Late last month, the Ontario Federation of Agriculture elected members of its new board — including Don McCabe, who farms in Lambton county, as the new president. Shortly after the annual meeting, Real Agriculture’s editor, Lyndsey Smith, caught up with McCabe to talk about opportunities and challenges facing the Ontario farmers as we move into... Read More
Category: Ag Policy
When Megan Lacelle and Kaitlyn Van De Woestyne needed to tackle a particular project for their fourth year University of Regina journalism course, Megan immediately thought of telling the story of Jim Commodore. While the step-change occurring with the PFRA pastures is an ongoing news story in and of itself, it's Jim and Jim's history... Read More
With speculation swirling around the privatization of the Canadian Wheat Board, the chief strategy officer for CWB has published an open letter explaining why much of grain marketer's commercialization plan is being kept confidential. Although she doesn't mention Farmers of North America's offer specifically, Dayna Spiring describes why bids to acquire CWB may have been... Read More
The Grain Farmers of Ontario (GFO) have publicly asked its members not to attend next week's government-hosted public consultation meetings. The meetings are slated for Tuesday in London, Ont., and Thursday in Toronto, to discuss the impending increased regulations required for access to neonicotinoid seed treatments. Barry Senft, CEO of GFO, says his organization feels... Read More
Panel thus morning about Grain Strategies exchange rates, freights, GMO’s, all in buying decisions #GaryinGeneva pic.twitter.com/UItItUj3Hb — Gary Stanford (@senatrstanford) November 13, 2014 Many in Western Canada may be surprised to learn that the Triffid flax fiasco of 2009 is still weighing heavily on the minds of some European customers. That’s according to Gary Stanford,... Read More
The Grain Farmers of Ontario has announced it will not participate in the Ontario government’s public consultation meetings being held in London, Toronto, and Kingston, beginning next week. The meetings are part of what the Ontario government is calling the consultation process on what final regulations regarding access to and use of neonicotinoid seed treatments... Read More
The Canadian agriculture sector is welcoming the ratification of the Canada-Korea Free Trade Agreement in both countries' Parliaments. After being approved by the Korean government this week, International Trade Minister Ed Fast announced Wednesday that the CKFTA will come into force on January 1st, 2015. As discussed previously on RealAg, the deal is expected to... Read More
SaskCanola today announced the results of their election, which sought to fill four positions on the Board of Directors. Charlene Bradley of Stranraier, Bernie McClean of Glaslyn, Lane Stockbrugger of Englefeld and Dale Leftwich of Esterhazy will fill those roles. "We are pleased to welcome Charlene, Bernie, and Lane to the SaskCanola Board and to... Read More
When the Grain Farmers of Ontario rushed to create a new coalition of farm groups, known as Farm Action Now, there was a sense that legislation was in the works in which the government would steer away from evidence-based regulatory decisions, and instead pander to an environmental lobby that had a lot of scare factor... Read More
Last week, the Ontario government announced its plan of an "aspirational" goal of an 80% reduction in acres planted to corn and soybean seed treated with neonicotinoid seed treatments by 2017. What farmers need to know now is how they are expected to meet said goal, and what the stated increase in rules and regulations... Read More