Canada's biofuel industry is at a real crossroads and needs to decide what it will be when it grows up. There are strong advocates for the value stream, but also detractors and a group that seems overtaken by apathy at a time when the sector has so much potential. From farmers to politicians to processors,... Read More
Category: Ag Policy
There's no doubt farm profitability is really strained heading into the 2026 growing season, with stubborn variable- and fixed-cost structures and weak commodity prices. When margins are constricted, financials get squeezed, and it puts pressure on banking relationships. In January, eighty-two per cent of Canadian farmers surveyed through the Canadian Farmer Sentiment Index told RealAgristudies... Read More
The top political figures responsible for agriculture in Canada and the United States quietly met face-to-face for the first time on Friday (Feb. 20). Canada's Agriculture Minister Heath MacDonald stopped in Washington, DC on his return from the trade mission in Mexico to meet with U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins. The pair have spoken previously,... Read More
Better management doesn’t just improve margins — it could reshape how Canada designs farm policy. In this episode of the Ag Policy Connection podcast, Tyler McCann and Elise Bigley of the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute sit down with Terry Betker, founder of Backswath Management, to explore a deceptively simple but far-reaching idea: build a national... Read More
Last week, the U.S. president designated glyphosate-based herbicides and elemental phosphorus as "critical" to national defence and instructed the secretary of agriculture to secure domestic production of these farming inputs. The focus on something as controversial to this administration as glyphosate caught more than a few off guard, as secretary of health and human services,... Read More
The Government of Canada today announced a major expansion of market access for Canadian beef and pork products into Indonesia, market access made possible through the September signing of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) between Canada and Indonesia. Canadian exporters are now able to ship over-thirty-month (OTM) bone-in beef, and for the first time,... Read More
Update, as of Feb. 21: After announcing a 10 per cent worldwide tariff on Friday, President Trump now says he will sign an executive order imposing a 15 per cent "global tariff" under Section 122 effective Feb. 24 in response to the Supreme Court ruling. The White House says USMCA-compliant imports from Canada and Mexico... Read More
For many years, Canadian agriculture relied mainly on the United States as its export market. Rail service patterns, highways and port investments grew around that north-south trade. In the last decade, tariff threats, trade disputes and shifting U.S. policy have exposed the risk of relying so heavily on one customer and added urgency to efforts... Read More
Farmers across Canada are facing a dizzying array of incentive programs aimed at promoting sustainable and regenerative agriculture. While tight crop margins are leading farms to consider new ways of adding value, the sheer volume of sustainability-type programs and incentives is creating a mix of confusion and administrative burden, says Shawn Catherwood of Spur Line... Read More
It's no secret that there are challenges in terms of farm profitability in 2026, which is driving critical policy questions to assist producers through the difficult times. Governments have different tools they have engaged, including insurance, business risk management, and the advanced payments program. In the United States, there are similar tools, but on top... Read More