The United Food and Commercial Workers’ union won’t get automatic certification at an Abbotsford, B.C. fruit and vegetable farm where it claimed the “most vocal” workers were shipped home before a vote could be held. The British Columbia Labour Relations Board, which conducted a union certification vote for UFCW Local 1518 at Floralia Plant Growers […] Read more
B.C. labour board rejects union’s claim at farm
Ag job losses hit N.S., P.E.I. communities: report
Rural communities in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island are losing jobs, wages and community leadership as farms’ profit margins drift further into negative numbers, according to a new study on farm economic viability. GPI Atlantic, a Nova Scotia non-profit research group drafting new measures of progress for that province, on Thursday released a report […] Read more
Unchecked central Ont. elk ruining crops: OFA
An Alberta elk herd introduced in central Ontario in 2001 with a provincial pledge for population control has led to “devastation” on local farms, according to local and provincial farmers’ groups. “If something isn’t done soon to solve the elk problem, we will all lose our farms,” Lynn Davis, farmer and director of the Hastings […] Read more
Food wins food-vs.-fuel debate on Prairies: CWB
Close to 90 per cent of wheat acres on Canada’s Prairies are seeded to spring wheat or durum with intent to go into bread or pasta, the Canadian Wheat Board says. According to the board’s 2008 variety survey, despite the recent attention given to food crops flowing into ethanol production, the proportion of wheats grown […] Read more
Listeria found again at Maple Leaf plant
Just a few weeks after deep-cleaning and reopening to a far heavier testing regime, Maple Leaf Foods’ Bartor Road meat processing plant in Toronto has yielded a few product samples contaminated with listeria. Listeria monocytogenes was detected in four positive test results out of over 2,700 product samples reported to date since the plant’s restart, […] Read more
CWB opens CWRS fusarium program
Prairie wheat growers with fusarium-infected No. 2, 3 or 4 Canada Western Red Spring (CWRS) wheat on their hands can now sign up for the Canadian Wheat Board’s 2008-09 fusarium program. A separate CWB fusarium program was put in place last month for No. 2 Canada Western Red Winter (CWRW), for which sign-up began Sept. […] Read more
N.S. wind atlas goes online
Nova Scotia property owners considering wind turbines for their land can use a new online wind atlas to rate their site’s potential. Researchers from Universite de Moncton and the applied geomatics research group at Nova Scotia Community College developed the wind data last year. Since then, staff in the research group have worked to overlay […] Read more
Calculator to gauge horses’ disease risks
The University of Guelph’s horse health centre plans to launch an online calculator program with which horse owners can pencil out the impact of their farm practices on their animals’ risk of infectious disease. Equine Guelph, in a notice on its website, said it plans to unveil what it calls the equine biosecurity risk calculator […] Read more
N.L. to fund cranberry acreage development
Aiming to defray some of the high start-up costs of cranberry production, Newfoundland and Labrador’s government is taking applications for funding under a new cranberry industry development program. The program, announced in the province’s 2008 budget, is funded up to $2.95 million for 2008-09, the government said in a release Wednesday. The cranberry program is […] Read more
COOL confusion costs producers: CCA, CPC
Watching its rules be reinterpreted on “a weekly basis,” Canada’s cattle and hog producers say U.S. country-of-origin labelling (COOL) legislation is now chilling cross-border trade volume and prices. The Canadian Cattlemen’s Association and Canadian Pork Council have filed joint comments with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) saying COOL is discriminating against Canada’s 100,000 livestock […] Read more
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