Reading Time: 2 minutes The Wal-Mart effect has hit Canada’s grocery store industry, pressuring prices in supermarkets even as Canadian food manufacturers’ margins show steady improvement, according to a year-end review by the George Morris Centre. The agricultural industry think-tank, based in Guelph, Ont., on Tuesday posted its year-end review of Canada’s food industry, authored by senior market analyst […] Read more
Food makers’ margins rise, retailers’ fall: review
McCain plans potato plant in U.S. northwest
Reading Time: < 1 minute Frozen food giant McCain Foods plans to build a $150 million processing plant in the U.S. Pacific northwest, but won’t yet say where or how big. The New Brunswick-based company issued a release Wednesday saying its facility would be designed to make French fries and potato specialties mostly for food service and quick-service restaurant customers […] Read more
Sask. poultry farmers press for flu cleanup funds
Reading Time: 2 minutes The cost burden for cleaning up poultry farms after outbreaks of avian flu shouldn’t be left to affected farmers alone, Saskatchewan’s poultry groups said Tuesday. The poultry groups, pooling their resources under the banner of the Saskatchewan Poultry Industry Emergency Management Team (SPIEMT), said Tuesday that they had raised $100,000 to help a farmer in […] Read more
Cargill to shut NW Sask. elevator
Reading Time: < 1 minute Cargill plans to close its grain elevator and farm service centre at Cut Knife, Sask., effective Dec. 31. Services offered to Cargill customers at Cut Knife (about 60 km west of North Battleford) are to be transferred to three “regional” Cargill facilities: its expanded operation at North Battleford, its ag input dealership at Unity, Sask. […] Read more
Ont. to invest $10M in E. coli vaccine maker
Reading Time: 2 minutes Ontario’s provincial government will make a $10 million investment in Bioniche Life Sciences’ expansion plans for commercial-scale production of its E. coli vaccine for cattle. The company owns the rights to worldwide commercialization of the vaccine, which Bioniche said can prevent E. coli O157:H7 from colonizing in cattle’s digestive systems and can reduce the amount […] Read more
Sask. repeals potash expropriation powers
Reading Time: < 1 minute The Saskatchewan government plans to officially dump a 32-year-old law that granted it powers to expropriate private potash assets. Premier Brad Wall’s government, which took office from the previous NDP administration last month, on Monday introduced legislation to repeal the provincial Potash Development Act. The repeal will take away the government’s ability to nationalize the […] Read more
P.E.I. cattlemen name new commodity board
Reading Time: < 1 minute Six Prince Edward Island cattlemen have been named by acclamation to sit on the province’s new cattle commodity board. The Prince Edward Island Cattle Producers Board, created as a commodity board in January this year, was initially led by the directors of the P.E.I. Cattlemen’s Association on the date that the regulation for the new […] Read more
WTO panel investigating U.S. subsidies
Reading Time: < 1 minute Complaints from Canada and Brazil against the United States’ domestic farm support programs are now under formal investigation by a World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement body. News services and stakeholders reported Monday that the WTO panel had officially launched its investigation into the multi-billion-dollar U.S. subsidy regime. Canada’s federal government announced in November that […] Read more
CFIA finds Canada’s 11th mad cow
Reading Time: < 1 minute A 13-year-old beef cow from Alberta was confirmed Tuesday as Canada’s latest case of mad cow disease (BSE). The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) reported that the animal’s carcass is under CFIA control and no part of it entered the food or feed system. The agency also assured in a press release that this case […] Read more
Feds to toughen food safety penalties
Reading Time: < 1 minute Heavier fines for food safety violations and stronger recall powers are among the new measures for food, health and consumer product safety that the federal government plans to legislate in the new year. Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the government’s plans Monday in Ottawa, starting with a dialogue with consumer and industry stakeholders in early […] Read more