(Diane Kuhl/iStock/Getty Images)

CUSMA compensation set for supply-managed sectors

Feds pledge over $1.7 billion in payments, programs

A final round of payments and programs for Canada’s supply-managed dairy and feather sectors — this time in compensation for the sequel deal to NAFTA — is now on deck for 2023 and beyond. Compensation to those sectors for domestic market concessions granted under the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) was telegraphed in federal Finance Minister Chrystia […] Read more

File photo of Upside Foods’ chicken product. (Upsidefoods.com)

Lab-grown meat cleared for human consumption by U.S. regulator

FDA's review not technically approval

Washington | Reuters — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the first time cleared a meat product grown from animal cells for human consumption, the agency announced on Wednesday. Upside Foods, a company that makes cell-cultured chicken by harvesting cells from live animals and using the cells to grow meat in stainless-steel tanks, […] Read more


Gurpreet Lidder, along with family members, operates an 80-acre fruit farm
near the B.C. Southern Interior community of Keremeos, producing a wide
range of fruit through farm gate sales as well as to wholesale markets.

Another excellent crop of young farmer nominees

Horticulture, beef and dairy production, along with conventional and organic crops — a year of diversity

A panel of judges will be faced with a difficult challenge in Saskatoon later this month as they look to select two national winners from a field of seven diverse, well-managed farming operations from across Canada. From tree fruit production to grass-fed beef, mixed farming to organic crop production, and dairy farming to potato production, […] Read more

(File photo by Dave Bedard)

Cybersecurity ‘incident’ hits Maple Leaf systems

Grocery firm Empire also dealing with IT grief

Some information technology (IT) systems at Canadian pork and poultry packer Maple Leaf Foods have been downed in what the company described Monday as a “cybersecurity incident.” The company said in a release Monday that it “took immediate action and engaged cybersecurity and recovery experts” when it learned of the problem, and its in-house and […] Read more


It’s best to apply a ‘one health’ approach

It’s best to apply a ‘one health’ approach

If animals are healthy, then humans are healthy and it works vice versa

This year’s theme for Animal Health Week in October was a good one for the veterinary profession as it blended the idea of “one health.” If we protect the health of our animals and the environs in which they reside, it ultimately protects everyone’s health. This is especially true in farm animal production as our […] Read more

File photo of a CFIA vehicle. (Dave Bedard photo)

Avian flu circles back to Quebec

Saskatchewan's bird mingling ban held over

Outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian flu have returned to Quebec’s poultry sector after a lull of just over two months, while more Canadian cases continue to pile up at points west. Canada’s fall migratory season for wild birds appears to have led to the return of outbreaks in both commercial and backyard poultry flocks and […] Read more


(Sollio Co-operative Group video screengrab via YouTube)

Pork packer Olymel laying off dozens of managers

Market unpredictability, 'growth challenges' cited

Major Canadian pork and poultry packer Olymel has laid off 57 people from its management ranks and eliminated another 120 administrative positions, citing the company’s current “market context and growth challenges.” Olymel, the meat packing arm of Quebec-based Sollio Cooperative Group, said Tuesday its affected employees were notified Monday and have received their layoff notices. […] Read more

What is sustainable agriculture?

What is sustainable agriculture?

Prairie farmers have adopted some of the most sustainable practices among agricultural producers in the world

No, sustainable agriculture is not organic farming, wildlife management, having a mixed livestock and grain system or anything else. It is efficient, effective, common sense crop production. In recent years, Prairie farmers have adopted some of the most sustainable practices among agricultural producers in the world. Contrary to the naysayers who rant about the destruction […] Read more


(Lauri Patterson/iStock/Getty Images)

Thanksgiving in a time of bird flu

North America's poultry sector is embroiled in a fall surge of avian influenza, even as turkey demand hits one of its annual peaks

It’s the final stretch until Thanksgiving, but anyone hoping to bring their raw bird over the border may be disappointed. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is warning the public that raw poultry, including turkey, from restricted areas of the U.S. will not be allowed past the international border due to the ongoing fight with […] Read more