Articles Written by Kelsey Johnson

Canada’s growers look to reopening garden centres to salvage dire year

By Kelsey Johnson May 8, 2020

Reading Time: 2 minutes Ottawa | Reuters — Hard-hit Canadian flower and nursery growers hope a surge in demand from budding gardeners in Ontario, the country’s biggest market, can help the industry avert disaster caused by the coronavirus with retailers reopening on Friday in the populous province. Most non-essential businesses in Canada were shut in mid-March as officials urged […] Read more

General, Markets

Trudeau pledges $252 million in COVID-19 aid for farmers, processors

Dairy commission's credit line extended for storage program

By Kelsey Johnson May 5, 2020

Reading Time: 2 minutes Ottawa | Reuters — Canada will invest $252 million to help some of the country’s farming and food processing sectors weather the coronavirus outbreak, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday, adding more money could come later if needed. The Canadian Federation of Agriculture, one of Canada’s biggest farm groups, asked Ottawa last week for an […] Read more

Livestock, Markets, Reuters

Canada sees no beef shortage, but prices may rise due to coronavirus

JBS plant at Brooks dials back to one shift

By Kelsey Johnson, Rod Nickel April 21, 2020

Reading Time: 2 minutes Ottawa/Winnipeg | Reuters –– The Canadian government is not expecting a beef shortage despite the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus in certain meat-packing plants, though prices may rise, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Tuesday. Trudeau added that beef producers are placing a priority on supplying the Canadian market before exporting products. Canada, one of […] Read more

Beef Cattle, Livestock, Markets, Reuters

Cargill to temporarily idle High River beef plant

Packing plant hit by COVID-19 outbreak; another 67 cases linked to JBS plant

By Kelsey Johnson April 20, 2020

Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters — Cargill Ltd. said Monday it had begun the process of temporarily idling its beef plant at High River, Alta. because of the COVID-19 outbreak as provincial health officials said hundreds of workers at the plant had become infected. In her daily media update, Alberta chief medical officer Deena Hinshaw said a total of […] Read more

Beef Cattle, Livestock, Reuters

Alberta’s Harmony Beef halts slaughter on positive COVID-19 test

CFIA pulls inspectors after plant employee tests positive

By Kelsey Johnson, Rod Nickel March 27, 2020

Reading Time: 2 minutes Ottawa/Winnipeg | Reuters — Harmony Beef, an Alberta packing plant, halted cattle slaughter on Friday after the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) kept some inspectors from work, due to a positive test for COVID-19 by a Harmony worker, the company said. The partial closure follows a positive COVID-19 test by a worker at U.S. chicken […] Read more

Crops, Markets, Reuters, Weather

Wheat in Whitehorse: How climate change helps feed Canada’s remote regions

Newfoundland and Labrador also pushing to expand arable land base

By Kelsey Johnson, Rod Nickel March 23, 2020

Reading Time: 3 minutes Winnipeg/Ottawa | Reuters — After failing to grow wheat in the Yukon territory 15 years ago, farmer Steve Mackenzie-Grieve gave it another shot in 2017. Thanks to longer summers, he has reaped three straight harvests. This spring he plans to sow canola on his family’s 450-acre farm near Whitehorse, a city not much further from […] Read more

General, Reuters

Temporary foreign workers to be allowed in, Canada reiterates

By Kelsey Johnson March 20, 2020

Reading Time: 2 minutes Ottawa | Reuters — Canada will allow temporary foreign workers with valid visas to enter the country, officials said on Friday, offering possible salvation to the agriculture industry even as Ottawa moves to limit the spread of a coronavirus outbreak. Canada’s labour-strapped farms rely heavily on nearly 60,000 temporary foreign workers (TFWs) to help plant […] Read more

Canola, Crops, Markets, Reuters

Coronavirus stalls talks with China on canola ban

Officials 'not in position to pursue technical discussions,' Bibeau says

By Kelsey Johnson February 21, 2020

Reading Time: 2 minutes Ottawa | Reuters — The coronavirus outbreak has stalled talks between Canada and China about Beijing’s decision to block Canadian canola seed shipments, Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said Friday. China, angry at Canada’s detention of a top Huawei Technologies executive in December 2018, blocked all imports of canola seed last March on the grounds they […] Read more

Crops, Reuters

Trudeau demands rail blockades be lifted

Canadians' patience running out, PM says

By Kelsey Johnson, Steve Scherer February 21, 2020

Reading Time: < 1 minute Ottawa | Reuters — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday demanded aboriginal protesters lift rail blockades that are hurting the economy and made clear police should, if necessary, enforce injunctions to remove the obstacles. Trudeau also told a news conference that the Liberal government’s talks with various indigenous leaders over the last two weeks […] Read more

Crops, Reuters

Court orders big ag firms to hand over documents in antitrust probe

By Kelsey Johnson February 12, 2020

Reading Time: 2 minutes Ottawa | Reuters — A Canadian federal court has ordered a group of major agriculture companies to hand over records and communications in an antitrust probe sparked by allegations some businesses tried to block online farm-supply startup Farmers Business Network (FBN). In a series of court orders issued Tuesday, Federal Court Justice Denis Gascon said […] Read more

COVID-19 and the farm: Stories from the GFM network

Farmer deliveries well above average in April

Outdoor Farm Show relocating to cyberspace for 2020

GFM Network News