Consumers Rise To Buy-Local Challenge

Barbecue season is upon us and more and more Canadians are visiting farmers’ markets or seeking out a Product of Canada label in order to support Canadian farmers. Several campaigns promoting locally grown or Canadianproduced food have sprung up. Recently, retailers like Loblaw Companies Limited, fast-food chains such as McDonald’s and major companies like Unilever

Does Canada Need A National Food Standard?

One re commenda -tion flowing from a Commons subcommittee report that resonates with the food industry is the need for a national food inspection standard. Michael McCain, president and CEO of Maple Leaf Foods and the face of food safety these days, says, “All food for sale in Canada, whether it is produced in federally


Listeria Warning Signs Missed

Maple Leaf Foods president Michael McCain put his finger on the weak link in his company’s efforts to prevent contamination of its ready-to-eat meats during his testimony before the Commons food safety subcommittee April 20. He said the company was properly testing its products and sanitizing its plant. What it missed was analyzing the results

Farmer Blames Pipeline For Washout

This is worse than I thought, way worse,” Bryan De Baets says April 14 as we approach a half-mile long, land-scarring washout that is 15 feet wide and six feet deep at its worst. In places, the now operational crude oil pipeline Enbridge laid and buried last summer is fully exposed. When De Baets inspected


Ranchers Can Access To CRP Lands

The U. S. Agriculture Department says it will extend emergency use of Conservation Reserve land for North Dakota livestock producers facing losses from recent flooding. USDA said the emergency use of reserve land would be extended from April 30 to May 15. Conservation Reserve land is usually off-limits to livestock, but the department said extending

Listeria Committee Back In Gear

Government and opposition MPs on a special Commons subcommittee investigating last summer’s listeria outbreak have ironed out their differences and will begin questioning witnesses in late April. The first meeting of the subcommittee turned into a two-hour quarrel when NDP MP Malcolm Allen proposed an extension of the committee’s investigation to the end of the


Agrium, PotashCorp Differ On China Price Talks

Fertilizer and farm retailer Agrium said Feb. 19 that Chinese potash price negotiations could stretch into July, two months longer than rival Canadian fertilizer producer PotashCorp of Saskatchewan is targeting. “I have dealt with the Chinese on other commodities. They are good at brinkmanship; they will hold right to the end. They could hold until

Listeria investigator announced

It took almost four months but Prime Minister Stephen Harper has got someone to investigate the Maple Leaf Foods listeria outbreak of last summer. Just how Sheila Weatherill, former president and CEO of Capital Health in Edmonton, will investigate the outbreak that killed 20 and sickened at least 50 more may be a secret until


Niverville hog firm buys Winkler Meats

The new owners of slaughter and packing company Winkler Meats hope to build on its product lines with a more consistent supply of cull sows. The Progressive Group, a Niverville hog company with a production base of about 35,000 sows, has bought the federally inspected meat packing company from Winkler’s Dyck family and other local

Wily McCain settles class-action suits

Michael H. McCain is a wily strategist. First, as president and chief executive officer of Maple Leaf Foods Inc., he made a big deal of dismissing advice from the company’s lawyers and accountants to not admit any liability for Canada’s most notorious case of food poisoning last summer. He won praise from business reporters and