Reading Time: 5 minutes Almost half of Indigenous households living on reserve and a quarter of those living off reserve struggle with food insecurity, compared with about eight per cent for all households across Canada. The discovery earlier this year of the graves of 215 children buried at a former Indian residential school (and the thousands more that followed) […] Read more
Finding hope in Indigenous food
Food sovereignty is emerging as a core value in today’s reconciliation efforts
ADM profit more than doubles on strong crush margins, vegoil demand
Reading Time: 2 minutes Global grain trader Archer-Daniels-Midland Co said on Tuesday its third-quarter profit more than doubled, as strong oilseed crushing margins and rising vegetable oil demand boosted its core agricultural services and oilseeds unit. The Chicago-based U.S. grains merchant is anticipating the favorable demand and margin environment to continue supporting results in the fourth quarter and foresees […] Read more
Italy vetoes sale of seed producer to Chinese-owned Syngenta
Reading Time: 2 minutes Rome | Reuters – Italy has prevented Chinese-owned group Syngenta from buying vegetable seed producer Verisem, government officials said, underscoring Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s commitment to shield key assets from unwanted foreign bids. The decision, made at a cabinet meeting on Oct. 19 but not yet made public, marks the first time Italy has vetoed […] Read more
White House not ruling out a U.S. carbon tax
Option 'not off the table' despite Manchin comment
Reading Time: 3 minutes Washington | Reuters –– The White House on Tuesday said it has not ruled out a carbon tax as a possible option for fighting climate change, even though U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, a critical holdout in the closely divided Senate, said he was not discussing the topic in talks about U.S. spending and infrastructure bills. […] Read more
More acres seen needed worldwide to meet mounting crops demand
U.S. acres may have already hit ceiling: AgResource chief
Reading Time: 2 minutes Geneva | Reuters — Farmers need more space to grow crops to meet mounting demand for food and renewable fuel at a time of slowing growth in yields, consultancy AgResource said on Tuesday. A renewable fuel push under U.S. President Joe Biden’s climate agenda is set to trigger a boom in soyoil use, reinforcing a […] Read more
Bayer sees farmers pre-buying inputs as supply-chain snarls continue
Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago/Berlin | Reuters — U.S. farmers are pre-buying seeds and chemicals they need earlier than normal, in a bid to secure supplies for next spring amid sector-wide supply-chain problems, a top executive at German agricultural and pharmaceuticals firm Bayer said Tuesday. Bayer also estimates its average seed prices will go up about five per cent […] Read more
Starting anew — with a research farm
Greg and Jolene Wilson embrace the opportunity to learn — and share that knowledge
Reading Time: 5 minutes It was February 2016 when Greg and Jolene Wilson made a momentous decision to leave their jobs with the same seed-and-chemical company and start their own independent research farm. The decision was fraught with anxiety, especially with their fourth child just born in December and the looming absence of a regular paycheque. Yet the two […] Read more
This is urban agriculture?
CANADA: If you want to see eyes roll, just ask Country Guide readers (and writers) if urban farmers are actually farmers. Since when was a pot of tomatoes on a balcony a farm? But maybe we need to think again
Reading Time: 7 minutes Not surprisingly, urban farming is generally defined as agriculture that is done in a city, usually on a small plot of land but really it could be on any available nook. That’s what separates it from conventional farming. But then, it’s also done as a business, producing food for commercial sale, which is what links […] Read more
A new SPIN on urban farming
CANADA: Here’s a Saskatchewan farm that defies all your preconceptions
Reading Time: 8 minutes Wally Satzewich learned from his mother at an early age how to pull weeds and tend a garden, and was grateful for those skills when he started his own urban agriculture project many years later. His parents were first-generation Ukrainian immigrants who had come to Canada in the early 1950s and settled in Saskatoon, where […] Read more
Conagra flags price increases to cushion inflation impact
Prepared foods firm raises sales forecast
Reading Time: < 1 minute Reuters — Conagra Brands said on Thursday it would increase prices again on its frozen meals and snacks to help cushion the blow of higher inflation, after the diversified food maker raised its annual sales forecast and topped quarterly results. Packaged food companies are grappling with inflation as the U.S. economy rebounds, while spending heavily […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
