General

Reading Time: 2 minutes The federal government has budgeted $50 million for a new funding program meant to support development and commercialization of new products and processes in the agriculture sector. Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz and Quebec MP Jacques Gourde on Thursday launched the Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP) at separate events in Regina and St-Hyacinthe, Que., respectively. The AIP, […] Read more

Reading Time: 2 minutes The farmer in charge of Quebec’s overarching and politically influential farmers’ organization has decided not to seek a third term. Christian Lacasse, president of the Union des producteurs agricoles (UPA), said Tuesday he will not defend the title at the organization’s annual meeting later this month. His decision clears the field for the only other […] Read more

Reading Time: < 1 minute The U.S. Senate on Tuesday passed a bill to bar farm subsidies to wealthy Americans, a step that small-farm advocates said could lead to reform of U.S. farm supports that cost billions of dollars a year. The provision against subsidies to people with more than $1 million a year in adjusted gross income (all figures […] Read more

Reading Time: 2 minutes A veteran Hamilton-area MPP and former cabinet minister is Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty’s choice for minister of agriculture, food and rural affairs in a cabinet short on ag experience. Ted McMeekin, the MPP for Ancaster-Dundas-Flamborough-Westdale, was sworn in Thursday as ag minister following the Oct. 6 election, which saw McGuinty’s Liberal government reduced just shy […] Read more

Reading Time: < 1 minute Supermarket company Sobeys has “realigned” its organizational chart around its Sobeys and IGA grocery store chains rather than by geography. The Nova Scotia-based company on Thursday said it has formed two business units, each with its own president of operations. The IGA unit includes the company’s IGA chain plus four other Quebec-based retail chains, IGA […] Read more

Reading Time: 2 minutes Alberta’s newly minted premier has tapped a farmer and rookie MLA as her new minister of agriculture and rural development, in a shuffle that also includes several departmental mergers. Evan Berger, who was elected as the MLA for the southwestern riding of Livingstone-Macleod in 2008, comes to the ag portfolio with a resume of farming […] Read more