Another voice in the agri-food choir

Food and beverage companies now have another voice in policy debates

Add one more group to the already-crowded landscape of groups and organizations within the agriculture and food sector. Food & Beverage Canada (F&BC) has been formed to work with the federal and provincial governments and other industry bodies to advance common priorities for processors and beverage makers. Rosemary McLellan, an F&BC board member as well

Fresh vegetables at the Alberone Market in Rome, where a group of volunteers are rescuing unsold food and distributing it for free, January 5, 2018.

Food-mad Italy on mission to cut waste, feed hungry

Volunteers and food vendors are banding together to meet the national target

Thomson Reuters Foundation – The young Roma woman gingerly touched the oranges and cabbages, bright, fresh and neatly stacked in crates. Francesco Fanoli, an anthropologist, insisted they were hers to take — for free. With a toddler playing in a nearby pram and more mouths to feed at home, the mother took the cache gratefully,


A worker checks sows on a large-scale pig farm owned by the Xinguangan company in Wuxuan county, 
Guangxi province, China, December 14, 2017.

GOING BIG: Chinese pork producers supersize

The country is the world’s top pork market, but until recently most of it has been raised on small operations

Surrounded by mountains in a remote part of southwestern China, Xinguangan’s first large-scale, modern pig farm is getting ready to produce its first offspring. By the end of the year, 10,000 sows will live inside two huge barns on this 73-hectare (180-acre) site, producing up to 280,000 piglets annually, or about 20,000 tonnes of pork.

Laci Buydens (left) and Nikki Anderson (right) were two of the Gladstone Handi-Workers members who nominated Heather Lea for one of 4-H Canada’s leader of the year awards. Both have done Fibres and Fabrics projects with her and this year are vice-president and president of their 4-H Club. Keira Reimer, the third nominator and club secretary, was not available for the picture.

Gladstone 4-H leader is Manitoba’s recipient of award recognizing exceptional volunteer leaders

The awards recognize the pivotal role volunteer leaders play in the 4-H program

A Gladstone 4-H leader who’s led projects wherever she’s lived in rural Manitoba has been recognized by 4-H Canada for exceptional volunteer leadership. Heather Lea has volunteered with the provincial 4-H program off and on since the mid-1970s when she first offered to lead a sewing project while living in Cartwright. Her career as United


Maya Almaraz, a National Science Foundation post-doctoral fellow at UC-Davis and the study’s lead author, samples soils for NOx emissions in Palm Springs, California.

Soils make smog too

California researchers say as much as 40 per cent 
of nitrogen oxides come from fertilizers

Internal combustion engines are typically blamed for smog in urban centres but researchers in California say fertilized fields need to be added to that list. The scientists, from University of California-Davis, say they’ve found about 40 per cent of the nitrogen oxide emissions in the Golden State is coming from fertilized soils in the agriculture-rich

Tobogganing at Spruce Woods Provincial Park.


Where to celebrate Louis Riel Day

With a variety of activities to choose from there’s sure to be something to interest you on this long weekend


Do you have plans for the Louis Riel Day long weekend? Are you getting a little tired of winter? Why not use the holiday to do something different, choosing from the many activities happening. A February holiday was originally started in Alberta in 1990 to celebrate the family life of the early pioneers and to


Morden prepares to battle the bug

Morden prepares to battle the bug

The city has just unveiled its 10-year strategy to manage for emerald ash borer’s imminent arrival here. Morden officials will speak at a workshop next month on what actions other rural communities can take

Morden isn’t waiting until it discovers the emerald ash borer (EAB) in its midst to take action to protect its public trees. Starting later this winter the city will begin systematically removing the tree species that would otherwise attract the invasive beetle. One hundred and fifty green ash trees will be taken down in 2018

VIDEO: Baker Colony brings home corn competition win once again

VIDEO: Baker Colony brings home corn competition win once again

Manitoba Corn Growers Association yield competition winner on familiar ground

Baker Colony near MacGregor, Man., won the Manitoba Corn Growers Association’s 2017 corn yield contest for the third year in a row breaking the record the colony set in 2016 with a yield of 306.4 bushels an acre. Manitoba Co-operator reporter Allan Dawson spoke with Mack Walder of Baker Colony on Feb. 14 at CropConnect.


Crop yield records broken across the board

Crop yield records broken across the board

The 2018 edition of Yield Manitoba with this week’s Co-operator has all the details

It’s official. Many Manitoba yield records were broken in 2017, despite a drier-than-normal growing season. That’s what crop insurance data collected by the Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation (MASC) show. The information is in Yield Manitoba 2018, a supplement to this week’s Manitoba Co-operator. Of the 13 insured crops Yield Manitoba tracks for annual comparisons, eight

Manitoba beef producers say the government needs to tackle a growing predation problem from wolves and other large predators.

Manitoba Beef Producers pushes for predation action

The 2018 Manitoba Beef Producers AGM saw multiple resolutions on the topic

The Manitoba Beef Producers membership is getting fed up with a growing predation problem in parts of the province. Manitoba Beef Producers members heartily adopted all six resolutions on predation put forward this year at the AGM, Feb. 8-9 in Brandon, most aimed at prompting provincial action. Predation has been a long-standing issue between the


Upcoming events