A customer dines at a Burger King outlet in Shanghai on June 27, 2005. (File photo: Reuters/Ming Ming)

Tim Hortons, Burger King parent to hike prices

BK pulling Whopper off discount menu

Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters — Burger King parent Restaurant Brands International said on Tuesday that it stripped its most famous sandwich, the Whopper, from discount menus and will raise menu prices again this year as to offset higher costs. U.S.-listed shares of the company rose more than three per cent after it topped results estimates for the fourth […] Read more

File photo of chicks on a genetic map of a chicken. (Peggy Greb photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

Second Nova Scotia poultry operation hit with avian flu

U.S. also books outbreaks in two states

Reading Time: 2 minutes A second farm in western Nova Scotia has been hit with highly pathogenic avian influenza in commercial birds, further expanding containment measures in that province. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Monday it confirmed high-path H5N1 on Wednesday last week in birds at a mixed farm in the area, where operations include poultry and poultry […] Read more


(Scott Bauer photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

High-path H5N1 avian flu hits Nova Scotia turkey farm

Trade curbs in place; U.S. also has an outbreak in Indiana

Reading Time: 3 minutes Updated, Feb. 10 — Highly pathogenic avian flu has again landed in domestic birds in Atlantic Canada — but this time on a commercial turkey farm, leading other countries to halt imports from Canada’s feather sectors for now. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency last week filed a report with the World Organization for Animal Health […] Read more

File photo of Canada geese in a park in Nova Scotia. (Andyqwe/iStock/Getty Images)

No trade bans expected from Nova Scotia bird flu findings

High-path H5N1 a 'non-poultry detection'

Reading Time: < 1 minute A new outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza in a backyard flock in central Nova Scotia isn’t expected to affect international trade in Canada’s feather sectors. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) on Tuesday confirmed a high-path H5N1 strain affecting birds on the property, describing it Thursday as a “non-poultry detection” among animals not produced […] Read more


Employees walk around with face masks at the JBS USA meat packing plant at Greeley, Colorado on April 14, 2020. (File photo: Reuters/Shannon Stapleton)

JBS reaches ‘icebreaker’ settlement of beef price-fixing claims

Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters — JBS has agreed to pay US$52.5 million to settle litigation accusing meatpacking companies of conspiring to limit supply in the $63 billion-a-year U.S. beef market in order to inflate prices and boost profit. The preliminary settlement by the Brazilian company and its U.S. units with so-called direct purchasers was disclosed on Tuesday, and […] Read more

“You can’t just tell someone how to farm. I knew I needed to start preparing myself to make smart decisions.” – Easton Sellers.

A young farmer’s fresh start

These days, when everybody knows it’s impossible to become a farmer if you weren’t born on a farm, miracles do sometimes happen, as long as there’s some business smarts on the scene

Reading Time: 10 minutes Everyone who farms has a story about how they chose the life, whether they were born into it or started from scratch. And no matter who tells the tale, it always involves some luck, some good timing, lots of learning and pure determination.  Maybe in this case, though, it depended more on the stars than […] Read more


(Video screengrab for MercyForAnimals.org)

Chicken abuse caught on video nets $600,000 in fines

Sofina Foods, chicken-catching company fined; other charges stayed

Reading Time: 2 minutes A poultry processor and its “chicken-catching” service provider whose handling of chickens in British Columbia wound up on network TV are now each on the hook for $300,000 in fines. The fines were levied against Sofina Foods and Elite Farm Services after the two companies pled guilty to two counts each of Health of Animals […] Read more

File photo of a great black-backed gull standing on a fortress wall at the port city of Saint-Malo in northern France. (Sjo/iStock/Getty Images)

Second high-path avian flu case appears in Newfoundland

Case involves non-commercial 'small flock' farm in same area

Reading Time: 2 minutes A new appearance of highly pathogenic avian flu in birds at another farm on Newfoundland’s Avalon Peninsula isn’t expected to affect Canada’s status as free of avian flu. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency reported Tuesday it had confirmed ‘high-path’ H5N1 avian influenza (AI) on Sunday in birds at an “additional” farm in the region. It […] Read more


Dana Thatcher of Thatcher Farms located in Ontario.

Value adding, with a flourish

What does it take to thrive with a farm that value adds? The answer surprised Dana Thatcher, and it will likely surprise you too

Reading Time: 6 minutes When Dana Thatcher started getting compliments from the other teachers at school about the food she was bringing for lunch, little did she know it would lead to a thriving farm, food and agri-tourism business.  “People were interested in what I was eating, and the fact that we had grown it,” Thatcher recalls. “That’s what […] Read more

A northern gannet colony at the Cape St. Mary’s Ecological Reserve on Newfoundland’s Avalon Peninsula. (Benedek/E+/Getty Images)

No bans expected from Newfoundland avian flu outbreak

High-path H5N1 kills 360 birds on 'non-poultry' farm

Reading Time: 2 minutes Neither federal nor international animal health officials expect to see import bans imposed on Canadian poultry coming out of an avian flu outbreak at a farm on Newfoundland’s Avalon Peninsula. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency on Wednesday reported a confirmed outbreak of a highly-pathogenic (‘high-path’) strain of H5N1 avian influenza at an exhibition farm in […] Read more