“The agency lacks an effective, integrated risk-management approach to plant and plant product imports.” – Sheila Fraser, Auditor General Last week was a rough one for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency with the auditor general criticizing it and a group of veterinarians suing it. Auditor General Sheila Fraser released a report faulting the way CFIA
CFIA under fire over plant and meat inspection
Farm Lobby Still Effective, Despite Changing Times – for Feb. 5, 2009
“Farm groups have punched way over their weight for some time.” – jack wilkinson When Bert Hall raised the gavel on January 15, 1985 to call the first annual meeting of Keystone Agricultural Producers to order, he recalled looking out over the smartly dressed, articulate audience and thinking, “What an impressive group of young people.”
Railway Overpayments Remain In Limbo
“What can I do to leave a legacy to Western Canadian agriculture? This is it.” – Ed Rempel Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz says the federal government won’t consider any action on a request to refund railway overpayments to farmers until a court case in concluded. “The money has been put in a trust while the
Pellerin to run for CFA president
“Pellerin has always been a farmer politician.” – Hugh Maynard For the first time in 25 years, there will be an election for president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture. And for the first time ever, the new president could be a francophone from Quebec. Laurent Pellerin officially announced his candidacy last week during the
Premises ID for food safety to move forward
Another building block toward a national livestock traceability system has fallen into place with the announcement of a premises identification system for Manitoba. The province will spend $400,000 on a database to pinpoint and register all Manitoba farms that produce livestock by geographic location. The premises identification database will tie into livestock ID systems, which
U. S. farm leader defends COOL
A North Dakota farm leader has suggested U. S. meat packers are exaggerating the extra costs with which obeying country-of-origin food labelling (COOL) will allegedly burden them. Robert Carlson, North Dakota Farmers Union president, said he doesn’t believe it’s as hard or expensive to segregate animals at slaughter plants according to their country of origin
Employment standards now apply to agriculture
Don Allan was trying to persuade his audience that Manitoba’s new provincial employment standards increase protection for employees working in agriculture. But one producer was having none of it. “It’s not equal between the employee and the employer,” the man insisted. “Workers have more rights than the employer. It’s ridiculous.” Overall, though, his was one
KAP demands tax credits for food safety
“It can get very expensive.” – Ian Wishart, KAP Manitoba farmers want a tax reward for providing consumers with safe, wholesome food. Keystone Agricultural Producers delegates at their annual meeting passed a resolution demanding producers receive income tax credits for carrying out on-farm food safety programs. The credits could be in the form of income
Report urges more vets for rural Manitoba
“People say they’re 100 per cent behind the system we have. Just make it work.” – Neil Hathaway, Task Force Member A provincial task force recommends continuing Manitoba’s existing rural veterinary service districts but urges greater efforts to attract more qualified staff to them. That could include making it easier for immigrant veterinarians to practise
COOL up in the air again
Confusion reigned early this week over whether the long-dreaded U. S. country-of-origin labelling rule would suffer yet another delay in implementation. President Barak Obama, in one of his first acts after taking office, issued a memo ordering federal U. S. departments and agencies to review and/or delay all final regulations in process, but not yet
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