(Photo courtesy Canada Beef Inc.)

Meat industry braces for WHO cancer risk verdict

Paris | Reuters — As international health experts prepare to publish a report on potential cancer risks linked to red and processed meat, industry groups are bracing for a damaging blow to consumer confidence. The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) gathered health experts in France this month to discuss available

(Dave Bedard photo)

Monsanto asks California not to list herbicide as cancer cause

Reuters — A plan by California environmental officials to list a commonly used herbicide as cancer-causing should be withdrawn, Monsanto told state regulators on Tuesday, saying California’s actions could be considered illegal because they are not considering valid scientific evidence. The formal comments were filed by Monsanto with the state’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment


oats

Yorkton oat processor no longer accepting oats treated with pre-harvest glyphosate

Grain Millers Canada says its research links timing of application to reduced processing quality

Starting with the 2015 crop, oat buyer Grain Millers will no longer accept oats or oat products treated with glyphosate because of research showing it can change the processing quality. “We wouldn’t have taken this step if we didn’t think we had to,” said Terry Tyson, grain procurement manager for Grain Millers Canada based in

chalkboard promoting restaurant items

Eat better, live longer and reduce greenhouse gas

British study says ‘minor’ adjustments would include fewer animal products, especially red meat, fewer savoury snacks and more fruit, vegetables and cereals


Eating a more healthy diet could extend the British lifespan, lower health-care costs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to new research led by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). The findings are based on two papers. The first, published in Climatic Change, estimates the greenhouse gas emissions associated with current U.K.


crop spraying

Health Canada completes review of glyphosate

Minor labelling changes are proposed

Health Canada is seeking public comments on its proposal to approve the ongoing registration of glyphosate, the widely used weed killer better known as Roundup. The department says its evaluation of scientific information “found that products containing glyphosate do not present unacceptable risks to health or the environment when used according to the proposal label

John Cale

You can’t have a healthy farm without healthy farmers

Prior to producers’ most stressful seasons, experts suggest taking inventory of your 
stress levels and to plan ahead to avoid pitfalls that will impact your mental health

Don’t forget that third item that needs tending on your farm, says a rural health specialist. “As many producers tend to their crops and livestock daily, they need to remember to also tend to themselves and their own well-being,” John Cale from Prairie Mountain Health told the Farm Outlook 2015 conference presented by the Dauphin


pouring farm chemicals

Glyphosate: Advice to producers remains the same

Without the introduction of herbicide-resistant canola, yields would likely be much lower than they are today

The Canola Council of Canada isn’t suggesting producers make any changes following a move by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) to label glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic.” Glyphosate, the primary active ingredient in Roundup, along with malathion and diazinon received the designation due to “limited evidence of carcinogenicity in humans and sufficient evidence

A woman sells chat in the village market in Bila.

The gift of water 28 years later

Bila farmers are producing wealth thanks to small-scale irrigation, but who is reaping the rewards?

The old man’s eyes grew teary when he was asked to remember what it was like before the water came. “There was a drought,” Ahmed Sahle Ahmed said through an interpreter as he sat on a floor mat in the family’s home. “We were having problems, we had no food.” That was in the early


crop sprayer operating in the field

Glyphosate classified as ‘probably carcinogenic’

Monsanto questions results of report, which also includes diazinon, malathion and parathion

The decision by an international group of cancer experts to classify the active ingredient in Roundup herbicide as “probably carcinogenic” has drawn fire from the product’s main maker. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a France-based arm of the World Health Organization, last Friday released its working group’s evaluations on the cancer-causing potential

Dr. James Hutchinson

Federal scientists muzzled by PMO

Stance on antibiotic issues hard to pin down

Canada’s federal government wants the public to know that it is promoting the “prudent use” of medically important antimicrobial drugs in food-producing animals. But it doesn’t want the public to know what that means — and it certainly doesn’t want the public to hear what its scientists and veterinarians have to say about what many