There are more signs the United States could pull out of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue said he is “talking with the administration and Congress about some mitigation efforts” if U.S. President Donald Trump withdraws the United States from NAFTA,” Ag Insider, an online, subscription-based publication, said
Working on Plan B
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue says American farmers could weather U.S. NAFTA withdrawal
HyLife co-founder Paul Vielfaure, 59
Funeral arrangements are pending for one of the founding brothers behind Prairie hog production and pork processing firm HyLife. Paul Vielfaure died suddenly Nov. 23 at age 59, his family reported in a brief obituary in Winnipeg and Steinbach newspapers this week. Radio-Canada reported Tuesday that Vielfaure had died in Phoenix, Arizona. While Vielfaure was
Canadian pork cleared for Argentina
Argentina is now ready to import Canadian pork for the first time in about 15 years, federal officials report. Federal Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay and Trade Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne announced Wednesday that access to the Argentinian market has been restored for Canadian pork effective “immediately.” Canadian pork processors had started shipping to Argentina in 1998,
Carryover and low quotas lead to Chinchillas?
Our History: November, 1969
A combination of low prices and low quotas resulting from a huge Canadian and world wheat carryover in 1969 meant tough times for farmers, and this ad in our Nov. 13 issue invited them to diversify by getting into the Chinchilla ranching business. However, Saskatchewan Wheat Pool president E.K. Turner told his annual meeting that
Ontario to back baby formula plant
A baby formula plant proposed for eastern Ontario has got a major boost from the Ontario government. The $225 million plant is being built at Kingston by Canada Royal Milk ULC, a subsidiary of Chinese company Feihe International. The Ontario government has committed up to $24 million to the project, which will export baby formula
Ontario vegetable grower to lead NFU
An eastern Ontario vegetable grower and women’s leader with the National Farmers Union since 2014 has been picked as the Canada-wide organization’s new chief. Coral Sproule, who operates a CSA (community-supported agriculture) vegetable farm at Perth, Ont. was elected NFU president at the organization’s convention last week in Ottawa, replacing Jan Slomp of Courtenay, B.C.
Researchers break the wild-domestic barrier in legumes
They’re hoping to tap wild relatives for important traits such as disease and pest resistance
Domesticating plants to grow as crops can turn out to be a double-edged scythe. On one hand, selecting specific desirable traits, such as high yields, can increase crop productivity. But other important traits, such as resistance to pests, can be lost. To mitigate this, researchers often turn to the wild relatives of crops. These wild
Climate Corp. to partner with Canadian drone data firm
In a bid to bring its eye-in-the-sky views of clients’ fields closer to Earth, Monsanto’s Climate Corp. has struck up a partnership with a Canadian drone data provider. Climate on Nov. 15 announced an “official” partnership with Toronto-based Deveron UAS, which operates a fleet of drones serving farm clients across North America, to deliver “advanced”
Federal programs set for Growing Forward sequel
Market development, product development and overall sector development are among the priorities in the federal government’s five-year funding plan for the ag sector. Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay, speaking Friday at Canadian Western Agribition in Regina, announced a $1 billion suite of six federally funded programs to roll out through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership. The Canadian
Data mining finds no honeybee colony risk from correct neonic use
An expedition through published and unpublished studies on neonicotinoid pesticides has led a Guelph research team to find no colony-level risk to honeybees from the seed treatments — if they’re correctly used. The University of Guelph team, led by toxicologist Keith Solomon and adjunct professor Gladys Stephenson, analyzed 64 papers from “open, peer-reviewed literature” on