Hurricane Fiona, tracking northward after carving a destructive path through the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, could be one of the worst storms to hit Atlantic Canada in recent years.

Storms are not uncommon in the region and they typically cross over rapidly, but Fiona is expected to impact a very large area and bring extended periods of stormy weather, Canadian Hurricane Centre meteorologist Bob Robichaud said at a briefing.

By late Friday morning, Hurricane Fiona was about 970 km south of Halifax, moving north at 56 km/h with maximum sustained winds of 215 km/h, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

When it arrives in Nova Scotia on Saturday morning, Fiona is expected to make landfall as a powerful post-tropical storm bigger than Hurricane Juan in 2003 and stronger than Hurricane Dorian in 2019, Robichaud said.

Dorian had slammed though Halifax as an intense post-tropical storm, knocking down trees, cutting power, and blowing over a large construction crane.

“Where (Fiona) fits in the history books, we’ll have to make that determination after the fact but it is going to be certainly a historic, extreme event for Eastern Canada,” Robichaud said.

Fiona is expected to hit Nova Scotia’s Cape Breton Island, home to about 135,000 people, or 15 per cent of the province’s population, Environment Canada said on Friday.

A hurricane warning was in effect for most of central and eastern Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. The eye will move across Nova Scotia later on Friday, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence on Saturday and over Labrador on Sunday.

Forecasters say areas close to its path could get up to eight inches of rain, while winds could damage buildings and cause utility outages, with storm surges swamping the coastlines.

Farmers in Nova Scotia have told local media they’re concerned also about the potential damage the storm may bring to crops, including corn and apples.

The country’s two largest carriers, Air Canada and WestJet Airlines, are suspending regional service starting Friday evening.

No natural cover

Off the coast of Nova Scotia is the Sable Island National Park Reserve, a narrow strip of dunes and grasslands managed by Parks Canada. Here roam some 500 Sable Island Horses alongside the world’s biggest breeding colony of grey seals.

All scheduled flights for visitors have been canceled and a small team of officials are prepared to shelter in place on the island, Parks Canada representative Jennifer Nicholson said, adding team members had been busy securing materials and equipment to minimize possible damage.

But the horses, which are not indigenous to the sandbar and are believed to have been brought by European sailors in the 18th century, have practically no natural cover on the isle.

“Over the last two centuries, the horses of Sable Island have adapted remarkably well to their environment. During inclement weather the horses act instinctively and seek shelter in groups in the lee of the dunes for protection,” Nicholson said.

Environment Canada has issued a storm alert for much of Atlantic Canada, along with parts of Quebec.

— Reporting for Reuters by Ismail Shakil in Ottawa. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

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Think hayloft, not manure, says Dead Horse Cider founder Marcus Wiebe. He ushers a Manitoba Co-operator reporter over to the taps in the Winkler cidery’s sun-dappled tasting room.

After tasting the funky crispness of the Backyard Blend, made entirely from local apples, it makes sense.

There is something reminiscent of a barnyard in it — and it’s kind of tasty.

Born in a pumpkin patch

Dead Horse Cider Co. opened its taproom this May.

Inside, it’s vintage furniture with a backdrop of wooden barrels with future reserve ciders aging inside. Outside, it’s a patio and fireplace surrounded by a fledgling apple orchard.

On the Friday the Co-operator visited, Wiebe, cider maker and sommelier Matt Zacharias and staff were preparing for the arrival of a guest chef who’ll be serving steak tacos.

Wiebe called it a “cool, west-coast kind of experience.”

But what’s now the cidery was once something very different: space for processing pumpkins.

Wiebe bought the farm in 2011. It was formerly the family farm, which his dad sold in the early 2000s.

With 120 acres to work with, Wiebe needed to grow high-value crops. He put in peas, corn, beans and pumpkins.

However, when the company contracted to buy those pumpkins failed, Wiebe was forced to pivot.

In 2016, he bought an apple press and began pressing fresh apple juice. In the process, he realized how many apple trees were grown in Manitoba.

Meanwhile, the juice would sometimes start to ferment in the cooler. Fresh, natural apple juice doesn’t keep forever. Wiebe was trying to sell some to breweries when he met Saskatchewan cider maker Peter Reimer, who advised him to branch into the hard beverage business.

With his mentor’s help and some formal study at Oregon State University, Wiebe and his family took the leap of faith and began Dead Horse Cider Co.

Sourcing local

Wiebe knew many Manitoba apples were going to waste, so he sought out orchards and even backyard trees.

Prairie apples make good cider, Wiebe said. Cideries look for tannins and acid in their fruit. In other words, sour apples. Crabapples are cider stars.

Dead Horse Cider has pickers who will go out looking for apples. It will also pay 35 cents a pound for any that show up on the doorstep.

Last year, a poor year for apples, the cidery bought about 75,000 pounds of Manitoba apples. In 2020, it bought 100,000 pounds. It imports juice from British Columbia to make up any shortfall.

The heterogenous nature of local fruit makes for fun opportunities. For instance, one homeowner brought russet apples. ‘Russeting’ refers to a dull and rough brown finish.

The fruit had an almost nutty flavour that was concentrated by the porous skins, Wiebe recalled. Dead Horse Cider used the apples in one of its ‘one-off’ specialty ciders.

These specialty drinks allow for creative freedom and a little alchemy.

The barrels at the back of the taproom were previously used to age other liquors, so they’re infused with flavours like peach brandy or tequila.

Wiebe and Zacharias select barrels with flavours that sound good with cider, then age product in the barrels so it draws out that residual taste.

While Dead Horse Cider’s core products are sold in Liquor Marts, the one-off specials and ‘reserve line’ are kept for the taproom or direct sales.

Gaining momentum

Wiebe started making cider on the side while farming vegetables. Today, veggies are a thing of the past.

“It was good, but it was lots of work,” Wiebe said.

After ‘bootstrapping’ for the first little while, making cider in plastic totes and hand-bottling, the company has come into its own. It took home three medals in the 2021 Great Lakes International Cider and Perry Competition, including best in class with its “Life is Rose” reserve cider. It won gold with its “Cherry On” cider.

Wiebe went from never making cider to having a cider company in four months. One doesn’t want to tell a farmers’ market customer, “yeah, I’ve never made this before,” Wiebe said. But, with awards under his belt, he said it was probably safe to admit that now.

The plan remains the same — making honest, tasty cider.

“It’s always fun,” Wiebe said.

A cide(r) note on apple history

Did you know that the Johnny Appleseed of children’s stories and summer camp songs was probably planting apples to be used for booze?

Dead Horse Cider founder Marcus Wiebe mentioned this as the Co-operator toured his orchard, and it sparked inquiry.

John Chapman, born in 1774 in Massachusetts, has been mythologized as a sort of “magical Santa Claus responsible for all of the apples (sic) trees planted across Ohio,” a JSTOR article notes, quoting a historical source.

Encyclopedia Britannica calls him an “American missionary nursery man of the North American frontier” who supplied apple tree nursery stock throughout the American Midwest. Chapman was a missionary, by the way, of Swedenborgianism, which use the teachings of the Swedish mystic Emanuel Swedenborg, the same article says.

His obituary in the Fort Wayne Sentinel described Chapman as “well known through this region by his eccentricity and singular garb.”

His outfit included a coffee sack with a hole for the neck, and waists of four pairs of pants “shingled” around him — whatever that means.

If kids picture him planting trees of Gala, McIntosh and Golden Delicious, however, they’d be wrong.

“Seed tree apples, such as the ones Johnny Appleseed planted, were acidic with high tannin content and good for little but making hard cider,” the Indianapolis Star wrote in 2018.

In Chapman’s era, water and milk were often unsanitary. Cider was a trusted beverage and kids drank it.

The Temperance movement, which gained steam throughout the 1800s and perhaps culminated with Prohibition in the 1920s, probably undid a lot of Chapman’s work.

“Orchards were destroyed or burned to the ground by temperance zealots,” the Star reported.

After the repeal of Prohibition, many producers of hard cider didn’t resume production.

The post Winkler cidery opens orchard-side tasting room appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Foreign labour is critical to farm production in both countries, where domestic workers shun the hard physical labour and low pay.

In Canada, where farms rely on 60,000 temporary foreign workers, their arrivals are delayed by initial border restrictions and grounded flights. Once they arrive, the federal government requires them to be isolated for 14 days with pay, unable to work.

In the United States, nearly 250,000 foreign guest workers, mostly from Mexico, help harvest fruit and vegetables each year. The State Department is processing H-2A visas for farm workers with reduced staffing, though some companies are still having a hard time getting workers in on time.

Ontario farmer Mike Chromczak said he was afraid he might be unable to harvest his asparagus crop next month unless his 28 Jamaican workers start arriving by mid-April.

“It would be well over 50 per cent of our farm’s revenue” lost, Chromczak said. “But I see it as a much bigger issue than me. This is a matter of food security for our country.”

Steve Bamford’s 35 Caribbean workers are just starting to trickle in to his Ontario apple orchards. Then they are isolated and paid for 40 hours per week during that period without touching a tree. Pruning work, a critical step to maximize yields, is now overdue.

“It’s an extreme cost. You don’t plan on bringing people in and not work for two weeks,” Bamford said.

Some Canadian farmers expect to reap smaller fruit and vegetable harvests this year if foreign labour is not available soon, said Scott Ross, director of farm policy for the Canadian Federation of Agriculture.

In the U.S., “delays are potentially very hazardous to farmers who were counting on that workforce to show up at an exact period of time to harvest a perishable crop,” said Dave Puglia, CEO of Western Growers Association, which represents fruit and vegetable companies in states such as California and Arizona.

He said workers in the U.S. do not have to wait 14 days before they start working, although more efforts are being made to space workers out on the farms.

Dannia Sanchez, president of D+J and Sons Harvesting in Florida, is awaiting approval to bring in some 200 temporary workers, while blueberries in Florida ripen and Michigan asparagus nears harvest.

Abad Hernandez Cruz, a Mexican farmworker harvesting onions in Georgia, said he is working 12 or more hours a day.

“A lot of people are missing,” he said, referring to farmworkers whose visas weren’t approved after the United States scaled back some consular activities in response to coronavirus.

“If the farm doesn’t produce, the city doesn’t eat.”

— Reporting for Reuters by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg and Chris Walljasper in Chicago.

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Farmers will not be allowed to use the neonic insecticide, sold under the brands Calypso and Biscaya, after April 30, 2020, when its current approval expires.

A majority of EU countries approved the proposal of the European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, not to extend approval.

The Commission based its assessment on findings of the European Food Safety Agency published in January 2019. It highlighted concerns about the active substance being toxic for humans and present in too great a concentration in ground water, an EFSA spokesman said in an email.

The EU prohibited the use of three so-called neonicotinoids everywhere except greenhouses in April 2018. France has already outlawed all four insecticides and one other, including in greenhouses.

In Canada, thiacloprid picked up full registration from the federal Pest Management Regulatory Agency in 2007 and is sold by Bayer under the Calypso 480 SC brand.

The product is registered in the six eastern provinces and British Columbia for use in pome fruit, such as apples and pears, to control Oriental fruit moth, apple maggot and leafhopper, among others.

Bayer CropScience Canada bills the product as “the first new truly broad-spectrum insecticide for apple and pear growers since the organophosphates in the 1960s.”

— Reporting for Reuters by Marine Strauss. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

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enjoy an apple in one form or another. But if I had to choose a favourite type of apple, I’d have a much harder time selecting just one.

I love that apples come in so many varieties and that you can make so many different dishes with them. From our intensely flavoured Prairie apples, to the large commercial apples grown in warmer locations, apples are always a great choice.

This time of year is perfect for tasting local Prairie apples. The varieties available are simply amazing. There are crabapples like Rescue, Dolgo, Trail or the late-season Kerr apple crabs (slightly bigger than crabapples) that make amazing juice and jellies. Then there are the endless varieties of full-size apples like Goodlands, Norkent, September Red, Prairie Sensation, Prairie Magic, Honey Crisp, Norland, Good Macs and so on. Our Prairie apples come in all sizes, colours and taste profiles and are harvested from early August to mid-October. If you have a chance to harvest or taste them this fall, do it! You won’t regret it. In fact, grab an extra bag full and make something delicious.

If you don’t have access to local apples, take advantage of the new crop of apples being stocked in grocery stores this season. Here’s a look at some common apples you’ll find in stores today. Perhaps one of these will become a new favourite in your home:

Ambrosia – Pinky red and yellow. Sweet, crisp, juicy and slightly aromatic. It’s ideal for snacking, salads, baking, sauces and juice.

Braeburn — Red/orange streaks on a yellow background. Bold, tart flavour with a hint of sweet spice. Ideal for snacking, salads, baking and sauces. Empire — Dark red with a splash of yellow or green. Sweet to tart with crisp texture and bright-white flesh that does not bruise easily. Ideal for snacking, salads and baking.

Envy – Mostly red with yellow specks and fairly thick skin. Sweet, crisp, juicy and low in acid with creamy dense flesh that is slow to brown. Ideal for snacking, salads and baking.

Fuji – Pinky red with speckles on a yellow background. Crunchy, supersweet, mild-flavoured apple. The flesh browns quite quickly. Ideal for snacking, baking, sauces and juice.

Gala — Red/orange stripes on a yellow background. This crisp, aromatically sweet apple is becoming very popular and often most affordable. Ideal for snacking, salads, baking, sauces. Golden Delicious — Yellow- to golden-skinned apple that has been popular for a long time. Sweet, mellow flavour with crisp flesh and a tender skin. Ideal for snacking, salads, baking, sauces and juice.

Granny Smith — Bright-green large apple. Tart and firm with a pleasing crunch. Ideal for baking and any recipe where a tart, crisp bite is ideal.

Honey Crisp — Bright-red skin mottled with pale green. Crisp, sweet and juicy with a honey flavour that’s very popular, despite being one of the most expensive apples. Ideal for snacking, salads, baking, sauces and juice.

Jazz — Orange to red over a yellow to light-green background. Crunchy, juicy, crisp and dense with a sweet pear-like flavour. Ideal for snacking, salads, baking and sauces.

McIntosh — A classic red and green round apple with a thick yet tender peel. Soft flesh that’s juicy, tangy and sweet all at the same time. Ideal for snacking, salads, soups, sauces and any recipe where a soft apple that doesn’t hold its shape is required.

Pink Lady — A pink bumpy exterior on a yellow to green background. A crunchy texture with a tart taste and a sweet, “fizz-like” finish. Does not brown very quickly. Ideal for snacking, salads, baking and sauces.

Red Delicious — A classic heart- shaped, dark-red apple. One of the most economical apples but often found to be mealy and dry. At its best it has a crunchy texture and mildly sweet flavour. Ideal for snacking and salads. Smitten — A yellow apple with red streaks or blushes. Firm and crisp texture with a sweet, tangy and slightly spicy taste. Ideal for snacking, salads, baking and sauces.

Spartan — A small round apple with a dark-red blush over a green background. Fine textured, crisp, juicy and sweet with a bit of tartness. Similar to a McIntosh but retains its shape when cooked. Ideal for snacking, salads, baking, sauces and juice.

When it comes to cooking and baking with apples, don’t be afraid to mix and match varieties. Mixing tart and sweet, firm and tender, green and red apples in one dish adds visual interest as well as depth of flavour and texture.

Why not test that theory and some new apple varieties on one of these recipes from my new online apple cookbook?

Apple and Cranberry Cobbler

Filling

• 2 tbsp. flour
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 tbsp. butter, diced

Topping

• 1-1/2 c. flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 3 tbsp. sugar
• 5 tbsp. cold butter, diced
• 2/3 c. buttermilk*
• 1 tbsp. large-crystal sugar

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 F (205 C). Mix apples, cranberries, sugar, flour, cinnamon and lemon juice. Pour into 7×11-inch (2- to 2-1/2-quart) baking dish and top with butter.

Instructions

Mix flour, baking powder and sugar in large bowl. Cut in butter until mixture forms large crumbs. Add buttermilk and stir with fork until batter comes together. If batter is too thick add an extra tablespoon of milk.

Drop batter into 9 to 12 even dollops on top of apples.

Spread out slightly and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake for 45 minutes or until golden and baked through. Cool for 30 minutes to set.

*Substitute: Pour 1 tbsp. lemon juice in measuring cup, add milk to make 2/3 cup. Stir and rest for 15 minutes.

The post Manitoba Flavours: Discover your favourite apple appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Ingredients

• 4 tart apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
• 1/3 c. (80 ml) dark brown sugar
• 1 tsp. (5 ml) ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. (2 ml) ground nutmeg
• 2 tbsp. (30 ml) butter
• 6 slices applewood smoked bacon, cooked, drained and torn into small pieces
• 3 large eggs
• 1 c. (250 ml) milk
• 1/2 c. (125 ml) EACH all-purpose flour and whole wheat flour
• 2 tbsp. (30 ml) sugar
• 1 tsp. (5 ml) vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp. (2 ml) salt
• Maple syrup for drizzling

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425 F.

In large bowl, combine apple slices, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg; toss gently to coat. Set aside.

In 10-inch ovenproof or cast iron skillet, melt butter over medium heat; swirl to coat bottom and sides of skillet.

Arrange seasoned apple slices over bottom of skillet. Sprinkle with bacon pieces.

In small bowl, whisk together eggs and milk. Add flours, sugar, vanilla extract and salt; whisk until batter is smooth. Pour batter evenly over apples and bacon.

Place skillet in oven and bake, uncovered, 20-25 minutes.

Remove skillet from oven. Slide pancake onto serving platter and slice into wedges. Serve im- mediately.

Drizzle with maple syrup if desired.

Source: Manitoba Pork Council

Lentil Cakes with Creamy Horseradish Sauce

Lentil cakes

• 1 c. dried lentils
• 1/2 yellow onion, diced
• 1/2 green bell pepper, diced
• 1/2 rib celery, chopped
• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• 1/4 c. Dijon mustard
• 2 tbsp. lemon juice
• 1/2 bunch parsley, chopped
• 2 c. cooked rice Salt, to taste
• 1 c. ground bread crumbs or flour

Instructions

Place the lentils in a large pot and submerge, adding an additional 2 inches of water. Boil for 20 minutes, or until tender.

Sauté the onion, pepper, and celery in the olive oil until the onions are slightly browned.

In a medium bowl, combine the lentils, vegetable sauté, Dijon mustard, lemon juice, parsley, rice, and salt, then mash slightly. Form into small patties. Roll in the ground bread crumbs or flour, and refrigerate while preparing the sauce.

When the sauce is done, pan-fry each patty until nice and brown.

Horseradish sauce

• 1/4 c. mayonnaise or Vegenaise
• 1 tbsp. prepared horseradish
• 1/2 tsp. lemon juice
• 2 tsp. red pepper flakes
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

In a small bowl, whisk all the ingredients together until blended.

Serve with the lentil cakes.

Source: Manitoba Pulse and Soybean Growers Association

The post Manitoba Flavours: Baked Apple and Bacon Pancake appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

In the notice, which was seen by Reuters, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said the restrictions also apply to families of fruits that include apples, pears, cranberries, blueberries, peppers, potatoes and tomatoes. It was not clear if other countries are affected.

“Please note that the CFIA is working with industry to propose pest risk mitigation measures to the EU for these commodities, which may allow exports to resume,” said the notice.

The new European Union rules do not apply to frozen and dried fruit. There should also be no issues with sea containers that arrive in the EU with export documents dated before Sept. 1, the agency said.

The EU office in Ottawa and Canadian Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Canada’s agriculture sector already faces other trade disputes, including an ongoing spat with China over Canadian canola, pork and beef.

Beth Cavers, a program administrator with the B.C. Cherry Association, said the pending EU ban should not affect this year’s cherry harvest, which wrapped up on Thursday, as the fruit is packed and shipped immediately.

It could, however, have serious implications for the 2020 harvest if unresolved, she added.

“There were some indications that they were reviewing this, but we didn’t know they were just going to shut down the border to cherries like this,” Cavers said by telephone when asked if industry had received prior notice.

In 2018, Canada shipped about $3.1 million in cherries to the EU.

— Kelsey Johnson reports on Canadian economics for Reuters from Ottawa.

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Bosco de la Vega, head of Mexico’s national farm council CNA, told Reuters that such retaliatory measures should only be applied as a last resort and that he supports the Mexican government’s efforts to first seek a negotiated settlement to the dispute.

De la Vega criticized what he described as Trump’s unjustified “mistreatment” of Mexico by threatening the across-the-board tariffs on the country’s exports and emphasized that any potential retaliation should seek to cause the U.S. leader maximum political pain.

“In the unlikely event that (the U.S. tariffs are enacted), we will be supporting the government in surgically implementing tariffs aimed at farm products in Republican states,” he said.

Mexico has employed the strategy before as a means of pressuring Trump’s base of supporters in rural America, by seeking to convince them his policies are counterproductive.

Noting that Mexican officials are “drawing up a new map” of potential U.S. targets, de la Vega emphasized that such measures should only be taken as a last result after negotiations between both sides run their full course.

Nevertheless, the president of Mexico’s national farm council, which represents the country’s largest private sector agriculture and livestock companies, ticked off potential targets for the Mexican government’s possible retaliation, including U.S. grains like yellow corn, pork legs, apples, potatoes and whiskey.

“This would be a last resort and we have to wait to see if by June 10 they’ve solved it,” he said, referring to the date Trump said an initial five per cent tariff on all Mexican exports would take effect if Mexico fails to stop the flow of migrants into the United States.

“I’m betting that they’re going to solve it,” he added.

For decades, Mexico and the United States have engaged in complementary agricultural trade in which U.S. farmers sell large volumes of yellow corn and select meat cuts, for example, to buyers south of the border, while Mexican producers send products such as avocados and berries, among many others, north.

Last year, Mexico exported some US$26 billion in agricultural products to the United States, according to CNA data.

— Reporting for Reuters by David Alire Garcia and Sharay Angulo.

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Health Canada said as much Thursday as it released its final re-evaluation decisions for three neonic pesticides — re-evaluations dealing specifically with the products’ potential impacts on bees and other pollinators.

The department’s assessments of the three neonics — clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam — show “varying effects on bees and other pollinators from exposure to each of these pesticides.”

For those reasons, Health Canada said, its final decision calls for outright cancellation of some uses of the three neonics, mainly affecting the horticulture and tree fruit sectors.

For some other uses, the department plans to change conditions of use, such as “restricting the timing of application” and adding new “label statements” for uses such as cereal seed treatments.

Uses such as canola seed treatments and on greenhouse vegetables “are not expected to pose unacceptable risks to bees and other pollinators,” the agency said Thursday.

Crop protection industry group CropLife Canada hailed much of Health Canada’s announcement Thursday, saying it “affirm(s) the safety of neonics as a seed treatment and for many other uses.”

The department’s decision “confirms that in the vast majority of cases, neonics can be used effectively by farmers without unnecessary risk to pollinators,” CropLife CEO Pierre Petelle said in a statement via email.

Grain Farmers of Ontario CEO Barry Senft, in a separate statement, noted growers in that province “take several steps to protect pollinators on their farms and (Health Canada’s) decision shows that these efforts are working, as is the regulatory system that works to protect human health and the environment.”

Health Canada has been re-evaluating the three neonics since 2012 to” address growing concerns around bee health” and issued proposed decisions for clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam in December 2017, May 2018 and December 2017, respectively.

Neonic seed treatments, Petelle said, “represent an incredible innovation that has improved agricultural sustainability and limited exposure to non-target organisms due to the very precise application of the product on the seed.”

However, he warned, the planned new restrictions and cancellations Health Canada announced Thursday will leave many growers, particularly in the hort sector, “severely impacted.”

In many cases, he said, for those growers, “there are no viable alternatives… to control certain insect pests and removing neonics for growing certain horticulture crops like apples and cherries may jeopardize the viability of certain types of fruit and vegetable production in Canada.”

The decisions

For clothianidin, Health Canada’s final pollinator decision will cancel foliar application on orchard trees and strawberries and on municipal, industrial and residential turf sites. It also limits the number of foliar applications on cucurbit vegetables to one per season.

Also, “additional label statements” will be required for clothianidin seed treatment of cereal crops.

For imidacloprid, the final pollinator decision will cancel foliar application to pome fruit, stone fruit, certain tree nuts with “high pollinator attractiveness,” lavender and rosemary. It will also cancel soil application on legume, fruiting, and cucurbit vegetables when grown outdoors; herbs harvested after bloom; small fruit and berries (caneberry; bushberry; low-growing berry; berry and small fruit vine excluding grapes); and ornamentals that are “attractive to pollinators and planted outside.”

The department would also prohibit foliar spraying of imidacloprid before or during bloom on fruiting vegetables, herbs that are harvested after bloom, legume vegetables (broad beans, fava beans andVicia faba), berry crops (with renovation after harvest for woody berries), and tree nuts apart from those with high pollinator attractiveness.

Also, additional label statements will be required for imidacloprid seed treatment of cereal and legume crops.

For thiamethoxam, Health Canada proposes to cancel foliar and soil application on ornamental crops “that will result in pollinator exposure” — in other words, crops that are planted outdoors and attractive to pollinators. It will also cancel soil application for berry crops, cucurbit crops and fruiting vegetables, and foliar application to orchard trees.

Health Canada will also prohibit spraying of thiamethoxam before or during bloom in foliar application on legume and outdoor fruiting vegetables, and on berry crops, with “renovation required” for woody berries. Foliar application on sweet potato and potato would not be allowed during bloom.

Also, “additional label statements” for thiamethoxam will be required for seed treatments of cereal and legume crops.

Risks ‘not imminent’

Health Canada proposes to put all the above risk mitigation measures in place over a 24-month period. “The risks identified (to pollinators) are not considered imminent because they are not expected to cause irreversible harm over this period,” the department said.

Members of the public have 60 days from the final decisions’ publication date to file any notices of objection, Health Canada said.

The department also noted Thursday it already put risk mitigation measures in place in 2014 to help protect bees and other pollinators from exposure to neonic-laden dust kicked up during planting of treated seeds.

With the risk mitigation measures in place from 2014 onward, Health Canada said Thursday, the number of bee incidents in 2014, 2015 and 2016 were 70-80 per cent lower than in 2013. Further decline was seen in the number of incidents reported during planting in 2017 and 2018.

Health Canada on Thursday also granted that “other factors” such as favourable weather conditions might have also contributed to the reduction in bee “incidents” and bee deaths in the crop years since 2014.

Phase-outs still proposed

All this said, the agency’s final pollinator re-evaluation decisions have no bearing on Health Canada’s separate ongoing evaluations of the “potential risks to aquatic insects” from the use of neonics.

Final decisions on those evaluations are expected at the end of this year, Health Canada said Thursday — but the department also reiterated that current research shows neonics are “detected frequently in waterbodies at levels that could be harmful to certain aquatic organisms.”

Health Canada in 2016 proposed a phase-out of most uses of imidacloprid over three to five years after a routine re-evaluation by its Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) found imidacloprid showing up at levels harmful to certain aquatic insect populations such as mayflies and midges — a “critical food source” for fish, birds and other animals.

Special reviews for both clothianidin and thiamethoxam were announced in the wake of those findings on imidacloprid. Those reviews, released last summer, found both pesticides being measured at levels harmful to aquatic insects.

As a result, Health Canada also proposed last summer to cancel all outdoor (that is, non-greenhouse) agricultural and turf uses for clothianidin, and all outdoor agricultural and ornamental uses for thiamethoxam, over three to five years, depending on availability of alternatives.

In Canada, clothianidin is marketed by Bayer as insecticides and seed treatments under brand names including Poncho, Prosper, Titan and Sepresto and by Nufarm as NipsIt.

Thiamethoxam products include Cruiser and Helix, marketed by Syngenta, while imidacloprid is sold mainly by Bayer under brands such as Admire, Gaucho, Concept and Intercept. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Canada imposed tariffs on $16.6 billion worth of U.S. exports in May 2018 after Washington slapped punitive measures on exports of Canadian steel and aluminum. The initial Canadian list included orange juice, maple syrup, whiskey, toilet paper and a wide variety of other products.

“We are certainly constantly looking at ways to refresh the retaliation list … to have an even greater impact,” Freeland told reporters.

David MacNaughton, Canada’s ambassador to Washington, told U.S. agricultural reporters on Monday that Canada could announce a new list of targets as soon as next week, the Progressive Farmer and Politico websites, among others, reported.

The retaliation would include a significant number of agricultural products, possibly including apples, pork, ethanol and wine, they quoted the envoy as saying.

Freeland referred in general terms to MacNaughton’s remarks but did not mention the details he gave. A spokesman for the minister declined to comment further.

The Canadian embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for a copy of MacNaughton’s remarks.

— Reporting for Reuters by David Ljunggren in Ottawa.

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