File photo of laker vessels navigating the Welland Canal. (JonathanNicholls/iStock/Getty Images)

Seaway strike backs up Ontario grain

Prairie grain may follow suit if strike backs up traffic via Thunder Bay, GFO warns

The nature of eastern Canadian grain logistics, and a strike by St. Lawrence Seaway workers who operate the system’s canals, will see cascading impacts across the system if the situation isn’t resolved quickly, according to Crosby Devitt, CEO of Grain Farmers of Ontario. Unifor workers in both Ontario and Quebec walked off the job Sunday


A wheat crop in progress on May 24, 2016 north of London, Ont. (Ralph Pearce photo)

Grain Farmers of Ontario to wind down wheat pool

Programs to end after 2020 marketing year

The remnants of Ontario farmers’ former single wheat marketing desk are set to disappear at the end of the 2020 crop marketing year. Grain Farmers of Ontario, which inherited the pooling system from one of its heritage organizations, the Ontario Wheat Producers’ Marketing Board, announced Tuesday it will wind down its wheat pool and its

Canadian potato growers could soon benefit from the AgriRecovery program, and a surplus food-buying program for food banks.

Details on food buyback coming soon

Market disruptions are widespread, the federal agriculture minister says

The Canadian government is close to announcing more details on its program to buy surplus food, such as potatoes, Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau told reporters during a video conference on June 9. “It’s a matter of days before we inform everyone of the criteria of the programs but we have already started to work with the different industries that have services that

Members of Grain Farmers of Ontario sport a banner outside a provincial cabinet minister’s office in 2015. (File photo by Ralph Pearce)

GFO quits Grain Growers of Canada

Grain Farmers of Ontario flags national group's 'governance' and structure

Grain Farmers of Ontario has dropped out of Grain Growers of Canada. The Ontario organization, which represents about 28,000 barley, corn, oat, soybean and wheat farmers in the province, cited a lack of representation in the national policy group. GFO publicly announced its withdrawal in a news release on Thursday, days after it informed the


Grain Farmers of Ontario celebrates a decade together

Merging gave the group greater resilience and resources, its leaders say

Ten years after its formation, Grain Farmers of Ontario says amalgamation equipped it to navigate an increasingly complex sector. “The agriculture industry is expanding in areas and contracting in other areas,” writes CEO Barry Senft in a 10th-anniversary edition of Ontario Grain Farmer magazine. “The public interest in agriculture has increased beyond what anyone could

Barry Senft, shown here at the Ottawa Valley Farm Show in a 2017 GFO video, is stepping down in April as the organization’s chief executive. (GFO video screengrab via YouTube)

Grain Farmers of Ontario seeking new CEO

Ontario’s biggest ag commodity organization is on the hunt for a new CEO as its first chief prepares to exit. Barry Senft announced Tuesday he will step down as CEO of Grain Farmers of Ontario in April 2020, a post he’s held since the 2009 merger of the province’s corn, soy and wheat grower groups

canada flag

Editor’s Take: Canada at a crossroads

According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Canada remains either a leader or laggard in the realm of support for its agriculture sector, depending on how one approaches the problem. A free market idealist who favours letting the invisible hand sort it all out might think less support to producers is a


Health Canada proposes some neonic restrictions

Health Canada is proposing some restrictions on the use of three neonic pesticides for horticultural production but they would still be registered for use on field crops such as corn and soybeans. Meanwhile the department will continue working with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the State of California on the impact of the pesticides

About 34 per cent of corn produced in Ontario already goes to ethanol production.  Photo: John Greig

Ontario proposal aims to double ethanol blend in fuel

Government move would boost corn market in the province

An Ontario government proposal could dramatically increase the amount of Ontario corn going into ethanol production and help bring consistency to the basis price for corn in the province. The government has posted its proposal to increase ethanol content in the province’s gasoline from five to 10 per cent to the Environmental Bill of Rights