The report by the Canadian Malting Barley Technical Centre (CMBTC), in collaboration with the Manitoba Crop Alliance, says new Canadian malting barley varieties can be grown successfully in Manitoba.

With yields and quality comparable to the check variety — AAC Synergy — the study found new varieties including AAC Connect, CDC Fraser, CDC Copper, CDC Churchill and AAC Prairie are the next generation of varieties for Manitoba growers, the CMBTC said in a release Friday.

“The study showed that these new varieties offer good agronomics and the high end-use quality traits that are the hallmark of Canadian malting barley,” CMBTC managing director Peter Watts said.

According to the Manitoba Crop Alliance, total barley acres, whether for feed or malting, have declined over the last two decades on “a combination of disease concerns, market forces and difficulty to meet malting grade.”

That said, seeded acreage reports from Manitoba Agricultural Services Corp., the provincial crop insurance agency, have found Manitoba barley acres steadied in the years 2020 to 2023, at a level between 365,000 and 400,000.

Producers in Manitoba have struggled with diseases such as fusarium head blight in malting barley, but with improved disease resistance packages, better fungicide products and improved management practices, fusarium has not been a significant issue in recent years, CMBTC said.

Producers growing malting barley varieties have the option of both malting and feed markets. With a malt barley variety, farmers gain an additional 2.5 million-tonne market that they could not access with feed varieties, the centre said. As well, malt barley generally offers a premium of around $1 per bushel or more.

“Manitoba is one of the best barley producing regions in the world,” Manitoba Crop Alliance CEO Pam de Rocquigny said in the same release. “This success can be attributed to climate and geography, and our advanced farming practices.”

Barley is a good cereals crop option, as it provides many benefits when included in crop rotations. It can be planted early in the growing season and is both competitive and high yielding. Furthermore, including barley in crop rotations can provide flexibility during harvest, as it matures early, allowing harvest to be spread out between crop types, the centre said.

“In combination, these attributes make barley a great option for farmers,” says de Rocquigny.

Registrations of new malting barley varieties for producer use in Canada in recent years led to the need to evaluate those new varieties in field-scale trials, under Manitoba growing conditions, to provide data for that province’s growers on how new varieties could fit in their cropping systems.

More details from the CMBTC study can be viewed on the Manitoba Crop Alliance website.

Several companies in Manitoba source malting barley to supply domestic and international markets including CMBTC members Cargill, Richardson, Viterra, Malteurop and Boortmalt, among others.

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Tomoya Obokata, who was appointed by the UN’s Human Rights Council, spoke in Ottawa Sept. 6 following a 14-day visit to Canada.

He called the programs “a breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery,” and called on the government to better protect worker rights and offer a clear path to permanent residency for migrants.

“I am deeply disturbed by the accounts of exploitation and abuse shared with me by migrant workers,” he said in a media release from the U.N.

“Employer-specific work permit regimes… make migrant workers vulnerable to contemporary forms of slavery, as they cannot report abuses without fear of deportation.”

Obokata is a scholar specializing in transnational organized crime, human trafficking and modern slavery, and is a professor of international law and human rights at the United Kingdom’s Keele University.

The use of TFWs has exploded in recent years. A 2022 document from StatCan says in 2000 about 110,000 TFWs came to Canada. In 2021, that figure had reached 770,000. About 15 per cent of the agricultural workforce in Canada are TFWs, the highest proportion of any sector.

The Migrant Workers Alliance for Change (MWAC) welcomed the statement and especially endorsed the call for better pathways to longterm or permanent residency.

“The United Nations Rapporteur has yet again stated what we all know, and migrants have been saying for decades,” Syed Hussan, executive director of MWAC, said in a statement.

“A two-tier system of immigration… breeds exploitation, exclusion and violence.”

Canada’s agriculture sector has been criticized, in some cases, for its treatment of temporary workers.

In 2022 Jamaican farmworkers in Canada penned a letter to Jamaican Labour Minister Karl Samuda, decrying their living conditions.

“We are living in a First World country but at both these farms rats are eating our food. We do not have clothes dryers so when it rains we are forced to wear cold, wet clothing to work. We live in crowded rooms and have zero privacy. There are cameras around the houses so it feels like we are in prison,” the letter read in part.

The Jamaican government this spring cleared Canada’s Seasonal Agriculture Worker Program of allegations that it has systematic slave-like conditions, following receipt of an independent investigation.

This summer another group of Jamaican workers were sent home early following a dispute with their employer over living conditions that sparked a one-day strike.

Scotlynn Farms, one of Canada’s largest employer of migrant farmworkers, pled guilty in 2022 and agreed to pay a $125,000 fine after is was prosecuted under occupational health and safety laws due to a COVID-19 outbreak in its operations.

More than 200 workers were infected at the farm, and farmworker advocacy groups have said that “crowded and unsanitary conditions” were a key contributor to that outbreak.

According to StatCan, the majority of agricultural TFWs are employed in Ontario (43.2 per cent), Quebec (29.5 per cent) and British Colombia (16.6 per cent), which have large horticulture and fruit and vegetable sectors.

The Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association was unhappy with the special rapporteur’s remarks.

“Seasonal and temporary foreign workers are an essential part of local fruit and vegetable production in Ontario, and we do not support employers who mistreat or otherwise take advantage of people in their employ,” said Bill George, a grape grower and chair of the OFVGA labour section.

“We recognize there is always more that can be done to ensure all workers have the opportunity for a positive and safe working experience while they are here, but assigning hateful and broad labels to all the hardworking farmers and their employees in the program is not the solution.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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This new committee — announced Wednesday at the Ag in Motion farm show at Langham, Sask. — will work to ensure the care and protection of Canada’s agricultural soil through education, knowledge transfer, forums for collaboration and other activities.

“There’s evidence of a link between soil health and healthy people,” Soil Champions member and Soil Conservation Council of Canada chair (SCCC) Ian Boyd said. The Soil Champions will work as a committee of the SCCC.

This new group was sparked by a $300,000 donation from Rev. Ruth Butt, a Woodstock, Ont. farmer with a long-standing interest in soil conservation.

“Soil is important,” Boyd said. “Societies live and die by soil.”

The SCCC said the new group is expected to bring a soil health message “beyond the farm and to the broader agriculture industry, food processors, consumers and government.”

Along with Boyd, the Soil Champions committee members are Jay Bradshaw, past president of Syngenta Canada; Ontario farmer and conservation advocate Don Lobb; Andrew Graham, retiring executive director of the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association; SCCC executive director Andrew Graham; and Lynda Tityk, representing Glacier FarmMedia.

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They study team is “looking for farmers, ranchers, or anyone who works or lives on a farm” to participate, researchers said in a recent notice.

Their study is in the form of a 10- to 15-minute online survey.

Researchers involved in the study say global-level research shows farmers experience high levels of, or elevated risk for, stress, anxiety, depression and/or psychological distress.

Similarly, a national-level survey of 1,132 Canadian farmers found higher levels of stress, anxiety and depression but “lower levels of resilience” compared to the general population.

The sample group for that national survey, however, included just 98 Alberta farmers, or 8.7 per cent of the total sample, while Alberta farmers make up 21.4 per cent of Canada’s farmer population, the researchers said.

The survey would examine what aspects of running a farm are found to be most stressful, how farming stress impacts mental well-being, how farmers cope with stress and whether they experience burnout.

The study is led by Dr. Rebecca Purc-Stephenson, an applied social psychologist and professor at the university’s Augustana campus at Camrose.

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Laura Reiter, a farmer from Radisson, Sask., northwest of Saskatoon, was elected to the post following the first meeting of the new board following the organization’s 2023 annual general meeting.

Reiter is a producer and trained agrologist who has spent time working in research and in the agriculture retail sector. She’s also a familiar face in Saskatchewan agriculture, having served as a board member, and later as chair, of Sask Wheat.

“WGRF has a long history of funding research that benefits Prairie farmers, and I am honoured to have been elected as the board chair,” Reiter said in a release Tuesday.

She also thanked departing chair Keith Degenhardt for “his leadership, commitment and service to WGRF over many years.”

Kevin Auch of Carmangay, Alta. was re-elected vice-chair.

WGRF is the largest producer-led funder of field crop research in Canada. Since 1981, WGRF has funded more than $229 million of research in field crops of interest to western Canadian farmers.

“WGRF is a unique organization, focused on funding crop research to benefit Prairie farmers,” Reiter added. “Directing investments in field crop research on behalf of farmers is a responsibility that we all take very seriously, and I look forward to helping WGRF continue to invest in projects that will deliver a positive on-farm impact.”

The board also thanked outgoing directors Bill Prybylski and Stewart Wells for their time with the organization.

WGRF’s 2023 board of directors is:

• Mark Akins, Hearne, Sask.
• Mike Ammeter, Sylvan Lake, Alta.
• Kevin Auch, Carmangay, Alta.
• Dave Bishop, Barons, Alta.
• Terry Boehm, Allan, Sask.
• Wade Hainstock, Moose Jaw, Sask.
• Robert Kennedy, Hughenden, Alta.
• Adam Littman, Saltcoats, Sask.
• Doug Martin, East Selkirk, Man.
• Jeff Nielsen, Olds, Alta.
• Malcolm Odermatt, Fort St. John, B.C.
• Kenton Possberg, Humboldt, Sask.
• Laura Reiter, Radisson, Sask.
• Greg Sundquist, Watrous, Sask.
• Jill Verwey, Portage la Prairie, Man.
• Jeremy Welter, Kerrobert, Sask.
• Glenn Wright, Vanscoy, Sask.
• Dick Wymenga, Leslieville, Alta.

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The project, announced Tuesday, is expected to add an additional canola crushing line and more than double the plant’s annual capacity to over two million tonnes upon completion. Construction is due to begin later this year.

The crush plant, built in 2009, today employs 120 people producing food-grade canola oil and feed meal.

The plant previously underwent expansion in 2013 to boost its crush to about 3,000 tonnes per day. An explosion in a meal storage bin in the fall of 2014 reduced the plant’s output for about three months.

“This investment supports [the company’s] strategic growth plans by reinforcing core merchandizing activities, in this case with additional capacity to originate and process Canadian canola seeds to provide nourishment for people and livestock,” Michael Gelchie, Louis Dreyfus’ CEO, said Tuesday in a release.

“It also positions LDC as a strategic feedstock provider to renewable energy producers and accelerates our contribution to a global energy transition that we are excited to be a part of,” he said.

Jeremy Harrison, the provincial minister for trade and export development, said Tuesday in a separate statement Dreyfus’ expansion stands to bring Saskatchewan “even closer” to goals laid out in its 2030 Growth Plan — among them “the ambitious goal of crushing 75 per cent of the canola produced in the province.”

Dreyfus noted the plant is “strategically located in the country’s most productive agricultural zone, where canola is the dominant crop, and benefits from dual rail and good road infrastructure. The enlarged complex will create further operational synergies and enhance canola seed sourcing capabilities.”

“This project reflects our long-term commitment to North America as a key market for LDC, both in terms of origination and distribution, and is expected to contribute to continued local economic development,” Brian Conn, Louis Dreyfus’ country manager for Canada, said in the same release.

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According to the latest FCC Food and Beverage Report, released Tuesday, sales increased 11 per cent to $156 billion in 2022. These gains came largely from higher export values and strength in the grain and oilseed milling industry.

On the manufacturing side, margins were tighter last year as companies navigated increases in the prices of raw materials, labour shortages and supply chain disruptions.

“Gross margins as a percent of sales fell to their lowest level in over 20 years in 2022,” FCC’s chief economist J.P. Gervais said.

“While margin trends vary based on industry, we do anticipate an overall improvement to gross margins in the coming year.”

FCC projects a modest two per cent growth in sales in 2023. However, dairy, meat and seafood are expected to outperform that forecast.

“Consumers cut back on discretionary spending last year as they faced higher inflation, depleted savings and higher costs of servicing debt,” Gervais said.

Domestically-produced food faced a decline, reverting to the pre-pandemic consumption mix of domestic versus foreign foods. However, that’s partly the result of an increasingly diverse Canadian population looking to put different kinds of food on their tables.

“Inflation led to changes in food consumption decisions which resulted in fewer purchases of locally made or higher-value foods that consumers supported in mass during pandemic lockdowns,” Gervais said.

“We all know money doesn’t have the same buying power it once did, and consumers are being careful with their grocery budgets. Despite inflationary pressures, we continue to see Canada’s food and beverage sector adapt and innovate to meet the changing market demands.

“The sector remains healthy and has a positive long-term outlook.”

Global demand for Canadian-produced food is growing rapidly, he said. Promising food manufacturing innovations and technology can position Canada to expand its reach into profitable emerging industries.

There is also opportunity to grow the sector by meeting consumer demand for affordable, convenient and sustainably produced foods.

“How businesses adapt to changing consumer needs and economic conditions will determine their success going forward,” Gervais said.

“There have been many tests of resiliency and adaptability in recent years and the strength of the sector proves that despite challenges, there are opportunities Canadian food and beverage manufacturers are eager to take advantage of.”

The annual FCC Food and Beverage Report features insights and analysis on grain and oilseed milling; dairy, meat, sugar, confectionery, bakery and tortilla products; seafood preparation; and fruit, vegetable and specialty foods as well as soft drinks and alcoholic beverages. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Not-for-profit organization Palette Skills has launched a new eight-week online program for Saskatchewan residents focused on automation and digitization in agricultural production and processing. The enrolment deadline for the new program was May 22.

Palette’s automation and digital agriculture specialist program, running June 6 to July 29, is billed as allowing its candidates to specialize in “identifying, managing, and implementing technologies to solve challenges and improve efficiencies across the agri-food value chain.”

More specifically, it focuses on “emerging technologies” in the agrifood sector such as GIS (geographic information systems), IoT (the Internet of Things), unmanned aerial vehicles, artificial intelligence, robotics, sensors and big data.

Workers who are “upskilled” through the program “can expect to develop careers in technology and business, farm robotics, agriculture automation, precision agriculture and production management,” the University of Saskatchewan, which supported the program’s design, said in a recent release.

The program is looking to recruit participants from Indigenous communities, newcomers to Canada, recent graduates and “experienced professionals looking to transition into the growing and exciting agri-food sector,” the U of S said.

“Today’s employees often need to understand how data and digital tools are being incorporated into everything from on-farm agriculture to food manufacturing,” said Bill Greuel, CEO of Protein Industries Canada, the federally-backed plant protein supercluster billed as a co-investor in the program.

“By having increased access to the right skills and talent, trailblazing companies across the country can increase their workforce, expanding their production and, as a result, growing Canada’s plant-based food and ingredient ecosystem.”

More information about the program and its format is available on the Palette Skills website.

CORRECTION, May 24, 2022: An earlier version of this article incorrectly characterized the automation and digital agriculture specialist program as a University of Saskatchewan program. We regret the error.

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The Community Safety Knowledge Alliance, the lead organization on the Cyber Security Capacity in Canadian Agriculture project, has put up a voluntary online survey for farm operators, running until Feb. 18, “to look at how farmers understand and experience cybersecurity in their day-to-day work.”

Data from the survey — which is believed to be the first “comprehensive” survey of cybersecurity focusing on the Canadian farm sector — “will be used to develop information and recommendations to help farmers safeguard their operations,” the CSKA said.

The CSKA said its survey “draws from work carried out in Canada and elsewhere, to help us better understand how farmer experiences in this country compare to other areas and sectors.”

The survey is confidential and no personally identifying information will be attached to any reports resulting from it, the CSKA said.

The federal public safety ministry last March funded the project via the national Cyber Security Co-operation Program. The CSKA is a not-for-profit organization that works with private- and public-sector organizations to research, evaluate, train and promote in the field of community safety.

Glacier FarmMedia (GFM), owner of this website and publications including Country Guide, Grainews and the Western Producer, announced last April it would collaborate with CSKA to help further extend the ag project’s reach.

Cybersecurity, for the purpose of this project, refers to “steps taken to protect computer systems, communications technology or devices connected through the internet or a network” from disruptions, whether “accidental or intentional.”

Cybersecurity in the farm and agribusiness sectors lit up on the public radar in 2021 following ransomware attacks on businesses including international meat packer JBS.

CSKA lead investigator Dr. Janos Botschner said last April that Canada’s ag and food sectors can be considered critical infrastructure in the same sense as water and electricity supplies, telecommunications and financial services.

Ag and food, he said, “is a little bit newer to digital technology than other sectors are, but it may end up moving toward digitalization faster than the others have had to.”

Glacier FarmMedia, the CSKA and Public Service Canada hosted a webinar Monday for farmers on cybersecurity in farm businesses, and will host a sequel online on Feb. 17. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Canada’s Trade Minister Mary Ng and her Indonesian counterpart Muhammad Lutfi on Sunday declared the launch of negotiations on a comprehensive economic partnership agreement (CEPA).

In a statement, they said they’ve “instructed officials to hold the first round of negotiations at the earliest opportunity,” expected in late 2021.

Canadians “expressed a high level of support for a possible Canada-Indonesia CEPA” during public consultations earlier this year, the government said in a release.

About 78 per cent of respondents to those consultations, launched in January, were deemed supportive of a free trade agreement.

Of those, about a third came from the agriculture and agri-food sectors, listing market access, dealing with technical trade barriers, investment and sanitary and phytosanitary measures as priorities. Environment, inclusive trade and labour issues ranked lower.

Meat exporters want challenges of entering the Indonesian market addressed. Particularly, they mentioned challenges from importing products with Halal certification, and issues stemming from how Canada’s meat inspection system meshes with packaging or labelling requirements in Indonesia.

Supply-managed sectors expressed support for a deal, so long as the federal Liberals uphold a commitment to not provide any more market-access to supply managed goods.

Across the board, there is broad support for Canada to pursue a bilateral deal with Indonesia at the same time it seeks a broader pact with the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which is headquartered in Indonesia.

Canada and the ASEAN group held two rounds of exploratory talks, in 2018 and 2019, toward a possible trade pact. Four ASEAN nations — Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei — are already parties to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) trade pact with Canada.

“References were made to the fact that pursuing a trade agreement with Indonesia would complement Canada’s other trade policy priorities, such as Canada’s overall trade diversification strategy, expansion of the (CPTPP) through accessions, and deepening commercial ties with the fast-growing Indo-Pacific region,” a consultation report from Global Affairs Canada said.

Indonesia has expressed a desire to negotiate a broader deal in parallel with a bilateral one.

“We see the benefit of both (deals),” Iffah Sa’aidah, a trade attaché in Ottawa with the Indonesian government, said. “There will be a benefit of both of the trade deals, usually the bilateral trade deal is more broad and deeper, maybe more technical and economic co-operation.”

Indonesia is a co-ordinator of ASEAN’s pursuit of a trade deal with Canada, for which formal negotiations are expected to begin in early 2022.

By itself, Indonesia is “one of the top destinations for Canadian cereal crops and a gateway into the rapidly growing Asia Pacific region,” Dean Dias, CEO of Cereals Canada, said in a release Monday hailing the two countries’ announcement.

Indonesia, he said, “is a major market and source of growth, especially for Canadian wheat exports. Consumers there buy 11 per cent of Canada’s wheat exports to the world, bringing over $600 million in value on average to Canadian farmers and exporters each year.”

Cereals Canada, he said, expects the CEPA negotiations to “strengthen the stability of market access over the long-term. For Canadian farmers and exporters, promoting science-based policies that elevates the trade and business environment is a real priority.”

Global Affairs Canada, meanwhile, said in its report that a bilateral pact with Indonesia could “contribute significantly to Canada’s overall economic, social and environmental priorities, in line with Canada’s commitment to an inclusive approach to trade.”

Including issues such as the environment or labour rights in trade deals are relatively new to Indonesian negotiators, who have expressed caution over Canada’s insistence on including such measures.

Despite such issues ranking as a lower priority, Global Affairs noted in its report “many submissions indicated support for Canada’s inclusive approach to trade, which aims to ensure that the benefits of trade are more widely shared. A few submissions mentioned that Canada is well-placed to ensure that any future agreement promotes equality, non-discrimination and human rights in both Canada and Indonesia.”

Some stakeholders suggested labour standards and human rights issues be addressed through a dedicated chapter in the trade agreement.

“Several stakeholders mentioned that poor health and safety regulations, low compensation and forced child labour in Indonesia are all factors that Canada should consider when negotiating an agreement,” read the report from Global Affairs.

Environmental concerns, including Indonesia’s limited environmental regulations, were also raised as a concern.

In Sunday’s announcement, the two countries’ trade ministers said jointly that “without prejudice to the final outcomes, the negotiations would cover mutually agreed areas of interest to both Indonesia and Canada, including market access, rules to facilitate trade and investment, and co-operation.”

Those talks, they said, would take into account “each other’s sensitivities and different levels of development.”

— Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia reporter D.C. Fraser in Ottawa.

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