(Scott Bauer photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

Dairy farmers worry Trans-Pacific trade deal could hurt

Reading Time: 2 minutes Ottawa | Reuters — Canada’s powerful dairy industry on Friday expressed concern it could suffer if talks to create a Pacific trade treaty open up heavily protected Canadian markets to more foreign competition. Some of the 12 nations taking part in negotiations on a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) want Canada to start dismantling a system known […] Read more

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, shown here speaking Thursday in Quebec City, said it’s “essential” for Canada to be in on a Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact. (Jason Ransom photo courtesy PMO)

Canada must be part of TPP, will defend farmers: Harper

Reading Time: 2 minutes Ottawa | Reuters — Canada must join a proposed Pacific trade pact but will strive to protect farmers, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Thursday, referring to foreign pressure to scrap tariffs that protect the dairy industry. Some of the 12 nations taking part in talks on a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) want Canada to start dismantling […] Read more


(Dave Bedard photo)

Western states to get US$110M in drought aid

Reading Time: < 1 minute Washington | Reuters — The White House said Friday it would spend an additional US$110 million to help farmers and communities in western states hit hard by drought and wildfires. The drought has affected a third of the western United States, and President Barack Obama was slated to discuss it with western governors in a […] Read more



(AllflexUSA.com)

Premises ID now online for Sask. livestock producers

Reading Time: 2 minutes Saskatchewan’s premises ID (PID) system for livestock producers has officially gone online, the provincial and federal ag ministries announced Monday. While the province’s livestock commodity groups and provincial ag ministry have so far helped about 1,400 producers register their operations, the new system will allow producers to sign up, log in and make changes to […] Read more

(Scott Bauer photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

CFIA declares B.C. avian flu-free

Reading Time: 2 minutes With three months’ distance from the cleanup at the last of the province’s infected poultry barns, the federal government has declared British Columbia free of highly pathogenic avian flu. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Monday it had notified the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) that B.C. is considered free of notifiable avian influenza, […] Read more



Quebec Agriculture Minister Pierre Paradis. (MAPAQ.gouv.qc.ca)

Quebec plans new legal status for animals

Reading Time: 2 minutes Quebec’s agriculture minister has tabled a new provincial government bill to raise the legal status of domestic and farmed animals in the province beyond that of “furniture.” Pierre Paradis on Friday introduced Bill 54 in the provincial assembly, with the stated goal of enshrining animals in Quebec’s Civil Code as sentient beings — that is, feeling and […] Read more



Farm and Country editor John Phillips, 88

Reading Time: < 1 minute A memorial is scheduled Saturday in Toronto for journalist John Phillips, who served 25 years as editor of the Ontario farming journal Farm and Country. Phillips died “peacefully” Wednesday at Credit Valley Hospital in Mississauga at age 88, according to his obituary. According to Farm and Country’s successor magazine Better Farming, Phillips was the now-defunct […] Read more