Cairo | Reuters — Egypt’s public prosecutor has ordered the arrest of 13 people for 15 days pending an investigation into their role in a wheat procurement corruption scandal, judicial sources said on Saturday. Egypt, the world’s largest wheat importer, has been mired in controversy over its wheat supplies, with industry officials claiming that over […] Read more
Egypt public prosecutor orders 13 arrested in wheat corruption case
Britain to plug EU funding gap for farms, colleges
London | Reuters — Britain will fill a gap of as much as 4.5 billion pounds (C$7.5 billion) in funding for agriculture, universities and its regions that will open up when Britain leaves the European Union, finance minister Philip Hammond said. Scientists, farmers and others who got EU funding were facing uncertainty after Britain voted […] Read more
JBS quarterly profits beat expectations
Sao Paulo | Reuters — Brazil’s JBS SA, the world’s largest meat processor, posted better than expected second-quarter profits on Wednesday, helped by a sharp increase in revenues from its pork business in the U.S., said the company. São Paulo-based JBS earned 1.657 billion reais (C$650 million) in net income last quarter, compared with 252 […] Read more
Canada to allow medical marijuana users to grow their own
Ottawa | Reuters — Medical marijuana patients in Canada will be allowed to grow a limited amount of cannabis for their own use or designate someone to grow it for them, the government said Thursday. The government had been given six months to comply with a federal court ruling that struck down the previous administration’s […] Read more
China backs GMO soybeans in push for high-tech agriculture
Beijing | Reuters — China will push for the commercialization of genetically modified soybeans over the next five years as it seeks to raise the efficiency of its agriculture sector, potentially boosting output of the crop by the world’s top soy importer and consumer. China, which has spent billions of dollars researching GMO crops, has […] Read more
Agrium’s Vanscoy potash operations suspended
Reuters — Agrium’s operations at its Vanscoy potash mine in Saskatchewan could be halted for days, a union official said on Tuesday, the day after a worker was injured. An Agrium spokesman said in a statement that the company was working on a plan to restart the facility and did not expect any “material disruption.” […] Read more
New Zealand farm firm bans use of palm in feed
Wellington | Reuters — New Zealand farm company Landcorp said Monday it would ban its farmers from using palm kernel expeller (PKE), a feed supplement used for cows that environmentalists have linked to rainforest destruction. The state-owned company, which runs 140 farms, said it would end the use of the feed by June 2017 to […] Read more
Egyptian prosecutor says millions in local wheat falsely claimed
Cairo | Reuters –– Egypt’s general prosecutor said on Sunday that local wheat suppliers worked with government employees to falsely claim 621 million Egyptian pounds (C$92.5 million) worth of grain that does not exist. Egypt has been embroiled in a controversy over its local wheat supplies, with grains industry officials claiming that over two million […] Read more
Quarantined Washington wheat negative for GMO
Reuters — No genetically modified (GMO) wheat has been found in a Washington state farm’s crop tested after an unapproved biotech variety was discovered growing there in June, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Friday. The quarantined grain will be allowed to enter the marketplace, USDA said. USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service […] Read more
Korea reports no GMO in U.S. wheat imports
Seoul | Reuters — South Korea has not detected any genetically modified wheat in tests on imports of wheat and flour from Washington state, after the discovery of unapproved GM wheat in the U.S. state prompted Japan and South Korea to suspend certain U.S. imports. South Korea, the fifth largest market for U.S. wheat, had […] Read more
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