General

New guidelines for food manufacturers who use the terms “Product of Canada” and “Made in Canada” will apply to foods produced after Dec. 31 this year, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz announced Tuesday. “By the end of the year, if a food is labelled ‘Product of Canada,’ this government is making sure that food is Canadian […] Read more

Canada’s federal, provincial and territorial ag ministers have officially completed their multilateral Growing Forward farm policy framework, committing $1.3 billion in cost-shared funding over the next five years. Split 60/40 between Ottawa and the provinces, the $1.3 billion covers programming other than for farm business risk management (BRM), and is up $330 million from the […] Read more

A new draft modalities text on agriculture negotiations at the World Trade Organization (WTO) lays bare “wide gaps” separating countries’ positions at the talks, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said Thursday. The draft text released Thursday by Crawford Falconer, chair of the WTO ag talks, is an outline of his assessment of what WTO member countries […] Read more

Quebec’s government plans to end its 20-year-old regulation that prohibits margarine sold in the province from having a yellow colour, Quebec media reported Tuesday. Quebec farm newspaper La Terre de chez nous and a Montreal report in Toronto’s Globe and Mail both said the move is the result of pressure from other provinces to harmonize […] Read more

Glacier Ventures International, owners of this web site and several of Canada’s major farm publications, has bought an equity stake in online farm equipment marketing company Iron Solutions. Specific terms of Vancouver-based Glacier’s investment weren’t disclosed, other than its joint purchase of a 90 per cent stake in Iron Solutions in partnership with New York […] Read more

Several of Canada’s provincial agriculture ministers plan to endorse a new agricultural policy framework at this week’s annual ag ministers’ conference in Quebec City. The conference, which starts Tuesday, features the release of the new five-year multilateral Growing Forward framework, replacing the Agricultural Policy Framework (APF) developed under the Chretien government and launched in 2003. […] Read more

Quebec MP Christian Paradis, the federal secretary of state for agriculture, has been named the federal minister for public works and government services. Paradis’ new duties will be in addition to his work on the ag file, assisting Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Wednesday. Secretaries of state rank between ministers of […] Read more

Leading up to the expected launch of the federal and provincial governments’ latest ag policy framework, several of Canada’s general farm groups have relaunched a proposal for a new program to cover what they say are gaps in that framework. Originally proposed in November 2007, the Canadian Federation of Agriculture’s AgriFlex proposal would build on […] Read more

The Canadian Senate’s standing committee on agriculture recommends the federal government step in to address the rising costs of farm inputs, and to raise rural affairs’ profile in national policy. In separate reports released Tuesday — one on rural poverty, the other on the cost of farm inputs — the committee respectively called for the […] Read more