Chicken Farm

Supply-managed groups pressuring government to address border issues

Unnecessary ingredients added to milk products to skirt tariffs and quotas

The Trudeau government is facing growing pressure from farm groups to improve border regulations and enforcement around supply-managed commodities. The issue has been boiling over in recent days as the sector has felt growing pressure over European and Pacific trade deals. Poultry producers pounded federal border rules and the Canada Border Services Agency during hearings

Miriam Sweetnam came to Canada from Ireland with her family 15 years ago because of the protection and opportunities offered by Canada’s quota system. Today she farms near Winkler, just north of the U.S. border.

Trade deal promises both problems and possibilities for Canadian farmers

Glacier FarmMedia Special Report: CETA is a household word on Canadian farms, but in Europe not so much

Glacier FarmMedia assembled a team of reporters from its network of publications, which includes the Manitoba Co-operator, to examine the implications of Canada’s new trade deal with the European Union on Canadian agriculture and food processing. In coming weeks, watch for a series of articles that zero in on the challenge Canadian agriculture faces turning


Miriam Sweetnam remains optimistic about her family’s future in the dairy business.

Dairy farmers see CETA as a sign of the future

Glacier FarmMedia Special Report: The industry knows it must adapt and hopes proposed compensation packages will help

Glacier FarmMedia assembled a team of reporters from its network of publications, which includes the Manitoba Co-operator, to examine the implications of Canada’s new trade deal with the European Union on Canadian agriculture and food processing. In coming weeks, watch for a series of articles that zero in on the challenge Canadian agriculture faces turning

Winnipeg Galina Beilis is the owner of Dairy Fairy, a small-batch cheese company, making a traditional cheese at the University of Manitoba’s Dairy Plant.

Winnipegger introducing a new ‘old’ cheese to the market

Dairy Fairy cheese maker Galina Beilis has eaten this fresh cheese since she was a child. Now she’s making a business producing and selling it

Galina Beilis’s cheese might be new to Man­itoba, but as she’ll tell you, there’s really nothing new about it. The recipe is as simple as it is old. Farmers and villagers have been making it for centuries and it dates back to the discovery of milk going sour when you left it at a warm


The TPP attacks democracy and supply management

The TPP attacks democracy and supply management

Increasing imports of U.S. milk would be blended with Canadian product

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is designed to entrench the interests of foreign corporations at the expense of our sovereignty and democratic processes. Its Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanism gives foreign corporations the right to sue our government if they believe future profits will be reduced as a result of democratically enacted measures. ISDS puts



Social licence requires animal welfare

Social licence requires animal welfare

Don’t expect cows to be sleeping at the foot of the bed any time soon, 
but farm animals are being extended new welfare consideration

It was an uncomfortable moment for producers at the annual Manitoba Dairy Conference, held in Winnipeg earlier this month. It was an image of downer cows, about to be shot at an American slaughter plant, displayed during a presentation by Jennifer Walker to bring home the message that just because something has become routine, doesn’t

“Certainly there are benefits to reinvesting some of this money, but we also have to bear in mind producers on every farm in the country will be taking an economic hit.”
 – David Wiens

Government expropriation of dairy ‘assets’ requires compensation

A resolution to pass on personal compensation in favour of market development was defeated

It’s been called a handout, a subsidy and even a bailout. Proposed compensation for supply-managed commodities as Canada signed on to the Trans-Pacific Partnership has garnered much negative publicity, prompting some Manitoba dairy producers to put forward a bold proposal for farmers to reject cash payments. Instead, they want to see the money — should



Federal government reviews TPP compensation to dairy sector

Federal government reviews TPP compensation to dairy sector

Will the new government follow through on Conservative promises to toughen border controls on milk substitutes and ban imports of milk from cows treated with the rBST?

Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland’s statement that the federal government is reviewing the $4.3-billion dairy compensation package announced by the former government as part of its Pacific trade deal doesn’t alarm Dairy Farmers of Canada. A review “makes sense if the government is going to consult Canadians about the impact” of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Yves Ruel,