MacDonald was sworn in as minister May 13 at Rideau Hall as part of prime minister Mark Carney’s first cabinet shuffle since the election.

He said the news of his new role came as a surprise even to him.

“In this business, you just never know … where you’re going land,” he said.

“We went through an election, and you’re kind of decompressing from that, and all of a sudden, Mr. Carney gave me the call, and here I am.

“First of all, you’re excited, obviously, and then the nervousness sets in, you start to think, ‘oh, wow, this is a pretty big event.’ ”

Macdonald represents the riding of Malpeque in Prince Edward Island.

“Farming, coming from the rural part of the country, is obviously on my plate each and every day,” he said.

“So, it’s not unprecedented to be in the middle of the farming issue.”

He said he hopes to have discussions with farmers and provincial ministers across the country to build trust and better understand the issues facing different regions.

“I could sit here and read binders all day, but boots on the ground, I can’t wait to get out of Ottawa, to be quite honest with you, and meet some of these farmers and these provincial ministers as well, to ensure that they understand who I am and what I’m made of, and what I can try to contribute to their success.”

MacDonald previously served on the House of Commons agriculture committee. He said this work allowed him to make valuable connections, including the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, the Canadian Cattle Association and the Canada Grains Council.

“The handshakes and the friendliness (are) there,” he said.

“We just need to get to work together now on some bigger issues.”

He said he hopes to use these connections to facilitate conversations across regions, including in-person meetings:

“It’s all about understanding their needs and ensuring that they know that I’m accessible.”

Before being elected to the House of Common s in 2021, MacDonald served as finance minister in the P.E.I legislature. He said this experience could be an advantage in his new role.

“It allows me to have a better understanding of the financial resources required to progress the farming community and allows me to speak freely on certain things that maybe some others might not be aware of.”

In addition to his role as agriculture minister, MacDonald was named to several government committees, including the Build Canada committee, which considers issues of economic productivity, including housing and climate action.

While MacDonald said he hasn’t had time yet to be fully briefed on what the committee will entail, he expects some agricultural concerns to carry over into Build Canada, specifically labour force issues.

“I’ll be front and centre with agriculture, ensuring that every decision that is made that they are well aware of the effects it has on the agri-food and agriculture portfolio,” he said.

“That’s my job, to ensure that we’re heard at the cabinet table, and that’s what I intend to do.”

One issue he said he hopes to engage other ministers on is interprovincial trade, which he called a high priority for the government.

Two of the major policies Canadian farmers are hoping to see action on are a formal reversal of the capital gains tax changes and a permanent removal of the carbon tax for on-farm activities.

“On both those issues, I believe the decisions that Mr. Carney came out with, it’s the right decision.”

“I think we were very clear on the carbon tax and eliminating it all together,” MacDonald said, and pointed out he was one of the few Liberal MPs to support Bill C-234, a private members bill that proposed carbon exemptions for some on-farm activities.

MacDonald also said he is aware of concerns around red tape and regulatory burdens. This includes reforms to the Pest Management Regulatory Agency, which he says he will be pursuing.

“There’s lots of issues right across the board, and we need to take each and every one of them and categorize them on the importance to those industries,” he said,

“And that’s what we’ll do.

“The lines of communication are open, and we’ll continue to have those discussions, and then bring it back to Ottawa and have those discussions with the bureaucrats, whether it’s CFIA or the department, or whoever needs to hear it, they’re going to hear it.

“I’m knee deep-in this stuff right now … but you learn and live every day, and we’ll just keep progressing forward.”

The post New agriculture minister hopes to engage farmers appeared first on Country Guide.

The report, titled Forces Impacting Animal Agriculture In Canada: A Synthesis, delves into the issues surrounding cattle, dairy and poultry production in the country and how it is interconnected within various factors in day-to-day life of residents.

Al Mussell, CAPI’s director of research, said the report draws from a lengthy technical report and while both that and the Synthesis document come to the conclusion of the importance of animal agriculture, the actual economic impact may not be so clear.

“It makes the point, and really drives home, that animal agriculture is extremely important in Canada. It’s extremely important from an economic growth perspective but it is particularly important regionally in rural areas that otherwise would not have the same levels of employment, levels of income in local communities,” said Mussell.

It’s also an industry that is built on using farming byproducts to increase the value of animals.

The report also highlights that Canada has some of the lowest CO2 emissions from the production of pork and beef, outclassing Western Europe, South America and Australia.

As well, the report highlights that farmers are the most trusted people in the Canadian food system and that animal agriculture in the country produces $90 billion in sales, 164,000 direct jobs and roughly two-and-a-half times that in indirect jobs.

The importance of animal agriculture provides options to farmers whose crops have been ravaged by hail and drought, and enhances pasture lands through grazing.

Mussell said such points can get lost in the complexity of the agricultural food production system.

“The motivation for writing this report, this major initiative on our part, comes out of the concern there are quite a number of people who need to be involved in decisions that relate to animal agriculture but don’t bring particular expertise to it,” said Mussell.

“Those people are in a difficult spot because there is always a tendency to fall into a subset of isolated facts that might take you in a particular direction when in fact this is a much more complicated type of a system.”

The report is designed to provide a well-rounded perspective to such decision makers to offer a balanced understanding of the value of animal agriculture and its importance to many communities.

“In Canada, we have an excellent animal agriculture system. It’s not perfect. There are problems. There are challenges and they need supportive policy to make headway on those challenges,” Mussell said.

One is the continuing diminishing of cattle inventories in the country over the past two decades.

On the other side, the positive parts of the industry when it comes to improving biodiversity through responsible grazing techniques might not be fully understood, Mussell said.

“You look at what we are able to do today to make better use of grasslands, lighten up the footprint of animal agriculture within that — pretty impressive and that’s over and above the basic conversion efficiency of animal agriculture.”

That conversion efficiency applies across Canada and involves calculating land not suitable for crop production and otherwise would be wasted if it were not used for livestock feed, said Mussell.

“We manage all of this in a manner which is profitable for each of the segments involved and which also supports communities that can work together to deal with the many issues that can come up and mitigate those by working together,” said Mussell.

The Forces Impacting Animal Agriculture In Canada: A Synthesis report can be found on the CAPI website.

— Alex McCuaig reports for Glacier FarmMedia from Medicine Hat, Alta.

The post Report aims to show animal agriculture’s interconnections appeared first on Country Guide.

“I’m one of the lucky ones,” said Brenna Mahoney, general manager of Keystone Agricultural Producers (KAP). 

Mahoney entered the industry with no agriculture experience. She had training in human resources and got a term job at Cereals Canada. “I just happened to have a boss who saw potential and connected dots for me.” 

Mahoney spoke during a panel discussion on agriculture technology, education and labour during the Agriculture Enlightened conference in Winnipeg, Oct. 26. 

“When you write your next job description, are you putting agriculture as the number one requirement?” Mahoney asked. “Or are we looking at some of the soft skills?” 

“When we put out a job ad, you know, five to six years working in agriculture is usually the prerequisite so, you know, we automatically have to cancel people out,” she added. 

“We’re really trying to change that conversation around our table,” Mahoney said. 

The panelists discussed how Agriculture in the Classroom plants the idea of agriculture careers in the minds of young people. 

Mahoney told a story about how, at the diner in her small town, the young waitress told her she wanted to become a plant geneticist. When asked where she got that idea, the young woman said that Agriculture in the Classroom had come to her school. 

“And I saw whoo!” Mahoney said. “That’s exactly what I wanted to hear.” 

Panel host Jennifer Flanagan, the CEO of Actua — a firm that connects students with the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields — said her organization recently partnered with EMILI and Agriculture in the Classroom Manitoba (AITC-M) to bring agriculture technology to young people, particularly Indigenous youth in the Prairie provinces. 

The project added agriculture technology jobs to a career exploration package Ag in the Classroom provides to teachers AITC-M executive director Katherine Cherewyk said in an interview after the panel. 

Technology is changing quickly, Cherewyk acknowledged. However, she said in her experience, when kids know what they want to do, they begin connecting how they can use new technology to reach their goals. 

For more coverage of Agriculture Enlightened, see future editions of the Manitoba Co-operator, the Western Producer and Grainews.

The post Think outside the agriculture box for labour, ag and tech leaders say appeared first on Country Guide.

Opposition leader Wab Kinew’s New Democrats are expected to form a majority government coming out of Tuesday’s provincial election, unseating incumbent premier Heather Stefanson’s Progressive Conservatives.

Just after 1 a.m. Wednesday, NDP candidates were elected or leading in 34 of the province’s 57 ridings, with the Tories reduced to 22 and the Liberals down to one, and several races still too close to call.

The Tories’ incumbent agriculture minister, Derek Johnson, appeared set to hold his riding of Interlake-Gimli, leading by a margin of 684 votes over NDP challenger Sarah Pinsent-Bardarson with 43 of 44 polling places reporting.

The NDP’s incumbent ag critic, Diljeet Brar, held his northwestern Winnipeg riding of Burrows by a margin of 925 votes over Liberal challenger Garry Alejo with 13 of 13 polling places reporting.

Kinew easily held his south-central Winnipeg riding of Fort Rouge while Stefanson kept her southwest Winnipeg riding of Tuxedo by a spread of just 260 votes over NDP challenger Larissa Ashdown with all polling places reporting.

Both Stefanson and Liberal leader Dougald Lamont — who lost his east-central Winnipeg riding of St. Boniface by a spread of 2,101 votes behind NDP challenger Robert Loiselle — announced Tuesday night they would step down as their respective parties’ leaders.

Brar was first elected to the legislature and named as NDP ag critic in 2019. He came to the critic post with a resume including stints as an assistant professor at India’s Punjab Agricultural University; in ag extension with Manitoba’s provincial agriculture department in Arborg and Beausejour; and as a field crop research assistant for Ag Quest at Minto.

Among its other options for the agriculture portfolio, Kinew’s NDP caucus may also see the return of a former ag minister.

Ron Kostyshyn, who served as Greg Selinger’s minister of agriculture, food and rural development from 2012 to 2016 while representing Swan River, appeared set to retake the riding of Dauphin from the Tories on Tuesday night.

After 1 a.m. Wednesday, Kostyshyn had a lead of 340 votes over PC candidate Gord Wood with 45 of 46 polling places reporting. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

The post Manitoba legislature’s agriculture leaders to return under new management appeared first on Country Guide.

OAC said Wednesday its proposed new “master of plant agriculture” (MPAg) program would allow recent graduates and professionals to “quickly upgrade education and training without the need of conducting academic research through a traditional thesis-based program.”

The University of Guelph-based college would offer the first intake to the new program through its Department of Plant Agriculture starting in the fall of 2024, pending approvals from the Ontario Universities Council on Quality Assurance and the provincial ministry of colleges and universities.

The new master’s degree would “address the demands of employers in the private and public sectors who are looking for professionals with advanced expertise in plant breeding, crop production and plant science,” OAC said in a release.

Students would be able to complete the new program in three or four semesters, allowing international students to be eligible to apply for a post-graduate work permit, the college said.

The program would allow students to study on a full- or part-time basis and select courses lining up with “specific career goals in breeding and genetics, biochemistry and physiology, or crop production systems for both agronomic and horticultural crops.”

“We are consistently hearing that employers are seeking graduates that have the scientific knowledge as well as the hands-on training in plant and agricultural science,” Dr. John Cranfield, acting dean of OAC, said in Wednesday’s release.

(Cranfield was named acting OAC dean in July, after dean Dr. Rene Van Acker was seconded to serve as the University of Guelph’s interim vice-president for research, replacing Dr. Malcolm Campbell.)

“This program will fill this gap and provide graduates with valuable skills in collaboration and communication needed for career success,” Cranfield said.

“This program provides an opportunity for students to gain a more comprehensive knowledge in the core subjects of plant agriculture, without focusing on one particular project through a research degree,” Corteva AgriScience research scientist Dr. Eric Shaw said in the university’s release. “I can see this being an advantage to those applying to Corteva.”

OAC emphasized it continues to offer the “thesis-based” M.Sc. and PhD in plant agriculture, which it described as “ideal for students wishing to pursue careers in research in the private or public sector.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

The post OAC to offer new master’s program in plant agriculture appeared first on Country Guide.

Premier Scott Moe on Tuesday named David Marit, MLA for the southwestern riding of Wood River since 2016 an minister for agriculture and Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corp. since 2018, as minister responsible for the WSA.

In the added role, Marit takes over from Battlefords MLA Jeremy Cockrill, who was named Tuesday as minister of education. Cockrill had served until now as minister of highways, a post which on Tuesday went to Estevan MLA Lori Carr.

The province set up the WSA in 2012 to handle most of the provincial government’s water management responsibilities, including oversight of water supplies, protection of water quality, safety of drinking water and treatment of wastewater, as well as ownership and management of 72 dams and related water channels.

The WSA isn’t to be confused with SaskWater, the Crown-owned water utility, which provides water, water treatment and wastewater services to several communities, rural pipeline groups and industrial and commercial users.

That corporation also gets new political oversight; Dustin Duncan was named Tuesday as minister for Crown Investments Corp. and minister responsible for SaskWater as well as Crown-owned SaskPower, SaskEnergy, SaskTel and SGI. Duncan, the MLA for Weyburn-Big Muddy, was until Tuesday the minister for education.

Among other affected cabinet portfolios of interest to farmers, Christine Tell becomes minister of environment, while Paul Merriman moves over from the health file to replace Tell as minister of corrections, policing and public safety and minister responsible for the provincial Firearms Secretariat. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

The post Saskatchewan ag minister to oversee water agency appeared first on Country Guide.

Gordon MacFadyen, most recently executive director of fiscal management and assistant secretary to Treasury Board with the provincial finance department, was announced Aug. 8 as deputy minister of agriculture, replacing Brian Matheson.

Matheson, who was shuffled Aug. 8 to deputy minister for transportation and infrastructure, had just been named deputy minister for agriculture in April, after holding the title on an acting basis since June 2019.

During his stint as executive director for fiscal management, MacFadyen was responsible for the provincial budget and quarterly forecasting. He also served five years as provincial comptroller and previously held senior financial roles with the education and health ministries. Before joining the province, MacFadyen was director of finance for the City of Summerside.

The deputy ministers’ shuffle is meant “to deliver on priorities as outlined in the ministerial mandate letters that are also being released today,” the province said Aug. 8.

For Bloyce Thompson, who was named as agriculture minister after last April’s provincial election, the Aug. 8 mandate letter from King includes priorities such as:

• continued advocacy for seed potato producers to to restore both domestic and export markets for seed potatoes;
• exploring controlled-environment farming and indoor farming, via greenhouses, tunnels, hydroponics and enhanced storage and refrigeration;
• continuing work on financial and support programs to increase beef cattle production in the province;
• starting the process of creating a provincial food waste reduction strategy;
• working with the housing, land and community ministry toward a land-use plan to maintain agricultural land for food production;
• modernizing the provincial Agricultural Insurance Corporation;
• a long-term plan for safe management of deadstock; and
• working with relevant ministries to help farmers address “workforce challenges in agriculture, specifically focused on housing.”

The changes to provincial departments’ senior management “provide an opportunity for a fresh perspective, renewed energy” and “an opportunity for growth and development for our senior leadership team as a whole,” King said in a release Aug. 8. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

The post P.E.I. names new deputy ag minister appeared first on Country Guide.

Shelby Longworth, the provincial programs manager for 4-H Saskatchewan, said the group of older teens wanted to attend for a diverse look at the present and future of agriculture in Canada.

“It’s a way to engage them so they can see some hands-on activities, hands-on demos and get a good picture of what’s going on when they’re choosing their careers,” said Longworth.

But it was mainly for fun.

“They volunteered to check out the show with their 4-H friends and have fun. That’s the thing with 4-H: we want them to have fun.”

Among the visitors was Austin Olsen, 18, of Tisdale. He was impressed with the diversity of the three-day Ag in Motion show, particularly the big iron.

“I like equipment. I plan to be an ag tech in the future. It’s what I’m going to school for. I wanted to see the equipment I’m going to be working on in the future.”

A member of the Tisdale 4-H Beef Club, Olsen is already making strides in his career.

“I’ve got an apprenticeship with Brandt Agriculture. They’ve seen my work and they like it. The technicians said I can work here and still go to school, so it’s a really good deal.”

Olsen, who grew up on his parents’ mixed cattle and grain operation, said adapting to new technology will be the biggest challenge in agriculture in the future.

“It’s going to be hard for people to adjust to autonomous tractors and everybody being on their farms,” he said.

“For years it’s all been hands-on. You turn the wrench to fix (something) instead of going on the computer to fix your tractor. (There will be) more depending on other people and not just yourself – more agronomists and soil samplers and other specialists helping you along the way.”

Kadence Johnson, 19, has been a 4-H horse club member for eight years. Now entering her second year at the University of Saskatchewan, Johnson has found a new 4-H application: the Next Step Club, a 4-H club for post-secondary students wishing to learn adult skills.

“We do financial planning, leadership work and community service as well as look for career placement opportunities,” said Johnson, whose goal is to become an occupational therapist.

The club has also offered opportunities for camaraderie in an unfamiliar situation.

“University is a scary transition. It’s so comforting to have this group of people I know, people I’ve grown up with in 4-H.”

— Jeff Melchior reports for Alberta Farmer Express from Edmonton.

The post At Ag in Motion: 4-H’ers get bigger-picture view of ag industry appeared first on Country Guide.

Instead of cash, the attackers demanded the hog business owners publicly admit to what they alleged to be livestock mistreatment.

The occurrence was unique and alarming, says Ali Dehghantanha, Canada research chair in cybersecurity and threat intelligence at the University of Guelph’s Cyber Science Lab.

The lab offers a for-fee support service for those managing cyberattacks and cybersecurity.

NEW AUDIO SERIES: Cyber-Savvy Farmer

While the number of cybersecurity incidents across Ontario’s agriculture industry has been rapidly increasing overall, he says the cashless ransomware attack against the family hog business — an incident he and his colleagues helped the family resolve — highlights what could become a wider trend in the tactics used by special interest actors.

Why it matters: Ransomware and other criminal cyber activities usually come with demands for payment. Malicious actors focused on disrupting food production rather than money pose another, potentially harder-to-solve threat.

According to Dehghantanha, the attack perpetrators claimed to have a variety of incriminating evidence showing animal abuse on the farm. This included camera footage taken from what the perpetrators claimed was a now-compromised farm surveillance system. The attacker’s prerequisite for releasing their hold on the farm’s network was a public statement, from the business owners, admitting to animal abuse.

In Dehghantanha’s view, this would have been financially devastating for the business.

In reality, no such footage existed. Indeed, claims of comprised cameras were false. Barring the demand for self-incrimination, the attack proved to be a standard, easily manageable ransomware attack.

“This was the first time working in this specific industry we have seen ransomware not asking for money. That would make our job much more difficult as we are dealing with adversaries whose motivation is not money,” Dehghantanha says, adding the transfer of cash is often the riskiest part for those committing ransomware attacks, because the movement of funds can be tracked.

“Prior to this we were not concerned with these small family food businesses…There was not a playbook for these kinds of situations.”

More accessible ransomware

Dehghantanha says his lab has been engaged with 20 cybersecurity issues reported from southern Ontario in the first half of 2023 alone — up from a mere handful in the entirety of 2019. Awareness of cyber risk has likely played a role in higher reporting, but it’s also getting easier for bad actors to acquire harmful attack tools like ransomware.

Simultaneously, the agriculture and food sector are underprepared for such threats. Dehghantanha considers agriculture and food to lag other sectors, notably energy and health, by approximately five years. Remedying the problem would begin by establishing a committee or another body of industry representatives, technology experts, and others to design cybersecurity standards “rooted in the reality of the industry.”

“We must identify steps for farmers and businesses that can be gradually achieved to get to the same level. This has happened in energy and health sector so there’s no reason it can’t happen in agriculture sector,” says Dehghantanha.

“We need to identify a body responsible for receiving these standard reports from farmers trying to evaluate them and give feedback and work with them…If a farmer knows they are level two, level three, or whatever level they are, it would make it much easier for them to understand and improve.”

Awareness and practice

Stakeholders in the agriculture sector, such as Ontario Pork, say they are raising awareness about the ever-growing need for better cybersecurity.

In an email statement received July 12, Ken Ovington, general manager for Ontario Pork, says the commodity group “routinely meets with cybersecurity experts and researchers to gather knowledge that can be used to create awareness and provide informational tools that are valuable to pork producers and the provincial pork industry.

“These types of cyberattacks are undeniably on the rise. As technology usage increases, so does the methods and sophistication of cyber criminals so it’s crucial that producers, agricultural organizations and government continue to prioritize cybersecurity measures, stay vigilant, and collaborate to prevent future cyberattacks,” says Ovington.

Strategies used to prevent issues within the organization itself were listed as well, including cybersecurity training for employees. No comment on specific incidents, such as the ransomware attack on the family hog operation, was provided.

Dehghantanha himself encourages greater proactivity. While establishing standards would help the agriculture sector improve overall security – and, potentially, bring spinoff benefits like lower insurance rates for higher cybersecurity scores – he stresses individuals and organizations need to pay attention to the threat posed by cyber criminals focused on industry disruption over money.

“We don’t need to wait for a standard to work on awareness. If you have livestock, you could be on a target list.”

— Matt McIntosh is a southwestern Ontario freelance writer. This article previously appeared at Farmtario.com.

The post Activists target Ontario hog farm with ransomware appeared first on Country Guide.

At about 1 a.m. Alberta time on Tuesday, Smith’s UCP was elected or leading in 49 of 87 constituencies; all remaining 38 went to Rachel Notley’s New Democrats (NDP). The two parties had held 60 and 23 seats respectively before Monday’s election.

Nate Horner, the UCP’s most recent minister for agriculture and irrigation, easily held his riding of Drumheller-Stettler on Monday night, drawing 15,274 votes with all polls reporting. His NDP challenger Juliet Franklin followed with 2,684 votes.

READ MORE: Pre-election reports analyze Alberta’s ag issues

Horner, a rancher from a well known political family in Alberta, has been the MLA for Drumheller-Stettler since 2019 and has handled the ag file since November 2021.

He was named to the ag post following the resignation of Devin Dreeshen, who later returned to cabinet as transportation minister and also easily held his own riding of Innisfail-Sylvan Lake on Monday night against NDP challenger Jason Heistad by a spread of over 10,000 votes with all polls reporting.

Heather Sweet, the NDP’s sitting agriculture critic, also held her riding of Edmonton-Manning with 9,587 votes and all polls reporting, ahead of UCP challenger Albert Mazzocca with 6,230 votes.

Sweet, an Edmonton social worker before entering politics in 2015, has been the NDP’s critic for agriculture since February 2021 and for rural economic development since October 2021, and the party’s deputy house leader since February this year. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

The post Alberta ag minister, ag critic hang onto seats in election appeared first on Country Guide.