Screengrab from a 2018 video showing cold storage at the JBS beef slaughter and packing plant at Brooks, Alta. (JBS video via YouTube)

JBS plants reopen as White House blames Russia over hack

Washington/Chicago | Reuters — JBS SA employees started returning to U.S. meat plants on Wednesday, a day after the company’s beef operations stopped following a ransomware attack, disrupting meat production in North America and Australia. A notorious Russia-linked hacking group is behind the cyberattack against JBS, a source familiar with the matter said. Brazil’s JBS

(JBSFoodCanada.ca)

Ransomware attack on JBS halts Canadian, U.S. slaughter

Cyberattack likely from Russia, White House says

Chicago/Aboard Air Force One | Reuters — Brazil’s JBS SA told the U.S. government that a ransomware attack on the company that has disrupted meat production in North America and Australia originated from a criminal organization likely based in Russia, the White House said on Tuesday. JBS is the world’s largest meatpacker and the cyberattack



Barley south of Ethelton, Sask. on July 30, 2019. (Dave Bedard photo)

WTO creates panel in China-Australia barley row

Sydney/Geneva | Reuters — The World Trade Organization (WTO) agreed on Friday to establish a dispute settlement panel to resolve a row over anti-dumping and countervailing duties imposed by China on Australian barley, a trade source attending the meeting said. Australia launched a formal appeal to the WTO last year, seeking a review of China’s



Mice can cause significant damage to on-farm grain storage, with contamination of grain with mouse droppings even leading to rejection by grain distributors and exporters.

Comment: ‘No one ever forgets living through a mouse plague’

The dystopia facing Australian rural communities, explained by an expert

Imagine constantly living with mice. Every time you open a cupboard to get linen, clothes or food, mice have been or are still there. When you go to sleep they run across your bed and, in the morning, your first job is to empty traps filled with dead mice. And the stench of dead mice


Fire, flood and drought have all been part of the Australian agriculture experience in the past year, causing a rising recognition of the perils of global warming.

Aussie farmers cutting carbon to stay competitive

Two growers presenting to an international conference say this is a response to growing demand in premium markets

While many Canadian farmers say policies to reduce carbon emissions will make them uncompetitive, Aussie producers are setting ambitious climate mitigation goals to meet international customers’ growing demand for sustainable food. “The (Australian) agriculture industry has really led this and has been pushing for these sorts of policy changes… ” Richard Heath, executive director of

CBOT May 2021 soybeans (candlesticks) with 20- and 50-day moving averages and CBOT May 2021 soyoil (black line). (Barchart)

U.S. grains: Soyoil leads soybean complex higher

Wheat follows corn, soy higher

Chicago | Reuters — Chicago soybean futures climbed on Tuesday, led by rising soybean oil as global edible oil supplies tighten. Corn futures also moved higher, as traders weighed Brazil’s late-planted second crop against beneficial rains in Argentina. Wheat followed the markets higher, despite much-needed rainfall across the U.S. Plains production belt. The most-active soybean


A barley crop south of Ethelton, Sask. on July 30, 2019. (Dave Bedard photo)

China’s appetite for feed barley sucks in new crop from Canada, France

Tariff on Australian barley favours other suppliers

Paris | Reuters — China’s buying spree of French and Canadian barley is spilling into the 2021-22 crop with large forward purchases, due to its major feed grain needs and a prohibitive tariff on Australian barley, traders and analysts said. China has been sweeping up huge volumes of foreign crops to help feed a pig

(PaulCowan/iStock/Getty Images)

U.K. to ask to join Trans-Pacific trading bloc ‘shortly’

Bilateral deals signed or in works with several CPTPP members

London | Reuters — Britain will soon submit its application to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) trade bloc, trade minister Liz Truss said on Wednesday. Since deciding to leave the European Union, a process it completed at the end of 2020, Britain has been seeking out new trading arrangements around