COOL confusion costs producers: CCA, CPC

Reading Time: 2 minutes Watching its rules be reinterpreted on “a weekly basis,” Canada’s cattle and hog producers say U.S. country-of-origin labelling (COOL) legislation is now chilling cross-border trade volume and prices. The Canadian Cattlemen’s Association and Canadian Pork Council have filed joint comments with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) saying COOL is discriminating against Canada’s 100,000 livestock […] Read more

Alta. ships PID forms for AFRP II funding

Reading Time: < 1 minute Alberta livestock producers will either soon have or be able to order the forms needed for their second round of benefits under the Alberta Farm Recovery Plan (AFRP) II. The province, in an information bulletin Tuesday, reiterated that to receive their second installment of AFRP II funding in early 2009, cattle producers must age-verify their […] Read more


Sask. boosts water funding for dry southwest

Reading Time: < 1 minute The Saskatchewan government will use AgriRecovery funds to boost funding for ranchers and farmers in the parched southwest to build infrastructure to supply water. Provincial Agriculture Minister Bob Bjornerud announced Tuesday in Swift Current that producers in 65 drought-designated rural municipalities can get boosts in aid available through the Farm and Ranch Water Infrastructure Program […] Read more

U.S. FDA approval eyed for canola proteins

Reading Time: 2 minutes A Canadian food research and development firm says it’s confirmed that its two canola protein isolates will meet U.S. safety standards as food ingredients — and will now see if U.S. regulators agree. Burcon NutraScience, based in Vancouver with lab and technical facilities in Winnipeg, announced Tuesday that it has “self-affirmed” that its products, Puratein […] Read more


Editors’ Picks: Testicular cuisine goes online

Reading Time: 2 minutes The Serbian chef who helped found the World Testicle Cooking Festival has compiled his hobby into an interactive digital cookbook, the Reuters news service reported Tuesday. Ljubomir Erovic has launched The Testicle Cookbook: Cooking With Balls, with a sample version available for previewing and the full version available for £5.99 (about C$11.65) online. The book […] Read more

St. Lawrence strike could hit grain prices: CWB

Reading Time: 2 minutes Grain prices could be pressured if a strike by unionized workers on the St. Lawrence Seaway comes to pass, the Canadian Wheat Board warns. The CWB and “other key stakeholders” in the Prairie grain industry are urging the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp. and operations, maintenance and clerical staff, represented by the Canadian Auto Workers […] Read more


CFIA caps melamine in Chinese milk imports

Reading Time: 2 minutes The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has set interim standards to limit the amount of melamine in imported foods that contain milk or milk products from China. CFIA announced in a memo to importers Monday that it will require documentation to prove product safety. Any imports of baby food or infant formula from anywhere outside Canada […] Read more

Ontario Pork out as single-desk hog marketer

Reading Time: 3 minutes Ontario Pork has until Dec. 1 to come up with a new structure and governance model to match its new role in hog marketing in Ontario. That role, announced Monday in a decision by the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission, will be to “represent, and collect license fees from, producers of all classes of pigs, […] Read more


Rain stalls Man. harvest, Sask. nearly done

Reading Time: 2 minutes Farmers in Saskatchewan are on last year’s pace to bring their 2008 crop in, while Manitoba farmers must now wait out rain that fell on much of their remaining crop on Sunday and Monday. According to Monday’s crop report from Saskatchewan’s ag ministry, farmers have harvested 95 per cent of the 2008 crop, the same […] Read more

Farm Business Communications earns 11 at CFWF

Reading Time: 2 minutes Farm Business Communications came away with 11 national awards Saturday at the Canadian Farm Writers’ Federation awards banquet in Courtenay, B.C. The Farm Business Communications division, based in Winnipeg and owned by Vancouver’s Glacier Ventures International, operates this website and is publisher of Country Guide, Grainews, Canadian Cattlemen, the Manitoba Co-operator, Alberta Farmer Express and […] Read more