As Bill C-18 — The Agricultural Growth Act — makes its way through the parliamentary process, questions linger around what the bill does and doesn’t mean for Canadian farmers. Will the changes to Canada’s Plant Breeders’ Rights act mean you can you still save seed? Will the adoption of UPOV ’91 make seed more expensive?... Read More
Category: Ag Policy
The governments of Canada and Ontario are investing $4 million annually over the next four years ($16 million total) to establish the Great Lakes Agricultural Stewardship Initiative. Targeted to the Lake Erie basin and the southeast shores of Lake Huron, the initiative is designed to "help farmers improve soil health and promote environmental stewardship." The... Read More
Ontario's premier, Kathleen Wynne, has named several individuals to the Agri-Food Growth Steering Committee. The group is tasked with providing advice and guidance on the road to pushing Ontario's agriculture and agri-food sector to "double its annual growth rate and create 120,000 new jobs by 2020." Included on the committee are: Deb Stark, Deputy Minister,... Read More
The Alberta Wheat Commission (AWC) has teamed up with FARMCo, a grain marketing consulting firm, to head up a large-scale project designed to “improve farmers’ ability to make well-informed marketing decisions and maximize the value of their crops.” The Crop Data and Price Reporting project will lead to the development of a web-based tool that... Read More
Agriculture’s global profile got a boost last year thanks to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization deeming 2014 the International Year of Family Farming. Journalists wrote enlightening stories about the fact that nearly all Canadian farms are family owned. Politicians spoke in glowing terms about the economic, social and cultural contributions made by family... Read More
Dan Mazier, a grains and oilseeds farmer from near Justice, Man., was acclaimed as president of Keystone Agricultural Producers at the organization’s annual meeting held this week. Mazier replaces Doug Chorney, who has reached his four-year term limit. Mazier served as KAP vice-president for the last four years, and is also chair of the workplace... Read More
Mark Wales, a horticulture farmer from Elgin County, Ontario, has been named as the chairperson for the Agriculture and Agri-Food Labour Task Force (LTF). The LTF is moving forward with recommendations set out in its Agriculture and Agri-Food Labour Action Plan to address agricultural industry worker shortages. Wales is also the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource... Read More
The first of a series of weekly performance measurement reports aimed at increasing transparency related to rail freight capacity and service was released this week, says Pulse Canada, on behalf of the Ag Transportation Coalition. Pulse Canada says expectations are high that government, railways and the ag industry will use the reports as a basis... Read More
North Americans can and do choose to spend 30% or more on organic or market-differentiated food because we can. We're an incredibly wealthy society, by and large, and are only required to spend about 8% of our income on food. So does that give us the right to condemn those who can't afford to pay... Read More
The Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) has published its full comment on the Ontario government's pollinator health proposal — a proposal that singles out neonicotinoid seed treatments of corn and soybean crops as a key factor in pollinator health risks. OFA's response includes four key points, including: the need for and content of a pollinator... Read More