Reading Time: 2 minutes The federal government’s low-interest loan guarantee program for Canadian farmers will sweeten the interest-free portion of its offer for the next two program years to help with farm cash flow. Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau on Thursday announced a temporary increase in the interest-free portion of the Advance Payments Program to $250,000, up from the usual […] Read more
Cash advances’ interest-free portion temporarily raised
APP funds now interest-free for first $250K
Kellogg to spin off into three food companies
Plant-based foods, North American cereals to be hived off
Reading Time: 3 minutes The company that makes Mini-Wheats cereal, Pringles potato crisps and MorningStar veggie burgers now plans to see those each of those three product lines go their separate ways by the end of next year. Michigan-based Kellogg Co. said Tuesday its board has approved a plan to break into three yet-to-be-named independent publicly-traded companies by way […] Read more
N.S. farm limestone program boosted against rising diesel prices
Reading Time: < 1 minute Farmers in Nova Scotia facing rising prices for diesel fuel will see more funding via the Limestone Trucking Assistance Program (LTAP), which is expected to help offset some of those increased costs. “After touring multiple farms around the province to hear from farmers and meeting this morning with farmer Tim Marsh at the Nova Scotia […] Read more
Ontario ag minister returns in another Tory majority
Lisa Thompson retains seat in election
Reading Time: 2 minutes Ontario’s governing Progressive Conservatives will head back to the legislature with their incumbent agriculture minister at the caucus table. Lisa Thompson, Premier Doug Ford’s minister of agriculture, food and rural affairs since June last year, easily held her southwestern riding of Huron-Bruce in Thursday’s provincial election by a spread of 15,594 votes over Liberal challenger […] Read more
Environment Canada sees cool summer for Manitoba
Reading Time: < 1 minute MarketsFarm — Manitoba and eastern Saskatchewan could be in for a cooler-than-normal summer, according to the latest long-range outlook from Environment Canada. The latest seasonal forecast from the government agency, released Tuesday, calls for a 40 to 80 per cent chance of below normal temperatures from June through August across all of the agricultural regions […] Read more
Hepatitis A outbreak linked to organic strawberries
Cases reported in two provinces, three states
Reading Time: < 1 minute Washington | Reuters –– Food safety regulators in both Canada and the U.S. are investigating a hepatitis A outbreak potentially linked to tainted organic strawberries that has sickened 17 people in the U.S. and 10 in Canada, the agencies said. Fifteen illnesses were reported in California, and one each in Minnesota and North Dakota, the […] Read more
Fertilizer maker Yara says world faces extreme food supply shock
Sanctions cut global fertilizer supply 15 per cent, company says
Reading Time: 2 minutes Davos, Switzerland | Reuters — Norwegian fertilizer giant Yara says donors urgently need to close the U.N.’s $10 billion food programme funding gap to avoid a catastrophe as sanctions on Russian fertilizers and Ukraine’s grain export problems have created an extreme global shock. “The world has realized that food can be a weapon and it […] Read more
Wastewater regulation eased for Nova Scotia on-farm processing
Reading Time: < 1 minute Nova Scotia has introduced regulatory changes that allow on-farm processing operations to better manage wastewater on their smaller scale. The changes, which took effect May 11, come at the request of the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture (NSFA) — which has said that owners of small farm-level processing facilities shouldn’t be treated the same as […] Read more
Food crisis fuels fears of protectionism compounding shortages
Reading Time: 3 minutes Davos | Reuters — A growing world food crisis is precipitating protectionist moves by countries which are likely to compound the problem and could lead to a wider trade war, business leaders and policymakers at the World Economic Forum said. In a sign of the escalating squeeze on food supplies and rising prices, a government […] Read more
World could see 1.5 C of warming in next five years, WMO reports
Reading Time: 2 minutes London | Reuters — The world faces a 50 per cent chance of warming of 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels, if only briefly, by 2026, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Monday. That does not mean the world would be crossing the long-term warming threshold of 1.5 C (2.7 F), which scientists have set […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
