Better Farming earns top journalism award

by BETTER FARMING STAFF

Robert Irwin, Don Stoneman and Mary Baxter’s article, “Faith in Arlan Galbraith: Ontario’s Pigeon King” won the competition’s magazine category.

“We’re thrilled by the honour and pleased to see the agriculture beat highlighted,” says Better Farming’s managing editor Robert Irwin. “I thought it was interesting that of the five entries in our category, four had to do with agriculture or the environment.”

Published in December, 2007, the article explored the practices of Pigeon King International, a Waterloo-based pigeon breeding business.

The award was announced on Saturday at the association’s annual conference in Edmonton.

Other winners included: Gary Dimmock and Greg McArthur (Ottawa Citizen and The Globe and Mail) open newspaper/wire service category and the Don McGillivray award; Heather Rivers and Elliot Ferguson (Woodstock Sentinel-Review), community newspaper category; David Ridgen (CBC), open television, greater than five minutes; Ioanna Roumeliotis and Melanie Glanz (CBC News – The National), open television less than five minutes; Maureen Matthews and Dave Redel (CBC Radio), open radio news/current affairs; Kevin Donovan, David Bruser, Andrew Bailey (The Toronto Star); CAJ/Marketwire computer-assisted reporting; Darryl Dyck (The Edmonton Sun), photojournalism; Jeff Heinrich (The Gazette), Faith and Spirituality; and Mary Gazze (Carleton University), student award of excellence.

The Association is a national non-profit organization acting as a national voice for Canadian journalists from all media. The annual awards recognize the best in investigative journalism across the country.

Published 10 times a year, Better Farming is Ontario’s largest circulation farm business publication. It is owned by AgMedia Inc. BF