“In response to a formal request from the Canadian Association of Vegetable Growers and Processors, the government has directed the Canadian International Trade Tribunal to conduct an inquiry,” federal finance minister François-Philippe Champagne said in a March 13 news release.

A statement via Ottawa government relations consulting firm Maple Leaf Strategies bills the association as “the voice of Canadian vegetable growers, harvesters, employees and processors from coast to coast to coast, working to protect and strengthen the sector from farm to consumer.”

The CITT will have 180 days to decide if imports of frozen and canned vegetables are harming or threatening to cause harm to domestic growers and processors. If so, it will propose remedies to the federal government.

It has also been asked to consider impacts to food affordability and security for Canadians, the news release said.

The CITT, in a separate release March 16, confirmed it has launched the inquiry as requested and will report back to Champagne by Sept. 9.

In its notice of inquiry, the CITT said anyone wanting to make submissions to the tribunal on this matter must file notice by April 2 of their intent to do so, and it will hold its hearing on the inquiry in Ottawa starting June 15.

In an order in council, the government said that it appears importation of increased quantities of vegetables is a result of obligations under the World Trade Organization Agreement and “unforeseen developments in global trade.”

These have led some WTO members to restrict imports of vegetables into their markets, which has led those goods to be diverted into Canada.

In 2024, 55 per cent of Canadian fruit and vegetable preserving and specialty food were imported, according to Farm Credit Canada’s 2025 food and beverage report. That category includes frozen and canned vegetables and fruit, pickling and drying.

The Canadian Association of Vegetable Growers and Processors, in its separate statement, described the government’s move as “an important first step,” saying the domestic frozen and canned vegetable sector “has been facing a sudden surge of low-priced imports that is disrupting the Canadian market. Temporary, rules-based safeguard measures will restore fair competition and allow Canadian growers and processors to compete on equal terms.”

Such measures, it said, “will help stabilize supply chains that retailers and consumers depend on.”

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The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) on Thursday announced an agreement with Mexico’s national service for agri-food health, safety and quality (SENASICA) to allow shipments to Mexico of Canadian potatoes for consumption or processing.

CFIA said it will “work closely with the potato sector in the coming months as next steps are implemented.”

WHY IT MATTERS: Almost 93 per cent of Canada’s fresh potato exports by dollar value in the 2024-25 marketing year were to the U.S. alone.

Canada’s potato exports to Mexico today are almost entirely in frozen potato products. According to Statistics Canada export data for 2024-25, Canada shipped about 55,526 tonnes of frozen potatoes, valued at about C$77.7 million, to Mexico.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA/FAS) says Canada that year held about a 34 per cent share of Mexico’s total imports of frozen potatoes, compared to a 52 per cent share for the U.S. and 14 per cent for Belgium.

Meanwhile, citing information from Trade Data Monitor (TDM), FAS says the U.S. has been “Mexico’s sole supplier of fresh potato imports” in recent years. In the 2023-24 marketing year, those imports came in at 204,165 tonnes.

The bulk of Mexico’s potato consumption is supplied by its domestic growers, who produced about 2.12 million tonnes in 2024.

A 2025 FAS report on the Mexican potato market said its consumers favour the domestically-grown Alpha potato variety, and “the dominance of domestically produced potatoes in the Mexican market, accounting for 91 per cent of domestic consumption, limits awareness of other potato options among Mexican households.”

FAS noted Mexico requires any fresh potato imports to be packaged in 20-pound bags or smaller, adding that Mexican consumers prefer to hand-select produce and buy relatively smaller quantities more frequently.

Imported fresh potatoes in Mexico, FAS said, today go primarily instead to “restaurants seeking to offer differentiated premium products to their customers.”

Mexico’s new move to allow Canadian fresh potatoes follows a trade mission last October by Canada’s federal agriculture minister Heath MacDonald, during which the two countries “agreed to enhance regulatory and technical co-operation” under a 2025-2028 action plan.

Those talks continued during another trade mission to Mexico last month, led by Dominic LeBlanc, minister for Canada-U.S. trade, CFIA said Thursday. MacDonald also took part in that mission, according to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

The 2025-2028 action plan called for the two countries to make progress on a sanitary and phytosanitary work plan to improve market access for agricultural products for both countries’ consumers and processors, and on mutual recognition of electronic certification for plant, animal, aquaculture and fishing products.

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The report was full of predictions that came true, as well as a few surprises. This year’s report was the 16th annual.

Food prices were driven higher in 2025 by meat, said Sylvain Charlebois, the lead of Canada’s Food Price Report. Charlebois is the Director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University. He leads Canada’s Food Price Report, but the report was developed by a collective of scholars.

“In fact, we claimed last year that meat would be driving food inflation, and we underestimated how significantly meat prices would go up. That was really the big story in 2025,” he said.

Meat prices to stay high

Unfortunately, the group expects meat prices will remain a huge factor for 2026.

“Beef is an issue, of course, it’s been an issue for a while now, and we don’t see how the situation will normalize itself before at least mid-year 2027,” he said. “Ranchers are leaving the industry. It’s difficult for ranchers across North America.”

The high prices of beef are encouraging people to change to other types of meat, like chicken.

“We’re short on chicken because of higher beef prices. The situation with beef is really a major issue for meat counter economics in general,” he said.

Chicken raised in Canada is under supply management.

“Supply shouldn’t be a problem, but it is a problem right now, because we’re importing more chicken from abroad. But I don’t think that is going to last. I do think the chicken industry will recover eventually. It’s kind of awkward to have supply management and import more chicken from the United States right now,” he said.

Fruit and vegetable inflation down

Vegetables and fruits had their inflation rates go down in 2025 compared to 2024.

“We were expecting increases to be in the positive, but the increases didn’t accelerate as much as we expected,” he said.

The group thought the “Buy Canadian” movement and the entire American boycott would put a lot of pressure on grocers to source products that are cheaper or the same price in America.

“But we were spared, and I think that’s due to the Canadian dollar. I think the Canadian dollar remained a non-issue. That came as a surprise, I would say,” said Charlebois.

Food affordability is a top concern for consumers. A quarter of Canadian households are considered food insecure, and nearly 2.2 million people visited food banks in Canada monthly this year.

Charlebois said there are numerous factors that affect food prices including geopolitics, global weather events, policy enactment, consumer behaviour and changes in retail models. Energy costs, climate change, interest rates, labour costs, the level of consolidation in a sector, and consumer demand, including whether consumers have more money or less money to spend on food.

“These are the things that impact food prices over time. But the bottom line is that not one node of the growth of the food supply chain totally controls food prices,” he said.

Trade wars affect food prices

In 2025, food prices were affected by the trade dispute between Canada and the United States and subsequent policy changes. Consumer-led movements also altered the economic retail landscape, impacting food price inflation.

Charlebois said farmers would say there’s a weak correlation between protein prices, and retail prices, and they’re correct to say so.

“So even though there is a weak correlation between the two, production does have an impact on how food is sourced to supply grocery stores in general,” he said.

When people spend more money at the grocery store, the farmer gets a bigger proportion of the farm bill. With retail, 13 to 15 per cent of the money spent at the grocery store goes back to the farmer compared to food service, where about four per cent to five percent goes back to the farmer from food service.

“Right now, there is a strong movement towards staying retail for consumers, because they’re trying to save as much money as possible, and they’re avoiding restaurants, so that could actually be a positive for farmers in general,” said Charlebois.

Temporary foreign workers

Temporary foreign workers are widely used along the food supply chain. In 2024, Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program brought in over 78,000 workers into the agricultural industry. The Canadian government is revisiting its immigration policy and has announced plans to reduce the share of temporary residents in Canada to less than five per cent of the population by 2027, to encourage more domestic labour and improve youth employment rates. Agriculture is exempt from this cap.

The current population of temporary foreign workers is at seven per cent.

There are concerns that shifts with temporary workers could lead to a major labour shortage in agriculture, disrupting the supply chain and costing businesses already operate on tight margins. The costs would be passed down to the consumer.

Charlebois said the research team is concerned about the temporary foreign worker problem.

“It’s a very important program to support our farmers,” he said. The information about temporary foreign workers was added to Canada’s Food Price Report, to send a clear signal to government that the temporary foreign worker program in agriculture should not be compromised, he said.

Food bill to rise “a lot”

The report also contains predictions for 2026.

“We’re expecting the average family (of four) to see their food bill increased by $1,000, so we’re expecting an increase of four to six per cent, so that’s a lot. I believe it’s the highest we’ve ever seen in 16 years. That’s going to be pushed by two categories; meat and the centre of the store. That’s pantry goods and dry goods. This is not going to help consumers,” he said.

“We think it’s going to push inflation higher,” he said.

The ongoing trade dispute with the United States will continue to affect prices next year. The inflationary aspects of the tariffs and counter-tariffs will continue in 2026 as trade tensions reshape the economic landscape. Canada is strengthening its relationships with other international trading partners to build resilience and competitiveness.

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They discussed their recent policy papers on what Canadian agriculture needs for economic stability and productivity in a recent webinar.

Courtney Anderson, Dislène Sossou and Andu Berha highlighted the financial benefits and challenges of adopting soil conservation practices, the impact of climate change on agricultural production and how federal and provincial farm insurance programs are — or are not — mitigating these effects.

Impact of land values

Anderson took a high-level look at the economics of farmland use — including returns from farmland compared to land purchase and rental costs — and what rising farmland values means for the longevity of the sector.

Overall, Anderson reaffirmed that Canada’s farmland is currently in “long-term decline” from development and other pressures, that farmland rental rates have caught up to farmland value appreciation in most areas of the country, and the appreciation of the value of most farmland alone “does not provide a high-enough all-in discount rate of return for most investors.”

Farmland rentals, says Anderson, offer a strong potential additional return on investment to those owning farmland, but come at considerable risk and uncertainty for the renter. Speaking during the CAPI event, he says statistical data indicates rental costs siphon some 90 per cent of operator income, leaving only 10 per cent to cover all other production expenses. This, he says, indicates strong competition in farmland rental markets.

Given the competition for farmland, Anderson argues a better understanding of what future generations will require to invest in farming — whether through renting, purchasing or other methods of farm investment — is needed. He also points to policies from different regions across the country, which have restricted land ownership, as possible models by which farmland can be conserved in other areas.

What drives adoption of new practices

Sossou’s research focused on what drives the adoption of more environmentally minded production practices in vegetable systems, something she says is ever more important as consumer demand for domestically grown produce spurs growth in the vegetable sector.

Because vegetable production often necessitates the intensive use of inputs, tillage and other elements of production mechanization, says Sossou, soil health degradation is a growing concern. The adoption of soil conservation practices helps remediate these issues, while often reducing production costs for the farmer.

However, many vegetable farmers are still reluctant to adopt soil conservation practices due to financial constraints, implementation challenges, access to information, market access, non-targeted support and general negative perceptions of some practices.

These perceptions are not necessarily unwarranted, given that economic and environmental goals don’t always align on the farm. Sossou details how “there is a potential tension between economic sustainability (via succession planning) and environmental sustainability (via Environmental Farm Plans),” adding policymakers or advisors “need to balance both objectives when designing conservation programs.”

Policies promoting the adoption of soil conservation practices should also account for farmer crop specialization, including recognition of the soil nutrient requirements for the vegetable in question.

Additional recommendations to increase the adoption of effective soil conservation practices include expanding technical assistance and market access for vegetables demanding particularly high levels of soil nutrients, enhancing supply chain integration and connecting farmers with wholesalers or processors preferring vegetables grown with soil conservation practices, designing irrigation and incentives policies for a balanced land-use strategy and implementing policies to sustain an effective workforce for labour-intensive crops.

Different farms, different insurance programs

Berha’s work highlights how a one-size-fits-all approach to production insurance programs is increasingly costly, as well as ineffective at promoting change on the farm.

When the climate is good — that is, when poor and extreme weather has not been the norm — Berha says farmers tend to specialize in a few high-performance crops in pursuit of high returns. This occurs at the expense of greater crop diversity, which, while often being less profitable overall, helps protect farmers in the face of an unfavourable climate. Diversification only happens after the onset of poor conditions.

There is thus “a clear trade-off” between sustainability and productivity, says Berha. The imbalance in that trade-off is costing farmers and insurers a lot of money, with Canadian farm insurance payouts jumping from $1.9 billion in 2018 to nearly $5.7 billion five years later — a cost surge that has occurred alongside more extreme weather.

A means of reducing insurance costs involved is complementing current business risk management programs with “resilience built in.” This would include promoting climate-resilient crop choices and farming practices, as well as addressing different risks faced by farmers in different regions.

Berha identifies four additional means of improving insurance programing. This includes a guarantee of prompt payouts to meet cash flow needs, scaled coverage to better match losses — special mention is also given to the upward adjustment of coverage caps and top-ups to reflect greater risk during more extreme weather — simplified paperwork processes, and greater transparency through the publishing of an annual business risk management performance dashboard, which includes reporting payout times, approval rates and regional uptake.

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Hutterites originated in Austria, but moved from country to country for 300 years, persecuted for their communal life and property ownership, nonviolence, pacifism, adult baptism and unwillingness to swear oaths of allegiance. In 1874, Czar Alexander II withdrew Catherine the Great’s century-old commitment to allow Hutterites to live in peace, without compulsory military service. So a delegation went to North America, looking for land. When they returned, the great migration began.

Hutterite travellers bought tickets in steerage, the cheapest spot on a steamship. They brought wicker baskets and burlap sacks full of food, provisions to feed themselves and their families during the two-week voyage as well as the long trek west, and “hope chests” of seeds for their new gardens in their new land. The voyage was arduous, and some travellers died; children whose parents didn’t survive became wards of close relatives.

The Dakota Territories had been selected as the target: in the western U.S., land was plentiful and inexpensive. The U.S. government had passed the Naturalization Act of 1870, which prioritized white European-born settlers at the expense of would-be Chinese arrivals. Indigenous residents at that point were being forced onto reservations by government-led wars across the Plains, along with the 1871 Indian Appropriations Act, which ended treaty negotiations. Hutterite emigrants who had been successful farmers but left everything behind had hope of buying land, without any knowledge of the Indigenous nations who were forced off their territories to make room for white settlers.

Some Hutterites settled at established U.S. colonies (brotherhoods or bruderhofs, in three Hutterite sects) in South Dakota, while others, known as prairieleit, or “prairie people” opted for private land ownership near Freeman, South Dakota. They stayed for some years, then traveled north across the Medicine Line in early 1900 to take up residence in the North-West Territories of Canada, in what would become known as Alberta and Saskatchewan.

My ancestors, all prairieleit, settled around the towns of Borden, Langham, Dalmeny and Radisson, west of Saskatoon along the banks of the North Saskatchewan River, flat and fertile land that surely struck a note of recognition in the eyes of the travelers from Ukraine. Individual men bought land and proved up ground for homesteads. Women dug in their storage chests and pulled out shriveled seeds they had carefully sequestered when they left the old country. Gardens were planted, hardy crops similar to what they’d grown in their fields close to the Sea of Azuv: wheat, cabbage, potatoes, carrots and beets.

Those vegetables, especially the beets, were a lodestar for the homes left behind. Eating beets is the closest we come to eating a mouthful of minerals. Densely textured, richly coloured and earthy, even in seed form, beets are reminiscent of dirt. So roast your roots, and share them. First we eat. Then we’ll share stories of our ancestors.

Next time: the Irish famine and potatoes.

Cooking beets — and what to do with them 

Beets are easy to cook, in a rainbow of colours: purple, white, golden and Chioggia — concentric pink circles shot through with white. Purple are most intensely flavoured, followed in descending order; the palest colours are mildest. Shape influences flavour, too; oval beets are milder than round ones.

Refrigerated beets keep for months if they are wrapped in paper towels in airtight containers or plastic bags.

Beets can be steamed, boiled or roasted. Stovetop cooking is messy if beets leak all over the stovetop. Use the oven! To roast beets, wrap half a dozen beets of similar size in a double layer of foil, and toss them into a hot oven. They cook more quickly in small packets than on large covered trays. Large beets take an hour at least to roast. Squeeze to test for doneness; they should give under your fingers. 

Peel beets after cooking; raw beets bleed profusely if they are peeled or sliced, so cook them clothed. Let them cool a bit, then rub them with a tea towel to slip them out of their skins. Anthocyanin, the colour in purple beets, is water-soluble, but is set by acids. Wash your hands before you get lemon juice on those purple stains, or they endure as long as henna hand painting. Toss purple beets minimally to avoid staining everything. Keep them separate from other components until the last minute, or toss them in separate bowls and serve them side by side. 

For a stellar winter salad, serve golden beets on red leaf lettuce or radicchio, and red beets on green leaf or with spears of Belgian endive. Then choose a red-skinned apple to slice beside the golden beets, and a green-skinned apple to pair with the red beets. Top with citrus vinaigrette, a bit of chèvre and some toasted nuts. 

Cooked beets are great in salads, risotto and pasta, wearing only olive oil and fruit-based vinegar, or dressed up. Many flavours love beets: cabbages, radicchio and endive; nuts and nut oils; all citrus; vanilla; apples; mustard or dill are classic pairings, as is duck, and all cured or smoked pork. Potatoes and beets make red flannel hash; cabbage and onions combine with beets to make borscht, with or without meat. Try sparing amounts of sweet spices such as paprika, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, cinnamon or allspice; add handfuls of herbs such as tarragon, chives, dill, fennel or parsley. Use beets in chocolate cakes, sorbets or ice creams, as a reminder that beets are a source of sugar.

The post Putting down roots, part 1: Beets appeared first on Grainews.

I picked all the tomatoes, thankfully without a hint of frost on them, then cut down the herbs. The basil leaves that protruded above the raised bed’s timber frame were wilted and discoloured from the chill, so I snipped the rest, then moved on to the hardier herbs. The rosemary plants came indoors.

By then, my kitchen counters were covered. So I left the last of the beans on their bushes and vines to dry for seed. And I left the carrots, beets and spuds in their beds to get chilly, transforming into added sweetness. I made a coffee and thought about how to store my bounty, starting with the herbs.

READ MORE: Tomatoes and onions in gardens everywhere

Highly flavoured acid — that is, vinegar — is a necessity in the cook’s pantry. Acidity is vital for balancing dishes in conjunction with salt, sweetness, fat and spicy heat. I have a cupboard devoted to vinegars, so I filled a few quart jars with herbs, plus a few embellishments, then glugged in some apple cider vinegar to cover the stems and leaves. A double layer of plastic wrap went over the mouth of the jar to protect the lid from corroding, then I sealed and labelled each. They’d be ready for decanting in about a month. One jar was straight tarragon; a second held basil, thyme, rosemary, sage, oregano and parsley, in a Prairie version of “Scarborough Fair”; a third held the last of the basil with some quartered purple prune plums and star anise.

I tied the rest of the herbs into bundles and hung them over the wood stove to dry for several weeks before they would be rubbed from their stems and stored in glass jars.

The tomatoes ripened slowly on the counter in a single row, stems down, on trays lined with paper towel. If I’d planned on being away for a protracted length of time, I’d have wrapped each in newspaper and stored them in a cool room for my return. When I got impatient with the slow ripening time, I added a few bananas to each tray for their ethylene emission.

That morning I made soup with the first few pounds of ripe tomatoes. “What smells so good?” Dave said repeatedly whenever he wandered into the kitchen. A few days later, when more tomatoes ripened, I made the soup again, but with variations. Dave couldn’t make up his mind which version he preferred. So first we eat, then let’s talk about the hallmarks of a good recipe.

Tomato and red lentil soup

One of the hallmarks of a good recipe might be its versatility. This self-thickening soup, my current favourite, can drive off in all kinds of other directions, depending on how you season it. See options at the bottom of the ingredients list to debate with your own clan. Use fresh tomatoes, or Roasted Tomato Sauce (see Sept. 21, 2021 issue) from your freezer. I particularly love to serve it with grilled Greek-style pita slathered with Boursin cheese. Simmering time: about an hour.

Serves 6-8.

• 2 Tbsp. olive oil or butter
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 large onion, minced
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1-2 mild or spicy sausages, diced, raw or cooked (optional)
• ¼ c. tomato paste
• 4 c. diced tomatoes
• 1 ½ c. red lentils
• 1 tsp. dried oregano
• 1 tsp. dried basil
• 1 Tbsp. honey
• a large sprig of fresh basil, if available
• 6 c. water
• 1 Tbsp. herb-flavoured vinegar
• 1 c. crème fraiche or whipping cream

Other possibilities:

• diced ham or pulled pork
• sliced bacon
• smoked paprika
• sweet paprika
• Indian curry spices
• Thai curry paste
• Mexican whole or ground chiles or chili powder
• cooked chickpeas or Great Northern beans
• diced bell peppers
• corn kernels
• coconut milk to replace the crème fraiche

Heat butter or oil in a large heavy-bottomed pot. Add garlic, sauté for a minute, then add onion. Season with salt and pepper, reduce heat to low, cover the pot, and sweat onions for 10 minutes, stirring once or twice.

Uncover, raise the heat, and add sausage. Cook until done or reheated, then add tomato paste. Sauté for 2 minutes, stirring. Add all remaining ingredients except vinegar and crème fraiche or whipping cream. Stir well, bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until tender, and lentils fall apart, about an hour.

Add vinegar and crème fraiche or whipping cream, mix well, adjust seasoning with additional salt and pepper to taste, and serve.

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It’s primarily from these plains bison that we now have around 500,000 bison in North America. Canada did the major saving, not from the small, far-scattered buffalo groups such as those in Yellowstone. Canada also saved the much bigger wood bison by locating a herd of 250 in the Northwest Territories and bringing them south to Elk Island National Park near Edmonton. These wood buffalo have also been used to restock wood buffalo herds in Alaska and other parts of the world. Canada did the work and the U.S., as usual, shamelessly claims the credit.

Dog diets

I keep hearing “meat for dogs” in many commercials, as in, “Feed them pure meat and not the byproducts.” In fact, the byproducts of the meat industry are much more nutritious than plain meat. Byproducts are hearts, kidneys, livers and other organs that are far more nutritious than plain meat. There are those who keep their dogs on plain raw or cooked meat diets. Dog food? The dried stuff in particular is a carefully balanced diet well suited for dogs. In the “wild,” coyotes (wild dogs) eat all kinds of fruits and vegetables, from raspberries and apples to raw carrots and potatoes.

Seed sale

Home garden purchasing is another misunderstood issue. The carrot seed of the same variety may come from the same seed farm in France but may be sold by a number of seed companies. It’s a question of what you get for your dollar. As a Canadian, you can legally buy packaged seed from any seed company in the U.S. or Europe at any time, but you cannot send seed of any kind to the U.S. unless it has a valid Canadian inspection certificate.

Now get this right: you cannot take oranges into the U.S., since Canada imports oranges from around the world, but you can bring any number of oranges from the U.S. into Canada.

Keep home fires from burning

With the massive fire destruction in California and elsewhere, take heed. How many farms do you see with spruce trees or spruce or pine shelterbelts that are way too close to the farm house or farm buildings? Last year (2024) I knew of a farmhouse at one site and farm buildings at another location in Alberta that burned down. In past years such farms had cows, horses and sometimes sheep around the buildings and trees. Now that those animals have gone, grasses and brush spring up around the trees and spruce shelterbelts. It’s the grass tinder that can wipe out the shelterbelt or any nearby buildings. Get out the glyphosate — grasses are killed and spruce, after Aug. 1, is unharmed and fully tolerant to this herbicide. Get rid of the grass tinder.

On a related note, how many times have you been told that pine and spruce trees turn the soil acidic? You will note very close to, or right under, pine or spruce trees, you will see little or no vegetation. That’s because both pine and spruce trees retain their green needles during the winter and on warmer days, they may lose lots of moisture. What they do is not changing the acidity of the soil at all. Rather, they remove the surface soil moisture, which makes it impossible for weed seeds to germinate, or they may restrict the moisture of nearby grasses or brush, especially in the spring months. Pine trees do grow well on acidic soils but are not the cause of the acidity.

Dairy and diseases

Will the raw milk crowd go away? In the U.S., raw milk sells for up to $21 per U.S. gallon. Around four per cent of people may drink raw milk in a year but only one per cent drink it regularly. Now, raw milk has been shown, in some instances, to transmit the bird flu virus, as well as brucellosis, tuberculosis, listeria and campylobacter, to name a few more cow milk-borne diseases that could occasionally be present. Pasteurization makes the milk perfectly safe and as fully nutritious as ever.

Worms at work

Worm compost is treated like it has magic properties, but in reality, it’s no better than composted cow manure or not as good as poultry manure. In agricultural fields, especially with zero till, worms do wonders. A square yard of soil could contain more than a half mile of earthworm tunnels.

Darwin once observed that a layer of small stones, when left on a field surface, would in a few years, seem displaced, as worms would have moved earth from below ground and left it on top of those undisturbed stones. That’s how small stones appear to sink in the soil over time. The volume of soil moved by worms is stupendous.

Worm tunnels contribute hugely to soil drainage and soil aeration. A whole field of topsoil over the very many years may well have passed through the gut of earthworms. Earthworms, all nine or more of the common species on the Prairies, were introduced into Canada primarily from Europe. There were no earthworms in Canada prior to the coming of Europeans.

A grain of salt

Big-deal “sea salt” or Himalayan “pink salt” is all culinary nonsense. These salts are primarily sodium chloride but also have toxic trace elements such as lead, cadmium and arsenic, as well as silver, copper, et cetera, in parts per million (ppm) or parts per billion (ppb). Common table salt sold in Canada contains, in addition to pure refined salt (sodium chloride), iodine.

Iodine, often deficient in the Canadian population, has been added to the salt. Iodine is essential for the production of thyroid hormone. Thyroid hormone is essential for brain development, especially for children. Low or deficient iodine for hormone production has been shown to cause permanent brain damage. Keep your iodized salt!

Saw this quote recently: “Science progresses one funeral at a time.”

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Nielsen’s experience in public policy, trade and global development spans two decades and includes positions with Export Development Canada, food aid non-profit Nutrition International and Global Affairs Canada.

Nielsen, in the newly-created role, will lead policy development and research initiatives and engage governments and other stakeholders on the interests of the Canadian fruit and vegetable sector.

Nielsen’s “talent for forging strategic partnerships, will be pivotal as FVGC intensifies its efforts to deliver results for Canadian growers” said Fruit and Vegetable Growers executive director Massimo Bergamini in a news release.

“As the voice of Canadian fruit and vegetable growers, FVGC must ensure their priorities and concerns are heard and acted on,” said Bergamini.

After assuming the role mid-August, Nielsen will reach out to FVGC members to gain more insight into the sector.

“I’m excited to work alongside such a dedicated team to advance policies that strengthen the sector and ensure Canadians continue to have access to healthy, sustainable food,” Nielsen said in the release.

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A new analysis of 450 genomes from cultivated potatoes and 56 genomes of wild potato species has revealed that the potato lineage originated through natural interbreeding between a wild tomato plant and a potato-like species in South America about 9 million years ago.

This hybridization event led to the appearance of the nascent potato plant’s tuber, an enlarged structure housing nutrients underground, according to the researchers, who also identified two crucial genes involved in tuber formation. Whereas in a tomato plant the edible part is the fruit, in the potato plant it is the tuber.

“Potatoes are truly one of humanity’s most remarkable food staples, combining extraordinary versatility, nutritional value and cultural ubiquity in ways few crops can match,” said Sanwen Huang, a genome biologist and plant breeder at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and senior author of the study published on Friday in the journal Cell.

“People eat potatoes using virtually every cooking method – baking, roasting, boiling, steaming and frying. Despite being stereotyped as carbohydrates, potatoes offer vitamin C, potassium, fiber and resistant starch, and are naturally gluten-free, low-fat and satiating – a nutrient-dense calorie source,” Huang added.

Resistant starch is a type of carbohydrate that resists digestion in the small intestine and ferments in the large intestine, feeding beneficial bacteria in the gut.

Etuberosum to Solanum tuberosum

The modern-day potato plant’s scientific name is Solanum tuberosum. Its two parents identified in the study were plants that were the ancestors of a potato-like species now found in Peru named Etuberosum, which closely resembles the potato plant but lacks a tuber, and the tomato plant.

These two plants themselves shared a common ancestor that lived about 14 million years ago, and were able to naturally interbreed when the fortuitous hybridization event occurred five million years after they had diverged from each other.

“This event led to a reshuffling of genes such that the new lineage produced tubers, allowing these plants to expand into the newly created cold, dry habitats in the rising Andes mountain chain,” said botanist Sandra Knapp of the Natural History Museum in London, a co-author of the study.

This hybridization event coincided with the rapid uplift of the Andes. With a tuber, the potato plant was able to adapt to the changing regional environment and thrive in the harsh conditions of the mountains.

“Tubers can store nutrients for cold adaptation, and enable asexual reproduction to meet the challenge of the reduced fertility in cold conditions. These allowed the plant to survive and rapidly expand,” Huang said.

Study may improve potato breeding

The study’s findings, according to the researchers, may help guide improved cultivated potato breeding to address environmental challenges that crops presently face due to factors such as climate change.

There currently are roughly 5,000 potato varieties. The potato is the world’s third most important food crop, after rice and wheat, for human consumption, according to the Peru-based International Potato Center research organization. China is the world’s leading potato producer.

“It always is hard to remove all the deleterious mutations in potato genomes in breeding, and this study opens a new door to make a potato free of deleterious mutations using the tomato as the chassis of synthetic biology,” Huang said.

The study also may open the door to generate a new crop species that could produce tomato fruit above ground and potato tubers below ground, according to Zhiyang Zhang, a postdoctoral researcher at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

The potato and tomato are members of the nightshade family of flowering plants that also includes tobacco and peppers, among others. The study did not investigate the evolutionary origins of other tuberous root crops that originated in South America such as the sweet potato and yuca, which are members of different families of flowering plants.

While the parts of the tomato and potato plants that people eat are quite different, the plants themselves are very similar.

“We use different parts of these two species, fruits in tomatoes and tubers in potatoes,” Knapp said. “If you look at the flowers or leaves, these are very similar. And if you are lucky enough to let your potato plant produce fruits, they look just like little green tomatoes. But don’t eat them. They are not very nice.”

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Onions and garlic offer more than good smells. In Cancer Letters (vol. 269, issue 2), scientists Anna A. Powolny and Shivendra Singh from the United States discuss research findings that show allium vegetables such as onions and garlic are effective in cancer prevention and treatment and “can not only offer protection against chemically induced cancer in animal models by altering carcinogen metabolism, but also suppressing growth of cancer cells in culture and in vivo by causing cell cycle arrest.”

In folk medicine that recognizes the healing value of food, this is old news. Garlic is widely acknowledged as antibacterial, anti-fungal and anti-thrombotic (preventing blood clotting). Much of the value in onions derives from its high sulphur content; that which makes us cry, though, is also responsible for alliums’ healthful properties.

So into the stockpot go the onions and garlic. Next are the bones — in my kitchen, chicken bones from the free-range birds I buy annually from my farmer friend. With some carrots, spices and herbs, this combo simmers in water for hours, releasing gelatin and nutrients from the vegetables and the bones. When it’s cooled, strained and chilled, the stock should go thick and goopy, revealing the presence of gelatin.

Meat-based stock — bone broth, as some call it — has been indispensable as a nutrient for millennia, especially in times and places where animal protein is in short supply. The collagen released from the bones during long simmering converts into gelatin, which facilitates digestion and may promote reduction of inflammation. So what seems like a simple combination of unprepossessing ingredients is actually highly nutritious, and I plan on taking regular doses of stock-based homemade soups to my friend in the hospital as she recuperates. First we eat, and feed our friends in need, then we talk about hospital fare.

Chicken stock

I collect chicken bones, raw and/or roasted, in my freezer, and make stock as needed. If you don’t have bones, find an old stewing hen, or gallina, as Italian nonnas call them. Failing either, buy backs and bones, or a whole bird.

Roasting the bones, onions and garlic engages the Maillard reaction of browned and caramelized surfaces for better colour and aroma and possibly more accessible enzymes. If you are making a smallish potful of stock and don’t want to use the oven to roast bones or vegetables, use your air fryer or a cast iron pan on the stovetop to generate good colour and flavour.

Recuperative soup is a “mother” in the French culinary sense. It can be as simple as stock with additional minced garlic, onions and carrots, or it can evolve into any number of equally simple soup variants, such as the best-ever chicken noodle, or French onion. Or add potatoes, carrots, yams or celery root, and puree when cooked for a thick texture; add pasta, tomatoes and minced sausage for minestrone; add lentils or dried beans or chickpeas with or without a ham hock for split pea/lentil/bean soup; add corn and ham for chowder; or add beef and barley for that favourite classic. In short, add ingredients ad infinitum.

The addition of a bit of apple cider vinegar helps with the release of gelatin from the bones. Do not salt the stock as if simmers; if you reduce it for a sauce, it may become too salty.

Makes 4 quarts.

• 5 lb. chicken bones
• 1-2 medium onions, halved
• 1 head garlic, split crosswise
• 3 large carrots, coarsely chopped
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 1 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
• A handful of parsley stalks
• A handful of basil stalks
• A sprig of rosemary
• A handful of fresh thyme
• 12-15 whole peppercorns
• Water to cover

Brown the bones, onions and garlic as described in the headnote. Combine in stockpot with remaining ingredients. Cover with cold water and bring to a boil, then reduce to an active simmer so it actively bubbles over half the surface. Cook for four to 12 hours, replenishing water whenever it drops below the top surface.

Cool and strain, then ladle into containers. Chill, remove coagulated fat cap and freeze the stock until needed.

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