U.S. Farmers Plant Huge Crops As Stocks Dwindle

U.S. farmers say they will plant some of the biggest corn and soybean crops ever this spring, racing to keep pace with unrelenting global demand that’s rapidly depleting stockpiles and driving up food costs. A government survey found corn plantings would be the second largest since the Second World War and soybeans the third highest

CWB Repeats Its Conditions For Approving GM Wheat

A number of conditions must be met before the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) will support the introduction of genetically modified (GM) wheat in Canada. “We feel there needs to be rules put into place,” District 10 CWB director Bill Toews told farmers here last month. “Before any of that happens there has to be an


Food Projects Receive Funding

Aproject to develop food production and leadership skills among northern Manitoba youth is among the projects supported through a recent $1-million federal research grant for alternative food research. In February 2010 the federal government allocated a $1-million Community University Research Alliance (CURA) grant to help set up and run action-oriented research projects in Manitoba that

Youth Travel To Guatemala To Learn About Food Security

Ten youth from across Canada will travel to Guatemala in May to learn first hand about food security issues. The 15-day food tour put on by the Canadian Foodgrains Bank is focused on food justice issues. Guatemala is among the 10 poorest countries in Latin America and it is estimated half of the population lives


New Chair, Directors For Manitoba Rural Adaptation Council

The Mani toba Rural Adaptation Council is looking to expand its mandate and find new ways to serve rural Manitoba, says the council’s new chair. “I think we can take the talent that’s around the table, and do an awful lot more for Manitoba,” said Shelley Curé, a dairy producer from St. Pierre- Jolys, who

Buying Clubs

Once a month a delivery truck pulls up in front of Anna Weier’s Winnipeg home on Langside containing pre-ordered packages of meat, jars of honey, bags of grain and other farm-grown produce. Over the next hour people pull up to Anna’s house, to collect and pay for their purchases. They chat with each other and


More Than Six Million Need Food Aid In N. Korea

More than six million people in North Korea urgently need food aid because of substantial falls in domestic production, food imports and international aid, the United Nations said May 25. In a report providing a rare glimpse into the reclusive communist state, where a famine in the 1990s killed an estimated one million people, three

In Brief… – for Mar. 31, 2011

Data collection:Rural community foundations will benefit from federal funds helping them collect annual data on how their communities are surviving. Vital Signs portraits measure the vitality of local communities using selected social and economic trends and evaluating areas having a significant impact on the quality of life, such as health, environment and education. A $200,000


U.S. FDA Will Step Up Food Inspections From Japan

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said March 17 it was working on new steps to ensure food imports from Japan were safe as that country works to contain radiation from stricken nuclear power facilities. “As FDA assesses whether there is a potential health risk associated with FDA-regulated food products imported from Japan, the agency

N. Korea Must Step Up Fight On Foot-And-Mouth — FAO

North Korea’s capacity to detect and contain outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease in livestock needs significant strengthening, the UN food agency FAO and the world animal health body OIE said Mar. 24. The FAO and the OIE, which sent a joint mission in the reclusive communist state in late February-early March, said FMD cases have been