General

Canada’s largest food retail company, citing long-term planning for efficiency, plans to eliminate about 700 management and administrative jobs, most notably at its head office. Loblaw Companies said Tuesday its changes take effect starting that day and should be complete in the next three weeks, for an estimated one-time fourth-quarter charge of about $60 million […] Read more

One out of every eight people in the world is chronically undernourished, the United Nations’ food agencies said Tuesday, warning that progress to reduce hunger has slowed since 2007-08 when high food prices sparked riots in several poor countries. In their latest report on food insecurity, the UN agencies estimated that 868 million people were […] Read more

Global development group Oxfam on Wednesday called on the World Bank to suspend financing for large-scale land acquisitions to ensure that its practices do not encourage foreign land grabs in developing countries. Oxfam urged Jim Yong Kim, the lender’s new president, to announce a six-month moratorium on land investments by the bank at meetings of […] Read more

Expiration of U.S. farm law on Oct. 1, shutting off dairy supports and putting 2013 crop subsidies in limbo, will cause pain for some farmers and frustration for many but programs like food stamps and crop insurance will roll on, analysts said. U.S. government funding is assured through March 2013 for many programs based on […] Read more

We’re packing up to head back to some semblance of "normal" lives in Ontario. As small as our quarters have been for the past year or so, it’s utterly amazing how much stuff we’ve crammed in there! And, in order to head for home we’ve had to strike a few deals over the past five […] Read more