"It’s not that I’m a great baker,” says Mary Janet MacDonald. “It’s just that I really enjoy doing it. It’s genuine. I make mistakes.”

Tunes and wooden spoons

Dishing out recipes, music and love, a Cape Bretoner shows how a social media presence can be good both for the heart and the business

Reading Time: 4 minutes It’s the kind of good news story we could all use a little more of right now. Cape Breton Island’s Mary Janet MacDonald has brought hope and cheer to thousands during the COVID-19 pandemic through her love of cooking and people. Almost every single Sunday afternoon since the first pandemic restrictions were put in place […] Read more

(Olymel video screengrab via YouTube)

Sollio books deeper loss for 2022

Olymel's fresh pork business takes biggest hit

Reading Time: 3 minutes Domestic and international market-moving events have dragged hard on the year-end bottom line for Sollio Cooperative Group, particularly in its fresh pork business. Quebec-based Sollio — which operates the ag input and farm service business Sollio Agriculture, meat packer Olymel and hardware retailer BMR — on Thursday reported full-year revenues of $8.876 billion for its […] Read more


File photo of a cornfield in Mexico. (Roberto Cabrera/iStock/Getty Images)

Mexico opens door for GM corn in feed, industrial uses

U.S. 'disappointed' in Mexico's new decree

Reading Time: 2 minutes Mexico City | Reuters — Mexico on Monday scrapped a deadline to ban genetically modified corn for animal feed and industrial use amid trade tensions with the United States — but retained plans to prohibit use of the GM grain for human consumption, as well as the herbicide glyphosate. The move, approved in a government […] Read more

A plot of sweet white lupin at the Harrington research farm, just outside of Charlottetown, P.E.I.

Finding the sweet spot for lupin

The pulse crop has agronomic merits but more production depends on increased product development and marketing

Reading Time: 4 minutes No, it’s not the wild lupin, the blue-flowered plant that’s a common sight in roadside ditches, particularly in the Maritimes — it’s inedible to livestock and humans. Rather, it’s the sweet white lupin and the blue lupin, and they have impressive credentials — high protein (35 to 38 per cent), 30 per cent dietary fibre, […] Read more


(Nadezhda_Nesterova/iStock/Getty Images)

Bill to keep supply management off trade table moving forward

CCA, other groups oppose proposal as Bloc MP's private bill passes second reading

Reading Time: 4 minutes A federal private member’s bill that would codify the current government’s promise to leave supply-managed ag commodities out of any future free trade deals has advanced to the committee stage. Introduced last June 13 by Bloc Quebecois MP Luc Theriault, Bill C-282 came back last Wednesday to pass second reading in the House of Commons […] Read more

“There’s a lot of room,” Robinson says, but cautions, “we need to travel down that path with eyes wide open.”

‘Now is really our time’

Futurology: It’s important to set aside time to consider the big picture

Reading Time: 3 minutes This is the third in a series of articles looking at the future of Canadian agriculture. The first article considered “foresight,” a formal planning process used to envision the future. In the second article, entrepreneur Robert Saik said that in the future, farmer’s mental machinery will be the most important on-farm asset. Mary Robinson, president […] Read more


Stefanie Beck (DND photo) and Dr. Harpreet Kochhar (Uoguelph.ca).

Feds appoint new deputy ag minister, CFIA chief

Eleven senior civil servants shuffled

Reading Time: 2 minutes Canada’s government has lined up a new federal deputy minister for agriculture and a new president for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, both to take office later this month. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday announced a shuffle in the top ranks of the public service involving 11 senior managers following four recent retirements. Associate […] Read more

File photo of a Canadian Holstein dairy cow outdoors. (Diane Kuhl/iStock/Getty Images)

New U.S. ag trade chief demands Canada broaden dairy quota access

USTR's new ag rep's eyes also on Mexico GM corn ban

Reading Time: 2 minutes Washington | Reuters — Canada must let U.S. processors of cheese, ice cream, yogurt, milk powder and other dairy products have access to its import quotas to resolve a second U.S. dairy trade challenge, Washington’s new agricultural trade boss told Reuters. Doug McKalip, chief agricultural trade negotiator for the U.S. Trade Representative’s office, told Reuters […] Read more


Ag Minister Nate Horner speaks at the Harmony Beef plant at Balzac, Alta. on Feb. 7, 2023. (Government of Alberta video screengrab via YouTube)

Alberta plans new ag processing tax credit

Incentive to be introduced in 2023 budget

Reading Time: < 1 minute Alberta has telegraphed plans for a new provincial tax credit in its upcoming budget to spur development in the ag processing sector. The province on Tuesday announced plans for what it calls the Alberta Agri-Processing Investment Tax Credit — a 12 per cent, “non-refundable” tax credit for corporations making capital investments in “value-added agri-processing” in […] Read more

(Saputo Cheese USA video screengrab via YouTube)

Saputo to consolidate U.S. cheesemaking, shut three plants

Plans include one new plant, one repurposed

Reading Time: 2 minutes The Canadian company ranked among the three biggest cheesemakers in the U.S. is preparing to consolidate five of its cheese plants in that country down to two. Montreal-based Saputo announced last Thursday it has construction underway on a new $240 million cut-and-wrap cheese plant in the Milwaukee suburb of Franklin, to be up and running […] Read more