Farmers and ranchers across Canada and the United States identify with a hard day's work, family, and a life away from the hustle and bustle of the city. You would have to drive many dirt roads before you found a farmer in either country identifying with "the elites." In the Right Honourable Stephen Harper's recent... Read More
Category: Ag Policy
With the five-year Growing Forward 2 agriculture framework wrapping up next month, federal Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay launched six federal programs under the new Canadian Agricultural Partnership (CAP) at the Canada's Agriculture Day celebration in Ottawa on Tuesday. CAP is the acronym for the new $3 billion, five-year federal-provincial-territorial agriculture funding agreement that begins on... Read More
While much of the focus over the past several months has been on the pulse industry, with India's tariffs on pulse crops, Canada's cereal crop value chain has also had its hands full working on market access challenges. Italy, with its new country-of-origin labeling legislation and campaigns spreading doubt about the quality and safety of... Read More
The federal Liberals remain non-committal on whether they will offer compensation to the supply-managed dairy and poultry sectors for market access that will be conceded if the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) is ratified. The CPTPP terms agreed to last month would open up an additional 3.25 percent of Canada's domestic dairy... Read More
Comparing government support for Canadian versus American dairy farmers is not a simple black and white process. While Canada's dairy sector operates under a regulated supply management system, the U.S. government's support for its dairy farmers is less direct. Support, in its various forms, equaled 73 percent of U.S. dairy farmers' market returns in 2015,... Read More
Let's face it, the Powers That Be can't win. When it comes to funding agriculture and food projects, we want support to advance agriculture and build capacity at a local level, but we also want to criticize where every penny (nickel?) goes. And when a company or organization that received funding goes broke or packs... Read More
Regulations, by their nature, are country or region specific, but they can have spillover effects into other markets. This is the case with many crop protection products between trading partners — a ban or restriction in one region can have trickle-down impacts on use and even access in another. Many North American farmers have been... Read More
The federal government introduced amendments to the Fisheries Act on Tuesday aimed at restoring "protections to all fish and fish habitats that were lost with changes that were made in 2012." "I am pleased we are introducing amendments to the Fisheries Act that will restore the protections for fish and fish habitat that were lost... Read More
by Greg Porozni, Alberta farmer and Cereals Canada director As part of the 2017 New Crop Missions, "Team Canadian Wheat" visited Canada’s top customers and provided them with technical data and support. Who are Canada’s top customers? Some of the answers, like Japan, will be no surprise to anyone, but many would not expect to... Read More
I wrote a column last week that caused quite a stir, as was the intention. My tongue-in-cheek title did what it was intended to do: it sparked conversation and some lively debate, but it also got some tempers flaring over the increased regulatory burden farmers not just endure, but must also pay for. Read Top... Read More