Glen Murray is not the favourite son of Ontario’s farming industry. The Ontario Minister of Environment and Climate Change (MOECC) has made few friends in the Ontario farm sector with his push to restrict use of neonicotinoid seed treatments, dismiss sound science, and impose the will of his urban-dominated government on the province's farmers. That’s... Read More
Category: Ag Policy
To quote Monty Python: Always look on the bright side of life. And so that's how we'll begin a discussion on Ontario's Environment Commissioner's latest report entitled, Putting Soil Health First. There's some great stuff in there: recognizing that our agricultural soils' health is paramount to long-term soil productivity, that living roots and residue cover... Read More
This past week it was reported by the Globe and Mail and others that CNN had uncovered a very secret internal memo from the Donald Trump transition team. The memo disclosed that a suggested tactic in the NAFTA renegotiation would be to reinstate Country of Origin Labelling (COOL). Don't Miss: Shaun on RFD-TV this week... Read More
It's not often we hear grain company spokespeople commend railways, but that's the case this fall, as the grain supply chain handles one of the largest crops in Western Canadian history. "As a general statement, we think rail performance has been pretty good this fall," says Wade Sobkowich, executive director of the Western Grain Elevator... Read More
Six years after Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia signed on, Manitoba has finally joined the New West Partnership Trade Agreement. The province's previous NDP government held out of the interprovincial deal, but the Progressive Conservatives, who formed government in April, have long been in favour of joining the neighbours to the west. “Business owners, community... Read More
The comment period is officially open on the Ontario government's carbon Offsets Credits Regulatory Proposal. Launched this week by Ontario's minister of the environment and climate change Glen Murray while at the United Nations' 22nd Climate Change Conference of the Parties in Morocco, the comment period runs for 45 days. The proposed regulation allows companies... Read More
Keith Currie, who farms at Collingwood, Ont., is currently one of two vice presidents of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA). Early next week, he'll stand in front of the membership and ask them to vote him in as the new president, following two years of leadership under Don McCabe. It's a critical time for... Read More
This is an editorial column written by Brian Innes, president of CAFTA (Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance): Threats to rip up NAFTA and trash the TPP send a chill down the spines of Canadians whose livelihoods depend on trade. And while the Trump administration’s action plan is not yet clear, it is crystal clear that Canada’s... Read More
Sheep farmers in Alberta, Ontario and Quebec have formed a new partnership to continue to move the sheep industry in Canada forward. Ontario and Alberta were the most recent provincial organizations to withdraw support of the Canadian Sheep Federation. The National Sheep Network – comprising of the Alberta Lamb Producers, the Ontario Sheep Marketing Agency... Read More
Canada is moving towards a national food policy, so says the marching orders handed down to federal agriculture minister Lawrence MacAulay in mandate letters set out last fall. Prime Minister Trudeau has tasked MacAulay to "develop a food policy that promotes healthy living and safe food by putting more healthy, high-quality food, produced by Canadian... Read More