Agriculture ministers from across Canada met in Ottawa this week, with the agenda focused on finalizing the agriculture policy framework to replace Growing Forward 2, which ends in March 2018. The ministers are aiming to sign off on a new federal-provincial-territorial agreement at their next meeting in St. John's in July, but they have yet... Read More
Category: Ag Policy
Over the last few months, the Conservative leadership contest has thrust a highly emotional issue for rural Canada into the spotlight— is supply management worth keeping or not? If you aren’t aware of the issue, one candidate, Maxime Bernier, is looking to eliminate the system. The rest of the field of candidates have said they... Read More
Italy's government says it is moving ahead with a plan to implement mandatory country of origin labeling requirements on pasta, potentially impacting the competitiveness of Canadian durum wheat in one of its largest markets. The Italian government notified the European Commission about its intentions this week, according to the country's agriculture minister, Maurizio Martina. (As... Read More
The 2016 Census of Agriculture results were released on Wednesday, painting an overall picture of Canadian agriculture and how it has changed since the 2011 census. Here's a quick look at the high-level numbers: There were 193,492 farms counted in 2016, down 5.9 percent from 2011. However, this was the lowest rate of decline in... Read More
On Friday, Shaun Haney was invited to be on the Free For All Panel on Agritalk, along with Chip Flory and Jim Wiesemeyer. Agritalk with Mike Adams has over 95 United States based radio affiliates and can be heard across North America on Rural Radio 147 (couple hours before RealAg Radio). The topics included US... Read More
Update, May 12: A bill entitled “An Act to amend the Canada Transportation Act and other Acts respecting transportation and to make related and consequential amendments to other Acts” was added to the House of Commons notice paper on Friday, May 12, meaning it could be introduced as early as Tuesday, May 16. A spring... Read More
While much of the attention in the last few weeks on the Canada-U.S. trade file has been focused on well-publicized trade irritants like dairy and softwood lumber, a U.S. Senator has introduced a resolution asking President Trump to address how U.S. wheat is treated in Canada. The resolution brought forward by Montana Senator Jon Tester... Read More
When U.S. President Donald Trump followed through on his promise to withdraw the United States from the Trans-Pacfic Partnership, many people speculated the deal was dead in the water. Similarly, Canada has also faced threats of NAFTA withdrawal by the U.S. within the same three month period. For many of the remaining countries, including Canada,... Read More
When five provincial crop associations in Manitoba announced they had signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to merge earlier this week, there was one commodity group notably absent. The Manitoba Canola Growers Association has issued a statement, explaining why its board has decided to monitor the merger discussions, but not participate in the MOU. “Canola... Read More
How powerful is popular culture? It has tremendous influence on much of our daily lives, impacting everything from food choices and diets, to exercise, and what products we buy. Many of these choices our those we make to help our families lead healthy lives. Dr. Timothy Caulfield would like to like to see governments, regulators,... Read More