The three NAFTA partners are reportedly making progress on a deal around auto-content rules, meaning we could see a change in focus to the remaining issues, which includes Canadian market access for U.S. dairy products. There's plenty of speculation about what the ultimate compromise required to get a deal done will be, but we can... Read More
Category: Ag Policy
The Canadian Grain Commission has announced its first expenditure to draw down its $100-plus million user fee surplus that it collected from farmers from 2013 to 2017. The CGC says it will invest $4 million over the next five years in enhancing its Harvest Sample Program. Producers who submit wheat samples to the program starting... Read More
"An exciting time for Canadian flax,” is how the new chair of the Flax Council of Canada describes the announcement of a new structure for the national flax organization on Wednesday. The Flax Council's restructuring comes after the council decided to close its Winnipeg head office in January due to the need to reduce costs,... Read More
Crude oil shipments by rail in Canada are at record highs and forecast to continue climbing, as oil production has increased with no major expansion in export pipeline capacity. At the same time, executives for Canada's two major railways say they intend to maintain rail capacity for grain. 198,788 barrels of oil per day were... Read More
Keystone Agricultural Producers' board of directors has appointed Bill Campbell as the organization's new president, after Dan Mazier stepped down earlier this month to seek a nomination for the 2019 federal election. Campbell, who served as a vice-president for Manitoba's general farm group for the last year and half, has a mixed farm near Minto,... Read More
The European Union looking to mend fences with the Trump administration could have a major impact on agriculture, as the U.S. looks for a win with one of its trading partners. The EU/U.S. trade front is one that Canadians should pay particularly close attention to as we already have preferential market access over the U.S.... Read More
Although most people travel to Buenos Aires in the winter time, that's where Canada's minister of Agriculture and Agri-food is this week as he takes in the G20 agriculture ministerial meeting. Minister Lawrence MacAulay will join a large contingent of other agricultural ministers from Argentina, the U.S., Germany, Australia, and Japan. Senior officials from guest... Read More
There is often a good natured debate about what they are called. Officially, they are the Richardson Ground Squirrel. In polite company they are most often called gophers. In farm country, what they are called is mostly unprintable, especially the adjectives. That being said, the much-maligned pest may have just found an ally in the... Read More
Ernie Hardeman has been on the job less than a month and farmers have plenty of questions for Ontario’s new minister of agriculture. One question many are asking is what’s happening with Canadian Agricultural Partnership (CAP) funding? RealAgriculture’s own Lyndsey Smith submitted a funding application back in May and waited patiently through the 45-day business... Read More
A ruling by the European Union's (EU) top court states that food produced by a series of new biotechnology breeding techniques, such as CRISPR, should be considered genetically modified organisms (GMO). This ruling means the specific food or food ingredient resulting from these gene-editing techniques falls under the EU's strict regulations and restrictions on GMO.... Read More