(Photo courtesy Canola Council of Canada)

Cash advances’ interest-free portion temporarily raised

APP funds now interest-free for first $250K

The federal government’s low-interest loan guarantee program for Canadian farmers will sweeten the interest-free portion of its offer for the next two program years to help with farm cash flow. Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau on Thursday announced a temporary increase in the interest-free portion of the Advance Payments Program to $250,000, up from the usual

Kellogg’s Canadian operations include its Mini-Wheats plant at Belleville, Ont. and its Canadian office in Mississauga. Other cereals and snack brands imported by Kellogg Canada are produced elsewhere in North America, the company says. (Kellogg Co. photo)

Kellogg to spin off into three food companies

Plant-based foods, North American cereals to be hived off

The company that makes Mini-Wheats cereal, Pringles potato crisps and MorningStar veggie burgers now plans to see those each of those three product lines go their separate ways by the end of next year. Michigan-based Kellogg Co. said Tuesday its board has approved a plan to break into three yet-to-be-named independent publicly-traded companies by way


This 36-foot-long tomato growing in the United States Botanic Garden greenhouse in Washington, D.C. celebrated its first birthday in March.

Titanic tomato is science fact, not science fiction

Hydroponically fed, it just keeps growing more than 14 months after being planted

Science fiction often portrays giant plants as monsters — think Audrey II from “Little Shop of Horrors,” and the marauding Triffids in “Day of the Triffids.” But the titanic tomato growing soilless here in the United States Botanic Garden greenhouse for more than a year seems benign enough, but its size and age make it

Kristof Grina, and the rest of Up Top Acres, give farming a foothold on the city skyline in Washington, D.C.

Bringing farming to new heights

Up Top Acres finds its niche in the urban jungle

Farmer Kristof Grina takes elevators to get to his fields. The field in question, with a street address of 55 M Street, is on the 10th storey of an office building overlooking the U.S. capital. It is one of Up Top Acres’ 18 rooftop plots, totalling almost three acres. Members of the ag sector have


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N.S. farm limestone program boosted against rising diesel prices

Farmers in Nova Scotia facing rising prices for diesel fuel will see more funding via the Limestone Trucking Assistance Program (LTAP), which is expected to help offset some of those increased costs. “After touring multiple farms around the province to hear from farmers and meeting this morning with farmer Tim Marsh at the Nova Scotia

Lisa Thompson. (LisathompsonMPP.ca)

Ontario ag minister returns in another Tory majority

Lisa Thompson retains seat in election

Ontario’s governing Progressive Conservatives will head back to the legislature with their incumbent agriculture minister at the caucus table. Lisa Thompson, Premier Doug Ford’s minister of agriculture, food and rural affairs since June last year, easily held her southwestern riding of Huron-Bruce in Thursday’s provincial election by a spread of 15,594 votes over Liberal challenger


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Environment Canada sees cool summer for Manitoba

MarketsFarm — Manitoba and eastern Saskatchewan could be in for a cooler-than-normal summer, according to the latest long-range outlook from Environment Canada. The latest seasonal forecast from the government agency, released Tuesday, calls for a 40 to 80 per cent chance of below normal temperatures from June through August across all of the agricultural regions

Southward displacement of arctic air is fuelling the ongoing storm systems and resulting rains pushing through southern Manitoba.

Displaced arctic air and heat waves

Under a ridge of high pressure, sinking air can lead to truly warm days

I received a few requests over the last week to stop discussing heavy rainfall and thunderstorms and start talking about summer heat waves. All of this, of course, is in the hope that talking about heat will maybe somehow make it happen. Oh, if only it was that simple. I also received a few questions


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Hepatitis A outbreak linked to organic strawberries

Cases reported in two provinces, three states

Washington | Reuters –– Food safety regulators in both Canada and the U.S. are investigating a hepatitis A outbreak potentially linked to tainted organic strawberries that has sickened 17 people in the U.S. and 10 in Canada, the agencies said. Fifteen illnesses were reported in California, and one each in Minnesota and North Dakota, the

Yara’s fertilizer terminal at Stockton, California. (Sebastian Braum photo, Yara.com)

Fertilizer maker Yara says world faces extreme food supply shock

Sanctions cut global fertilizer supply 15 per cent, company says

Davos, Switzerland | Reuters — Norwegian fertilizer giant Yara says donors urgently need to close the U.N.’s $10 billion food programme funding gap to avoid a catastrophe as sanctions on Russian fertilizers and Ukraine’s grain export problems have created an extreme global shock. “The world has realized that food can be a weapon and it