PFGBest boss gets 50 years’ jail for fraud

Reading Time: 3 minutes A U.S. judge on Thursday sentenced the founder of Peregrine Financial Group (PFGBest) to 50 years in prison for looting hundreds of millions of dollars from the brokerage, saying his customers would probably never recover the money they lost. Russell Wasendorf Sr., who had tried to kill himself just before the fraud was uncovered last […] Read more

GF2’s new AgriMarketing program taking applications

Reading Time: 3 minutes Canada’s federal and provincial ag departments, ahead of the April 1 launch of their new ag policy funding framework, have opened their new AgriMarketing program to applications from the industry. Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz, speaking Thursday in Edmonton, fleshed out details for both the AgriMarketing and AgriCompetitiveness arms of the new federal/provincial ag framework, […] Read more


AAFC to shed federal responsibility for co-operatives

Reading Time: 3 minutes Canada’s federal agriculture department is poised to hand off its responsibility for policy and support relating to the co-operative sector. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s oversight of Canada’s Rural and Co-operatives Secretariat (RCS), which the department has held for over 30 years, is to be transferred to Industry Canada. Further details weren’t yet available on the […] Read more

Canada’s farm fatality rate seen declining

Reading Time: 3 minutes Newly-gathered data on work-related farm deaths in Canada over an 18-year span shows a marked drop in such deaths after the turn of the millennium, suggesting a "greater commitment" to managing safety risks. A report from Canadian Agricultural Injury Reporting (CAIR), documenting farm fatalities from 1990 to 2008, puts the average number of such cases […] Read more


Food prices to stay high in 2013, FAO says

Reading Time: 2 minutes Food prices will stay at high levels in 2013 and low stocks pose the risk of sharp price increases if crops fail, the United Nations’ food agency said on Thursday, after its index showed prices fell for the third month running in December. A surge in food prices over the summer of 2012 fuelled by […] Read more

Up to half of world’s food goes to waste, report says

Reading Time: 3 minutes Up to half of all the food produced worldwide ends up going to waste due to poor harvesting, storage and transport methods as well as irresponsible retailer and consumer behaviour, a report said on Thursday. The world produces about four billion tonnes of food a year but 1.2 to 2 billion tonnes is not eaten, […] Read more


CFIA to reorient around ‘centres of expertise’

Reading Time: 2 minutes Canada’s federal food inspection agency plans to set up a new model of "single-window" access for processors and agency inspectors to get needed information, through 16 sector-specific "centres of expertise" across the country. Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz, speaking Monday at Crop Production Week in Saskatoon, said the new centres "will pool expertise and make […] Read more

U.S. fiscal plan averts ‘dairy cliff’

Reading Time: 2 minutes A deal approved by the U.S. Congress late on Tuesday to avoid the automatic tax hikes and spending cuts known as the "fiscal cliff" also includes measures to avert the "dairy cliff" — a steep increase in milk prices. The tax agreement contains a nine-month fix for expiring farm subsidy programs by extending a 2008 […] Read more



Kenya farmers reported attacking village, 30 dead

Reading Time: 3 minutes Raiders armed with guns, machetes and spears killed 30 people, including several children, and torched their houses in Kenya’s coastal region on Friday, police said, heightening security concerns ahead of next year’s election. Nine of the raiders were also killed in what appeared to have been a revenge attack by settled Pokomo farmers against the […] Read more