General & Production Tips

A Whole Foods store in Omaha. (WholeFoodsMarket.com)

Amazon reported planning to expand Whole Foods chain

By Reuters, GFM Network News December 31, 2018

Reuters — Amazon.com is planning to expand its Whole Foods Market portfolio by adding more stores to put more customers within its two-hour delivery service range, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing sources. Whole Foods employees have visited regions of western North America for potential retail spaces in parts of Idaho, southern Utah […] Read more

Average sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies over the Pacific Ocean for the week centred on Dec. 5. (CPC.ncep.noaa.gov)

General, Reuters, Weather

U.S. forecaster sees 90 per cent chance of El Nino in winter

By Reuters, GFM Network News December 13, 2018

Reuters — There is a 90 per cent chance of the El Nino weather pattern emerging during the Northern Hemisphere winter of 2018-19, a U.S. government weather forecaster said on Thursday. “The official forecast favours the formation of a weak El Nino,” the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center (CPC) said in a monthly forecast. […] Read more

General, Machinery

Saskatchewan farm truckers exempt on new training rule

By GFM Network News December 6, 2018

Saskatchewan semi truck drivers driving only for farming operations will get a pass on the province’s planned new mandatory minimum trucker training requirements. The province announced Monday it will require a minimum of 121.5 hours of training before a driver can obtain a Class 1 commercial driver’s licence, starting March 15 next year. A Class […] Read more

Protesters wearing yellow vests, the symbol of a French drivers’ protest against higher diesel prices, occupy a roundabout in Cissac-Medoc, France on Wednesday. The slogan in pink reads “Urgent, purchase power, dignity for all.” (Photo: Reuters/Regis Duvignau)

General, Machinery, Markets, Reuters

France delays food price rise for farmers after protests

By GFM Network News December 5, 2018

Paris | Reuters — France, reeling from violent protests over the cost of living, said Wednesday it will delay a planned rise in minimum food prices, incurring the wrath of the main farmers group which urged street action next week. A powerful constituency in French politics, farmers have long complained of being hit by a […] Read more

Dairy cattle in Canada. (Pearman314/iStock/Getty Images)

General, Markets

USMCA costs Canada sovereignty in ag policy, critics warn

By GFM Network News November 30, 2018

Changes to Canadian dairy supply management in the final text of the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement give up oversight of the system to the U.S., Canada’s dairy farmer group warns. The trade deal, signed Friday in Buenos Aires by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, U.S. President Donald Trump and Mexico’s outgoing President Enrique Pena Nieto, now goes […] Read more

General, Reuters, Weather

U.S. government report says climate change will batter economy

By Reuters, GFM Network News November 23, 2018

Reuters — Climate change will cost the U.S. economy hundreds of billions of dollars by the end of the century, hitting everything from health to infrastructure, according to a government report issued on Friday that the White House called inaccurate. The congressionally mandated report, written with the help of more than a dozen U.S. government […] Read more

A Shanghai container terminal. (Chuyu/iStock/Getty Images)

General, Markets, Reuters

Canada to work with China on trade deal despite USMCA clause, Trudeau says

By GFM Network News November 15, 2018

Singapore | Reuters — Canada and China will continue to work together toward an “eventual” free trade deal, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Thursday. This is despite the country being a signatory to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which specifies that if one of its partners enters a free trade deal […] Read more

General, Machinery, Reuters

Walmart’s LatAm delivery app Cornershop eyes Canada

By GFM Network News November 15, 2018

Mexico City | Reuters — Cornershop, a Latin American grocery delivery app being acquired by Walmart, plans to expand into Canada early next year as a test market for the U.S., an executive for the three-year-old mobile app said. Walmart is buying Cornershop, which offers deliveries in Mexico and Chile, for US$225 million. The deal, […] Read more

Ross Wetmore. (Video screengrab from NBPCCaucus via YouTube)

General

New Brunswick ag, fisheries files remarried

By GFM Network News November 12, 2018

New Brunswick’s incoming minority Progressive Conservative government will again have one minister handling the province’s agriculture and aquaculture files. Premier Blaine Higgs on Friday announced Gagetown-Petitcodiac MLA Ross Wetmore as his minister of agriculture, aquaculture and fisheries. Wetmore, 65, replaces Andrew Harvey and Benoit Bourque, who had handled the agriculture and fisheries portfolios respectively on […] Read more

General, Markets

Tight supplies could see diesel prices rise

By GFM Network News November 6, 2018

CNS Canada – As supply tightens, farmers should consider stocking up on diesel before it’s too late, according to an analyst. “We think the market’s getting kind of overdone down here and this might be your best chance…if we do get a cold winter I think we’ll see these prices really pop,” said Phil Flynn […] Read more

Daily Network News

Southern California honeybees show resistance to varroa mites

Pulse Weekly: SaskPulse optimistic despite input, crop price concerns

Canadian aquaculture should be classed as agriculture, industry groups say