’s new research project aims to achieve. This project will investigate the potential of interseeding early cover crops into silage corn in northern Ontario, where conventional cover crops are often limited due to the short …
Today, we want to talk about a powerhouse making a difference in Northern Ontario’s agri-food sector: The Fair Finance Fund (FFF). Since 2018, the FFF has been mobilizing accessible and equitable capital, providing loans, and investing in small to medium-sized food and farm businesses, particularly those operating in Northern Ontario. The Rural Agri-Innovation Network (RAIN) was one of the founders …
In March, we conducted the Local Pulse Survey to understand community habits and interest in shopping in Algoma. This information aims to benefit Buy Algoma, Buy Local member businesses and the broader public. Before we get into our findings, we’d like to thank everyone who participated in the survey and shared it with their family and friends. We collected 925 …
On Thursday, April 6, we partnered with the Thunder Bay and Area Food Strategy to host a webinar discussing strategies for building wholesale relationships with retailers and institutions from the perspective of Northern Ontario farmers. Our three presenters, each operating different farm businesses, shared insights about their experiences in wholesale markets. They all began through direct marketing to customers and …
When most people talk about growing plants, one of the first things that comes to mind is soil. However, within recent years more growers have begun to adopt systems that use no soil at all. Hydroponics is a broad term that describes systems of growing plants using a water-nutrient solution to deliver necessary nutrition for plant growth. Rather than the roots being …
