B.C. Agriculture Minister Norm Letnick, shown here last October promoting the province’s income tax credit for farmers donating agricultural products to registered charities, held his Kelowna riding in the provincial election Tuesday night. (Gov.bc.ca)

B.C. ag minister, ag critic hang on in election

British Columbia’s incumbent agriculture minister and opposition agriculture critic have both held onto their seats in the legislature so far through the province’s harrowing election Tuesday. Complete results aren’t expected to be available until after the final count starting May 22, but preliminary results put the province’s governing Liberals in minority status with 43 of […] Read more

Consumers are just figuring out what food fraud is to them, Sylvain Charlebois says. (John Greig photo)

Greig: Food fraud a challenge to whole food supply chain

Farmers are used to the conversation about how to manage trust with consumers. Food companies are learning it too, and finding food fraud to be a significant concern. Food fraud “comes back to trust,” according to Renata McGuire of NSF Consulting and Technical Services. “Do I trust this brand?” McGuire, along with Sylvain Charlebois, dean […] Read more



Barley at sunset

Where to find your provincial crop protection guides

Spring is in the air. That means its time to get your new provincial crop protection guide for all the latest information on registered herbicides, fungicides and insecticides. Here’s how: In Manitoba: For an online copy, Google “Manitoba” and “Guide to Crop Protection” and Google will direct you to a “Guides and Publications” page with many […] Read more



Syngenta’s Interaction Centre at Stein, Switzerland. (Syngenta.com)

ChemChina clinches takeover of Syngenta

Zurich | Reuters –– ChemChina has won more than enough support from Syngenta shareholders to clinch its US$43 billion takeover of the Swiss pesticides and seeds group, the two companies said Friday. The deal, announced in February 2016, was prompted by China’s desire to use Syngenta’s portfolio of top-tier chemicals and patent-protected seeds to improve […] Read more


Farmer Brian Derksen seeds wheat on May 2, 2017 near Miami, Man., about 80 km south of Portage la Prairie. (Screengrab from Allan Dawson video)

Prairie seeding off to ‘shaky start’

CNS Canada — Western Canada will likely see some favourable seeding conditions in the short term, one meteorologist says, though wet pockets in some areas need longer to dry out. “We are getting off to a little bit of a shaky start in some spots, but it looks like the weather pattern is going to […] Read more

Jon Neutens. (Supplied photo)

Glacier Media strengthens weather, ag technology team

Glacier Media, a leading Canadian business information news, insights and data supplier, has appointed Jonathan Neutens as president of its Weather Innovations Consulting (WIN) group. Neutens, who has more than 20 years experience in North America’s agribusiness sector, will lead the team at WIN to scale its business in the ag technology space, building on the existing […] Read more