Ron Kostyshyn, who from 2012 to 2016 was then-premier Greg Selinger’s ag minister while serving as MLA for the northwestern riding of Swan River, was sworn in Wednesday as minister of agriculture in Kinew’s 15-member cabinet.

Kostyshyn, who reclaimed the Dauphin riding for the New Democrats in the Oct. 3 election, ran a family mixed farm for four decades and came to provincial politics after serving as reeve and on council in the municipality of Mossey River.

His resume also includes stints as a board member with the Association of Manitoba Municipalities, Manitoba Conservation Commission, Intermountain Conservation District, Ethelbert District Veterinary Board and Farm Stewardship Association of Manitoba.

As ag minister, Kostyshyn replaces Derek Johnson, who on Oct. 3 held his riding of Interlake-Gimli for Heather Stefanson’s Progressive Conservatives. The PCs head back to the opposition benches when the provincial legislature resumes sitting next month.

Among other appointments Wednesday of interest to farmers, Kinew was also sworn in as minister of intergovernmental affairs. Keewatinook MLA Ian Bushie, the former transportation and infrastructure critic, was named minister for municipal and northern relations and for Indigenous economic development.

St. Vital MLA Jamie Moses, previously the opposition critic for advanced education, becomes Kinew’s minister for economic development, investment, trade and natural resources.

Tracy Schmidt, a rookie NDP MLA for the northeast Winnipeg riding of Rossmere, was named Kinew’s minister for environment and climate change, while Wolseley MLA Lisa Naylor, previously the NDP’s environment and municipal relations critic, will be minister of transportation and infrastructure.

Kostyshyn’s past experience as agriculture minister and in farming “should provide confidence that Manitoba producers will continue to have a voice at the cabinet table when key decisions are being made that affect their farm operations,” Keystone Agricultural Producers general manager Brenna Mahoney said in a KAP release Wednesday.

Rick Préjet, chair of Manitoba Pork, said in a separate release that the hog producer organization aims to work with the new minister to “build on the collaborative working relationship we have developed with the department over the last number of years, and to ensure that the conditions for growth in agriculture and the hog sector remain in place for many years to come.”

“Having that agricultural and rural perspective around is very important to our members,” Manitoba Beef Producers president Matthew Atkinson said, adding the group hopes to work with the new minster and cabinet “on a variety of matters related to our sector and capturing the opportunities related to it.”

Among those matters, MBP said, are “equitable and responsive business risk management programs to ensure beef producers are on a level playing field with other sectors” as well as the agricultural crown lands leasing program; water management strategies; recognition for ecosystem services; infrastructure needs such as rural connectivity; trade opportunities; and labour supply challenges.

The Wheat Growers Association, in a separate release, said Kostyshyn’s “return to the office that he has previously held will ensure a speedy transition into this role.”

“Meeting the challenges of modern agriculture is a challenge for all of us, but the results are a worthwhile goal,” WGA president Gunter Jochum said. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Greg Morrow, the new MLA for Guysborough-Tracadie, was sworn in Tuesday along with the other members of Houston’s 19-member cabinet.

Houston’s Tories ousted Iain Rankin’s Liberal government in the Aug. 17 provincial election, scoring a majority with 31 of 55 seats, followed by the Liberals with 17, New Democrats with six and one former Tory returning as an independent.

For his part, Morrow unseated incumbent Liberal MLA and transportation minister Lloyd Hines in Guysborough-Tracadie by a spread of 1,710 votes.

Morrow, who lives at Tracadie, until now has been news director for 101.5 The Hawk, an FM station at nearby Port Hawkesbury on Cape Breton Island.

Where the previous ag minister, the Liberals’ Keith Colwell, had responsibility for fisheries and aquaculture also, Houston has separated those duties, assigning the fisheries and aquaculture file to Steve Craig, the Tory MLA for Sackville-Cobequid since 2019.

Retired vegetable and hort crop grower John Lohr, the returning MLA for Kings North and the Tories’ incumbent agriculture critic, was named Tuesday as minister for municipal affairs and housing, also with responsibility for the Emergency Management Office and military relations.

Another former Tory ag critic, returning Cumberland South MLA Tory Rushton, was named Tuesday as minister for natural resources and renewables, combining two former departments: Lands and Forestry, and Energy and Mines.

“This team will be focused on taking action on the things Nova Scotians have clearly told us are important to them,” Houston said Tuesday in a release.

Morrow, during his nomination in June, said Houston “is a leader who does more than criticize the government. He has offered common-sense ideas about what should be done every step of the way, and I’m excited to help bring those plans forward.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Ford on Friday announced a major cabinet shuffle, dropping Hardeman, the long-time MPP for Oxford, from the cabinet table and naming Lisa Thompson as minister for agriculture, food and rural affairs.

Thompson, who until Friday was Ford’s minister of government and consumer services, has been MPP for the western Ontario riding of Huron-Bruce since 2011. She previously served as minister of education (2018-19) and in opposition critic portfolios such as international trade (2017-18) and environment (2014-17).

Thompson lives on a family farm near Teeswater, about 100 km northwest of Kitchener, where she and her husband raise purebred Boer goats. She served as general manager for the Ontario Dairy Goat Co-operative before entering provincial politics.

Thompson’s resume also includes a degree in economics and study in the Advanced Agricultural Leadership Program at the University of Guelph, plus certification from the George Morris Centre executive development program at U of G’s Ontario Agricultural College. She also previously chaired the Ontario 4-H Foundation and served as vice-chair for Ontario Agri-Food Education Inc.

Thompson “understands the need of rural communities and farmers, and we know she will look for new ways of supporting and helping grow farm businesses and rural economies,” Grain Farmers of Ontario chair Brendan Byrne said in a separate release Friday.

“With COVID disruptions, trade disputes, volatile markets and high levels of business risk for farmers, Ontario agriculture needs a strong voice and advocate who understands farmers and farming businesses,” GFO CEO Crosby Devitt said in the same release.

The Ontario Federation of Agriculture on Friday also hailed Thompson’s appointment. As government and consumer services minister, she was a “key partner” in addressing concerns with the provincial Not-for-Profit Corporations Act and its “potential negative impacts on (OFA’s) democratic structure,” the organization said.

Thompson “has a valuable understanding of farm and rural issues and has a direct connection to those communities,” OFA president Peggy Brekveld said in a separate release.

Ford’s shuffled cabinet includes himself and 23 ministers plus five associate ministers.

“As we continue our work to rebuild and support Ontario’s health system, our renewed team is well positioned to deliver on the priorities that matter to Ontarians, including getting more people back to work, making life more affordable, supporting businesses and job creators and building transit infrastructure,” he said Friday.

Hardeman, the MPP for Oxford since 1995, served stints as then-premier Mike Harris’ agriculture minister (1999-2001), the Tories’ opposition agriculture critic (2003-05, 2008-14), and Ford’s ag minister from mid-2018 up until Friday.

Before entering provincial politics, Hardeman owned and operated Hardeman Feed at Salford, Ont., east of London, from 1966 to 1995 and chaired the Rural Ontario Municipal Association (ROMA) in 1993 and 1994.

“We engaged regularly with Minister Hardeman over the past few years and wholeheartedly appreciate his passion for agriculture and his desire to see our dynamic industry grow, innovate and move forward,” OFA’s Brekveld said Friday.

Other appointments in Friday’s shuffle of interest to farmers include Northumberland-Peterborough South MPP Dave Piccini as environment and conservation minister and Kenora-Rainy River MPP Greg Rickford as natural resources minister.

Rickford’s portfolio now involves a “merged role” also including northern development, mines and forestry, and he remains minister for Indigenous affairs. “This new northern- and economic-focused ministry will enhance development potential and sustainability in the north,” the government said Friday.

Energy, meanwhile, will become a separate ministry handled by Todd Smith, MPP for Bay of Quinte. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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“The exit from glyphosate is coming. Conservationists have been working toward this for a long time. Glyphosate kills everything that is green and takes away insects’ basis for life,” environment minister Svenja Schulze said in a statement.

Farmers have criticized the planned law, saying it puts the livelihoods of family-run farms at risk and that bans would be less effective in fostering biodiversity than cooperation between farmers and conservationists.

Glyphosate, first developed by Bayer’s Monsanto under the Roundup brand, has generated intense global debate over its safety since a World Health Organization agency concluded in 2015 that it probably causes cancer.

While regulators worldwide have determined glyphosate to be safe, Bayer agreed in June to settle nearly 100,000 U.S. lawsuits for US$10.9 billion, denying claims that Roundup caused cancer.

Under the draft German legislation, the use of herbicides and insecticides that could harm bees will be banned from certain areas. In addition, new installations of certain types of lights will be forbidden to reduce light pollution.

Joachim Rukwied, head of the German farmers’ association, said the proposed legislation was the wrong way to achieve more environmental protection, adding: “A partnership between agriculture and conservation, with joint goals, measures and incentives, would be more promising.”

The law needs to be passed by both the Bundestag lower house and the Bundesrat upper house which represents the interests of the 16 regional governments in Germany, a process that typically takes several months.

— Reporting for Reuters by Maria Sheahan.

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Trudeau’s hand was forced when Innovations Minister Navdeep Bains, 43, unexpectedly announced he was resigning from politics for family reasons. Bains, who has two school-age daughters and had been in the job since November 2015, was a senior minister from Ontario, a Liberal stronghold.

Canadian prime ministers traditionally shuffle their team if a cabinet member says they will not run in the next election.

Francois-Philippe Champagne, 50, will leave the foreign ministry to take over for Bains. Marc Garneau, 71, moved from transport to become Canada’s fourth foreign minister in just over four years.

Garneau’s main tasks will be establishing relations with the incoming Biden administration in the U.S. and handling a major diplomatic dispute with China.

One of Champagne’s first jobs will be to decide whether to allow China’s Huawei Technologies to supply next-generation equipment for 5G networks. Liberal sources say Ottawa will ban Huawei gear but is keeping silent so as not to anger Beijing.

Omar Alghabra, 51, will replace Garneau at transport and Winnipeg MP Jim Carr rejoins cabinet as a special representative for the Prairies, where the Liberals failed to win seats in the last election.

Alghabra, a backbench Liberal MP for Mississauga (2006-08, 2015-present), now takes responsibility for federal transport policy, significant to rail-dependent Prairie grain growers and to exporters moving Canadian commodities overseas.

A mechanical engineer by profession, he has previously served in several parliamentary secretary posts, including international trade diversification and consular affairs.

Carr, 69, had been minister for international trade diversification heading into the October 2019 federal election, but stepped down from cabinet at that time to undergo cancer treatment.

Trudeau said last week there could well be an election this year but stressed he wanted to stay in office to focus on the coronavirus epidemic.

— Reporting for Reuters by Steve Scherer and David Ljunggren in Ottawa. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

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Provincial opposition leader Ryan Meili on Tuesday announced Trent Wotherspoon, the MLA for Regina Rosemont since 2007, as the NDP’s critic for agriculture as well as finance, SaskTel, Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corp. (SCIC) and the province’s Crown Investments Corporation.

Wotherspoon was returned to office in the Oct. 26 general election by a spread of 1,580 votes over Saskatchewan Party challenger Alex Nau.

A teacher before entering politics, Wotherspoon also previously served as a director for Regina’s Warehouse Business Improvement District. In the legislature, he also previously served as interim opposition leader and as critic for portfolios including education and Crown corporations.

As ag critic he replaces Yens Pedersen, who on Oct. 26 lost his seat for Regina Northeast against Saskatchewan Party challenger Gary Grewal by a spread of 450 votes.

When the legislature reconvenes, Wotherspoon will face David Marit, who Premier Scott Moe re-appointed Monday as minister for agriculture and SCIC.

Marit, MLA for the southwestern riding of Wood River since 2016, has handled the ag file since 2018, when Lumsden-Morse MLA Lyle Stewart stepped down from the ag post to undergo treatment for cancer.

Stewart also returned to the provincial cabinet Monday as provincial secretary and as legislative secretary to the premier responsible for provincial autonomy.

The provincial secretary’s office handles matters relating to official protocol, provincial honours and awards and French language services. Stewart’s role as legislative secretary, Moe said, “will focus on areas where Saskatchewan can exercise and strengthen our provincial autonomy within the Canadian federation.”

Among other cabinet posts of interest to producers, Don Morgan was shuffled Monday to become minister responsible for “all major Crown corporations” including SaskWater, SaskPower, SaskEnergy, SGI, SaskTel and SaskGaming.

Joe Hargrave has also been shuffled to become minister for highways and the Saskatchewan Water Security Agency, and Warren Kaeding to become environment minister.

Jeremy Harrison was re-appointed Monday as minister of trade, while Everett Hindley, MLA for Swift Current since a 2018 byelection, enters cabinet as minister for mental health and addictions, seniors and rural and remote health. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Premier Blaine Higgs, whose new Progressive Conservative cabinet was sworn in Tuesday in Fredericton, appointed Margaret Johnson, the newly elected MLA for the northwestern electoral district of Carleton-Victoria, to handle the ag and fisheries files.

In last month’s provincial election — which saw the Tories lock in a majority after unseating a minority Liberal government through a non-confidence motion in 2018 — Johnson defeated the Liberals’ Andrew Harvey by a spread of 391 votes.

Harvey, a former ag minister, had held the riding through two elections, previously defeating Johnson by 244 votes in 2018.

Johnson, on a party website, noted she has lived in Carleton County for nearly five decades and is now “striving to meet my constituents and not only address their needs but become part of the larger community of Carleton-Victoria.”

Johnson’s resume beyond schoolteaching includes community activity such as teaching Sunday school, leading Sparks and Brownies, fundraising for Children’s Wish and the Canadian Cancer Society’s Relay for Life, and involvement in the arts, Rotary and managing hockey teams.

Gagetown-Petitcodiac MLA Ross Wetmore, Higgs’ incumbent ag and fisheries minister since November 2018, was not named Tuesday to the new 16-member Tory cabinet.

“Our government has a plan to strengthen the economy, improve public services and enhance the quality of life for all New Brunswickers,” Higgs said in a release Tuesday. “This will ensure that when we emerge from this pandemic, New Brunswick is stronger than ever.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The document, released on Sunday, comes amid a heightened focus on food security by Beijing, with coronavirus outbreaks overseas impacting food exporters, and ongoing tensions with top trade partners raising concerns about supplies.

The document did not mention a timeframe for achieving its target.

China, the world’s top pork consumer, has been almost fully self-sufficient in pork in the past, with imports averaging around one per cent of production from 2000 through 2018.

But imports of more than two million tonnes reached almost 10 per cent of consumption in the first half of this year, after domestic output plunged following a devastating epidemic of the deadly hog disease known as African swine fever.

Beijing has repeatedly said it expects its herd to return to normal levels by next year, and has unleashed a raft of measures to encourage producers to build new farms.

The cabinet also said it was aiming to supply about 85 per cent of its beef and lamb, more than 70 per cent of its milk and remain fully self-sufficient in eggs and poultry.

The targets are little changed with the current levels, although the rate for beef looks “difficult to achieve,” said Pan Chenjun, senior analyst at Rabobank.

Beef imports as a portion of total consumption levels have been increasing substantially each year for some time, reaching about 25 per cent in 2019, with domestic output unable to keep up with surging demand from China’s fast-growing middle class.

The document also said China would expand the range of countries from which it imports meat and meat products to “supplement and adjust the domestic market supply.”

The document highlighted several areas of focus to make its livestock sector more competitive, including improving prevention and control of disease, strengthening its animal breeding programs and promoting domestic production of forage crops.

It called for the support of both large-scale farms and small farmers and reiterated earlier plans to reduce the long-distance transport of livestock to slaughterhouses by building more processing facilities near farms.

— Dominique Patton reports on China’s ag sector for Reuters from Beijing.

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Tory leader Andrew Scheer included that promise Sept. 7 in announcing a list of “specific measures he will take as prime minister to help rural communities across the country,” in the lead-up to a federal election on Oct. 21.

Rural issues have only recently returned to the federal cabinet, when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in January named Nova Scotia MP Bernadette Jordan as minister for a newly created portfolio, rural economic development.

Asked via email how a Tory government’s rural affairs file would compare in scope to Jordan’s rural economic development portfolio, a federal Conservative Party spokesperson replied that a rural affairs minister’s mandate “would cover all issues facing rural Canadians and would be a rural voice at the cabinet table.”

A rural affairs minister’s scope, the party added, would include “issues such as rural crime, ensuring more stability for our agriculture sector, and providing more access to high-speed internet.”

By comparison, the Conservatives said via email, Trudeau “appointed a rural economic development minister in an election year in a desperate ploy to hold onto seats” after “completely ignoring rural Canadians and their communities for three years.”

Rural planks announced last month in Scheer’s platform also include “ensur(ing) that all regions receive their fair share of infrastructure funding with a budget specifically for them.”

The party said it would also ensure “all cabinet decisions have a rural perspective” and that government programs “consider the life conditions and unique experiences of Canadians in rural regions.”

Scheer on Sept. 7 also pledged that in a Tory government, a Quebec MP would be named as responsible for the federal agency for the economic development of the regions of Quebec.

Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions (CED), like Ottawa’s other regional economic development agencies, today operates as an arm of the Innovation, Science and Economic Development portfolio. In the Trudeau government, Mississauga-area MP Navdeep Bains is that portfolio’s incumbent minister.

Canada’s last cabinet-level minister for rural issues, up until Jordan’s appointment in January, was Charlie Mayer, who in Kim Campbell’s Progressive Conservative government in 1993 served as minister for small communities and rural areas, as well as minister of agriculture.

Further back, rural issues had their own minister-level portfolio only in the 1960s, when Maurice Sauve and Jean Marchand served as ministers on what was then known as the forestry and rural development file, in the Liberal governments of Lester Pearson and Pierre Trudeau respectively.

Since then, parties including the Liberals, Tories, New Democrats and Bloc Quebecois have had specific critics for rural affairs, rural development or rural solidarity while serving on the opposition benches, with or without a cabinet-level counterpart on the government side. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Trump held a two-hour meeting on Monday with members of his cabinet after hearing blowback from farmers after the decision to grant exemptions from the nation’s biofuel laws to 31 refineries, two sources familiar with the discussions said.

It was unclear what actions Trump would be able to take to appease angry farmers. Reversing the waivers is not an option, the sources said, but the administration is trying to find other ways to boost ethanol demand.

Refiners are required to blend biofuels into the nation’s gasoline pool or buy credits to fund those who can. Corn farmers and ethanol producers lobbied to cut dramatically the number of exemptions from these rules, which have hit a record under the Trump administration.

Farmers bearing the brunt of Trump’s trade with China say his support of the hardship waivers has destroyed ethanol demand.

Refiners, especially smaller companies, have argued the biofuel laws are costly and overly burdensome. Trump’s expansion of the waiver program has saved the oil industry billions of dollars in compliance costs. On Tuesday, the EPA said in a statement that there was “zero evidence” that the refinery waivers have hurt demand for ethanol, which biofuels producers dispute.

The nation’s largest ethanol producer, POET, announced on Tuesday that it was cutting production at its plants and blamed the hardship waivers for the move.

“POET made strategic decisions to support President Trump’s goal of boosting the farm economy. However, these goals are contradicted by bailouts to oil companies. The result is pain for Midwest farmers and the reduction of hundreds of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars of economic activity across Indiana,” said POET president Jeff Lautt.

Monday’s meeting included representatives from the U.S. Departments of Energy and Agriculture, as well as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the sources said. The White House declined to comment.

Prior to Trump’s term, just a few smaller refineries were granted relief from this requirement. Trump’s administration has vastly expanded those waivers, including granting relief to facilities run by oil giants Exxon Mobil and Chevron. Trump personally directed the EPA to grant the most recent waivers, sources told Reuters.

“Not only is the government not keeping its word, but it’s also screwing the farmer when we have low prices for (corn),” said Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican, on a weekly call he holds to discuss agricultural issues.

The EPA granted the exemptions just as Democratic candidates hoping to challenge Trump in 2020 visited the Iowa State Fair, where they sought to position themselves as fighters for ethanol.

Iowa is the nation’s largest producer of corn and ethanol; President Barack Obama won the state handily twice before it swung heavily to Trump in 2016.

Kelly Nieuwenhuis, a third-generation corn and soybean farmer from O’Brien County in Iowa, a deeply Republican part of the state, said he voted for Trump in 2016 but his support for the president is waning.

“I have talked to a bunch of farmers in the past few days, and they are fed up. They are not going to vote for Elizabeth Warren, but they said they are not going to vote for Trump, so they will sit this out,” Nieuwenhuis said.

Trump delivered on a long-sought change lifting a summer ban on higher-ethanol blends of gasoline, but farmers and ethanol producers say the refining exemptions have negated any benefits from that move.

— Reporting for Reuters by Jarrett Renshaw and Humeyra Pamuk; additional reporting by Stephanie Kelly and Chris Prentice.

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