blake hall alberta

Demand seen soaring for legal, farm-killed meat

LOCAL | Producers, particularly small-scale farmers, would benefit from similar regulations in Manitoba, says Direct Farm Manitoba Demand for on-farm slaughter licences in Alberta has exploded since last summer when a rule change allowed consumers to buy individual animals and have them processed on the farm. Manitoba should have its own, similar regulations, says Direct

The union representing workers at Brandon’s Maple Leaf Foods plant continues to call for it to be temporarily closed due to staff COVID-19 cases.

Workers say Maple Leaf, province overlooking safety hazards

Workers tell the Co-operator of crowded bathrooms, locker rooms, stairways, cafeterias without handwashing facilities, forced overtime

Workers at Brandon’s Maple Leaf Foods plant say the company isn’t doing enough to keep them safe, and that they’re scared to come to work. “We workers are crying for help,” they wrote in an open letter circulated by Migrante Manitoba, an advocacy organization for migrant workers in late August. “It’s clear to us that


(PorcOlymel.com)

Quebec pork plant to restart at reduced pace

Olymel plant closed due to COVID-19 cases

Olymel plans to gradually bring a hog plant in Quebec’s Mauricie region out of a two-week shutdown starting Tuesday following a number of COVID-19 cases among its employees. The meat packing arm of Quebec-based Sollio Co-operative Group announced Saturday it will resume slaughter and cutting operations at Yamachiche, Que. starting Tuesday. Nine people working at

(Canada Border Services Agency video screengrab)

Cross-border truckers exempt from mandatory isolation

TFWs coming to Canada won't be exempt from new rule

Truckers and others who are still allowed to cross into Canada on essential business are exempt from a new two-week self-isolation rule for people arriving in the country. Health Minister Patty Hajdu on Wednesday announced an emergency order under the federal Quarantine Act, requiring anyone who’s entering Canada by land, air or sea to self-isolate

Quebec researchers say a new treatment can remove atrazine from 
surface water.

Cleaning up chemicals

Atrazine is the most common weed killer found in Quebec surface water, which prompted the research

A group of Quebec researchers, at that province’s Institut National De La Recherche Scientifique, say they’ve identified an effective way to remove the pesticide atrazine from surface water. Atrazine, widely used as a weed killer, is known to have harmful effects on aquatic wildlife and presents a risk to human health by altering the action


Doctor taking measures of overweight mid-adult woman

Malnutrition has many faces

Overweight people now outnumber the hungry

The issue of malnutrition makes feeding the world decidedly more complicated than boosting the amount of grain farmers grow or the number of calories in people’s diets. Undernutrition affects nearly 800 million people, accounting for approximately 12 per cent of deaths worldwide. In developing countries, 60 per cent of deaths in the under-five age group

The view of ruins that once formed the centre of the Roman Empire from the rooftop terrace of the UN FAO headquarters in Rome, Italy. The empire failed for many reasons, but declining health of its population was among them.

Radical transformation of food system needed

The focus of future investments in the food system must be on nutrition — not calories

From its offices overlooking centuries-old ruins of the fallen Roman Empire, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is grappling with an issue many consider a threat to modern civilization. Global rates of malnutrition are growing at an unprecedented pace, despite progress that has been made reducing hunger and poverty. Sandwiched between the two extremes

The dandelion is considered to be a beneficial weed by some and a noxious weed by others.

Manitoba cosmetic pesticide ban is healthy public policy

The new provincial government’s move to reopen this debate is poorly considered

Manitoba’s government has reopened the public debate on cosmetic pesticides. The provincial regulations, which banned the use of chemical herbicides on lawns and public properties used by children, came into effect less than two years ago. On July 20, the province launched a public consultation process on the ban with a Twitter post that posed