4-H members celebrate by helping others

4-H clubs from across Canada are celebrating the organization’s 100th annivesary with a special partnership with Food Banks Canada. Clubs will provide support to local food banks through collection and delivery of food products as well as generating monetary donations, 4-H Canada announced May 28 at an event at the Manitoba legislature. The organization got

Half-step for Product of Canada labels

Agriculture Canada is stepping up its promotion of a Canada Brand program to help identify Canadian food products for consumers at home and abroad. The government is supporting pilot projects in a select group of stores across the country with Canadian products marked with a special red maple leaf label. But the program only works


Farm groups offer cautious support to Europe trade deal

As a posse of Harper cabinet ministers and MPs fanned out across the country to round up support for a free trade deal with Europe (CETA), several farm groups offered carefully worded backing for more trans-Atlantic trade. However, as the details of the trade deal are still being negotiated, the groups carefully stuck to the

Federal food laws face overhaul

The Harper government is putting the finishing touches to a major revamp of federal food laws to make processors and manufacturers more responsible for food safety while inspectors focus on the risky segments of the business. Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz is expected to present the legislation, known unofficially as the Food Act, to Parliament sometime


CFIA applies new rules to food importers

Two years after admitting that it didn’t have a registry of food importers, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is finally proposing to introduce a licensing regime for the estimated 25,000 businesses, which bring foreign-made food or beverages into Canada. The government announced a Food and Consumer Safety Action Plan in 2007, which was to include measures

Province hopes good things will be cooking in Swan River

The province expects entrepreneurs will be cooking up some innovation in Swan River’s new food-processing centre. The government has spent $80,000 to outfit a former meeting room of the War Veterans Community Hall on 6th St. N. — part of a pilot project to provide entrepreneurs from northern communities with the opportunity to test and


U.S. lapping up Canadian canola oil

Reuters / Canada’s canola crushers are processing the oilseed at a record-brisk pace, as demand for canola oil heats up among U.S. makers of biodiesel and food products like potato chips. The United States has long been a key export market for canola, Canada’s second-biggest crop after spring wheat, but its appetite has spiked in



Farm groups applaud start of trade talks with Japan

Farm and food industry groups were quick to praise the launch of negotiations for a Canada-Japan free trade deal by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Japanese counterpart Yoshihiko Noda. Japan is the third-largest economy in the world and is Canada’s second-largest agriculture market. The market is worth almost $4 billion for Canadian farmers and

Food panel releases first study results

Eating out appears to be a once-a-week occasion for most Manitobans. We have strong views about local food but differing definitions of what “local” means. Most of us have never eaten buckwheat, hemp or flax-based foods. And while a little over 40 per cent of Manitobans buy organic food, an equal number don’t think organic