Spaces, Places and Faces » Agriculture

December 16, 2010: Industrial Agriculture

SPF — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 14:53:39 +0000

This morning on the show we heard the first feature from new SPF’er Chris Mineau, about industrial agriculture, and Henry and Robyn talked about their fourth year undergrad geography theses, and their process so far.

Pierre Mineau: Industrial Agriculture
By: Chris Mineau, Regular SPF Contributor
For her first feature, Chris discusses the history of industrial agriculture, and spoke to senior research scientist Pierre Mineau from Environment Canada about the consequences of pesticide use. He talks about the ‘green revolution’, and its pesticide use, fertilizers, and selective seed breeding, that has allowed increased crop yields to support exponentially growing populations over the past few hundred years.

The Carleton University Undergrad Thesis: Research & Ethics
By: Henry Hawkins & Robyn Penney, Regular SPF Contributors
Henry and Robyn have progressed with their theses, with Henry focusing in on solar panel adoption in Ontario under the OPA’s microFIT program, and Robyn looking at the effects of green roofs in Ottawa, and on Carleton campus. They talked about their progress so far, about the hurdles of ethics clearance, and about their topics in general.

The Environmental News
By: Robyn Penney, Regular SPF Contributor
In this week’s environmental news, bp gets the treatment it deserves, new hope to save the polar bears, Finland’s fight to protect forest space has finally ended, and butterflies flutter no more?

May 6, 2010: Spring (And Gardening) Is In The Air

SPF — Thu, 13 May 2010 18:31:39 +0000

This week on the show we heard from Stewart Fast, with the first instalment in a new feature we are calling ‘Managing Your Lawn, Managing Expectations’. The segment will look at some of the oddities of lawncare, and this one looked at the urge to maintain a perfect lawn, with or without pesticides, at all costs.

Later, we heard a Green Routine from Brittany Boychuk from this time last spring. For those of us living in the city, space and sunlight are not always plentiful, and this feature took a look at planting gardens with sunlight in mind.

April 15, 2010: Green Infrastructure and Prairie Agriculture

SPF — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 13:10:17 +0000

Research papers are fine and dandy, but some students are bit more adventurous when it comes to completing their course requirements. This morning on the show we had a special feature from Alina Balitskaia, Aynsley Hector, Kathryn Henley, and Shane Steele, who are students in a geography course at the University of Ottawa taught by SPFer John Wall. They decided to use radio to share their insights on green infrastructure as a part of environmentally healthy cities. More information can be found at Green Roofs and Cool Roofs.

Later, we heard from PhD Candidate Justin Stefanik, who spoke with Robyn Penney about his research into the environmental and cultural impact of evolving agriculture methods used in the southern Prairies. They discussed his motivation to do research in the field, some of the positive and negative experiences he’s had so far, the exciting results that have come about, and his goals for the future after obtaining his degree.