Ellis, 38, a fourth-generation farmer in Wawanesa, Manitoba, credits investments in pricey systems including minimum and zero-till farming which help protect soil; tile drainage, an underground system to prevent flooding; slow-release fertilizer pellets which are more effective, and advice from a professional agronomist on weedkillers.

“We are constantly making little tweaks,” he said. “That’s how we’re going to be able to keep fighting the changing climate.”

Across much of western Canada, farmers like Ellis have been turning out strikingly better crops despite hotter and drier conditions — far above what farmers in the region could have expected in better conditions years ago, according to Canadian government data, thanks in part to widespread embrace of climate adaptation strategies.

While greater yields in Canada and elsewhere are depressing global prices for grains, they are keeping many farmers in business.

Record harvests despite drought

Adaptation practices – which tend to be costly and require cutting edge technologies – have enabled many farmers to ride out a drought that began in 2020.

Earlier this month, the Canadian government announced record harvests of spring wheat and canola for 2025. And because most of the grains produced in Canada are shipped and consumed abroad, those gains have major implications for the rest of the world’s ability to feed itself affordably.

Australia, another large global grain exporter, has also reported rising crop yields despite drier conditions.

This combination of methods and technology is not just helping Canadian growers keep up with climate change, but stay ahead of its ravages, according to interviews with 25 farmers, scientists and agriculture industry leaders, and a review of more than a dozen academic papers.

Spring wheat, used to make high-quality bread, yielded 58.8 bushels per acre this year, according to the government data release. That’s a gain of 77 per cent from 30 years ago, based on a three-year average. Canola yields nearly doubled, reaching 44.7 bushels per acre, also based on a 1994-1996 average.

While most climate science paints a bleak picture for global food supply, with a study in Nature this year forecasting up to 40 per cent reduction in North America’s wheat harvest by 2100, the agricultural experts Reuters interviewed said that with climate adaptation strategies the Prairies can continue to produce bigger and bigger crops in the future.

“Back in the day, 30, 35 bushels an acre (for wheat) would have been a bumper crop,” said Rob Saik, a Canadian agronomist who has consulted with governments all over the world. “Now it’s an abject failure.”

A notoriously difficult region

Even before climate change brought more unpredictable and extreme weather, western Canada was a notoriously difficult region to farm.

The central Prairies, a land of green and golden short grasses and thin, scrubby brush, get only about half as much rainfall as Iowa, and have a much shorter growing season. Climate change has made it even harder. Environment and Climate Change Canada says the country is warming at double the global average and that extreme events have become more common. On the Prairies, annual snowfall, a key source of spring moisture, has declined and summer extremes of rain and drought have increased, with rain often coming in enormous torrents, or not at all.

“Extreme events, like floods, heatwaves, wildfires, and severe storms, are increasingly damaging to our economy, ecosystems and built environment,” the federal department said in a 2024 report.

Incremental gains, not miracles

Scientists and agronomists say Canada’s gains don’t come from a single, dramatic factor, but from steady, incremental progress with farming methods and inputs.

Many seeds now come stacked with insect, disease and weed resistance, thanks to conventional breeding as well as genetic modification. Fertilizer application is designed to minimize disturbance to the soil surface by being placed at the same time as the seed goes in.

Fungicides, weedkillers and nutrients allow crops to outcompete their natural enemies.

Some of the strategies recall pre-industrial practices, such as intercropping, growing multiple crops at the same time.

Experts also credit automation such as self-guiding tractors that apply fertilizer at different rates based on soil tests and satellite mapping.

One family’s adaptation evolution

The Mowbray family ventured into adaptive practices four decades ago with tile drainage, laying a small stretch of perforated pipe designed to take the water down into the soil rather than spread it across the surface.

Over the last 12 years, Scott Mowbray, 46, has expanded the drainage system to about 800 acres of his land.

Meanwhile, the Mowbrays gradually took up minimum till. By 2010, the 2,000-acre farm was entirely no-till, leaving the soil unplowed and with stubble standing as a moisture trap and a barrier against the wind that otherwise carries the topsoil away.

The innovations allow the Mowbrays to “pull off yields twice what we used to with half as much rain,” Mowbray said, producing “incredible” volumes of spring wheat, peas and rye.

Technology’s steep price tag

Much of what has allowed Canadian farmers to deal with climate change involves expensive and complex equipment. A smart combine costs upwards of $1 million. A high-speed-data-enabled tractor and seeding drill cost around $2 million.

Kip Eideberg, senior vice president of government and industry relations for the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, which represents John Deere DE , Case New Holland CNH and other manufacturers, said precision systems have saved Canadian farmers nine per cent in herbicide and pesticides, six per cent in fuel, and four per cent in water use. That saves money for farmers operating on razor-thin margins, he said.

Most large-scale farmers have access to such technology in their tractors, combines, sprayers and management computers, Terry Griffin, a Kansas State University agricultural economist, said. But an older generation of farmers often doesn’t want to take on digital challenges, while younger farmers don’t have the money for machines or agronomic advice.

One obstacle to greater adoption is rural broadband access. Mowbray can’t count on being able to run a constant stream of data from his big farm machines. He can’t even call his farmhouse from his cellphone. His farm relies on two-way radios instead.

“It’s a simple thing but hugely important when you are in the field and might need a pick-up but can’t get a call through to the house,” he said.

Seed science – the invisible factor

Another equally important factor for farmers’ gains: breeding genetically superior crops that are hardier, drought-tolerant and produce bigger yields.

“We’re just starting down that path,” said Rick Mitzel, CEO of farmer-and-industry-funded mustard seed development organization Mustard 21. The company is developing drought-tolerant plants as an alternative to canola. The varieties “come out of the ground quicker, develop roots quicker, get leafing faster,” Mitzel told Reuters in an interview.

The farmer-controlled South East Research Farm in Redvers, Saskatchewan has been testing crops such as camelina, which is most likely to be planted in Canada for sustainable aviation fuel, that could offer farmers better yields and more resilience.

Executive director Lana Shaw doesn’t think climate change will happen without losses to the Canadian farm community. Some farmers will choose to not adapt and will simply retire. Some will adapt and fail. And some farmers will adapt and thrive.

“Under pressure,” she said, “they can adapt very fast.”

The post How Canada’s farmers are producing record crops despite droughts and floods appeared first on Country Guide.

The report was full of predictions that came true, as well as a few surprises. This year’s report was the 16th annual.

Food prices were driven higher in 2025 by meat, said Sylvain Charlebois, the lead of Canada’s Food Price Report. Charlebois is the Director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University. He leads Canada’s Food Price Report, but the report was developed by a collective of scholars.

“In fact, we claimed last year that meat would be driving food inflation, and we underestimated how significantly meat prices would go up. That was really the big story in 2025,” he said.

Meat prices to stay high

Unfortunately, the group expects meat prices will remain a huge factor for 2026.

“Beef is an issue, of course, it’s been an issue for a while now, and we don’t see how the situation will normalize itself before at least mid-year 2027,” he said. “Ranchers are leaving the industry. It’s difficult for ranchers across North America.”

The high prices of beef are encouraging people to change to other types of meat, like chicken.

“We’re short on chicken because of higher beef prices. The situation with beef is really a major issue for meat counter economics in general,” he said.

Chicken raised in Canada is under supply management.

“Supply shouldn’t be a problem, but it is a problem right now, because we’re importing more chicken from abroad. But I don’t think that is going to last. I do think the chicken industry will recover eventually. It’s kind of awkward to have supply management and import more chicken from the United States right now,” he said.

Fruit and vegetable inflation down

Vegetables and fruits had their inflation rates go down in 2025 compared to 2024.

“We were expecting increases to be in the positive, but the increases didn’t accelerate as much as we expected,” he said.

The group thought the “Buy Canadian” movement and the entire American boycott would put a lot of pressure on grocers to source products that are cheaper or the same price in America.

“But we were spared, and I think that’s due to the Canadian dollar. I think the Canadian dollar remained a non-issue. That came as a surprise, I would say,” said Charlebois.

Food affordability is a top concern for consumers. A quarter of Canadian households are considered food insecure, and nearly 2.2 million people visited food banks in Canada monthly this year.

Charlebois said there are numerous factors that affect food prices including geopolitics, global weather events, policy enactment, consumer behaviour and changes in retail models. Energy costs, climate change, interest rates, labour costs, the level of consolidation in a sector, and consumer demand, including whether consumers have more money or less money to spend on food.

“These are the things that impact food prices over time. But the bottom line is that not one node of the growth of the food supply chain totally controls food prices,” he said.

Trade wars affect food prices

In 2025, food prices were affected by the trade dispute between Canada and the United States and subsequent policy changes. Consumer-led movements also altered the economic retail landscape, impacting food price inflation.

Charlebois said farmers would say there’s a weak correlation between protein prices, and retail prices, and they’re correct to say so.

“So even though there is a weak correlation between the two, production does have an impact on how food is sourced to supply grocery stores in general,” he said.

When people spend more money at the grocery store, the farmer gets a bigger proportion of the farm bill. With retail, 13 to 15 per cent of the money spent at the grocery store goes back to the farmer compared to food service, where about four per cent to five percent goes back to the farmer from food service.

“Right now, there is a strong movement towards staying retail for consumers, because they’re trying to save as much money as possible, and they’re avoiding restaurants, so that could actually be a positive for farmers in general,” said Charlebois.

Temporary foreign workers

Temporary foreign workers are widely used along the food supply chain. In 2024, Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program brought in over 78,000 workers into the agricultural industry. The Canadian government is revisiting its immigration policy and has announced plans to reduce the share of temporary residents in Canada to less than five per cent of the population by 2027, to encourage more domestic labour and improve youth employment rates. Agriculture is exempt from this cap.

The current population of temporary foreign workers is at seven per cent.

There are concerns that shifts with temporary workers could lead to a major labour shortage in agriculture, disrupting the supply chain and costing businesses already operate on tight margins. The costs would be passed down to the consumer.

Charlebois said the research team is concerned about the temporary foreign worker problem.

“It’s a very important program to support our farmers,” he said. The information about temporary foreign workers was added to Canada’s Food Price Report, to send a clear signal to government that the temporary foreign worker program in agriculture should not be compromised, he said.

Food bill to rise “a lot”

The report also contains predictions for 2026.

“We’re expecting the average family (of four) to see their food bill increased by $1,000, so we’re expecting an increase of four to six per cent, so that’s a lot. I believe it’s the highest we’ve ever seen in 16 years. That’s going to be pushed by two categories; meat and the centre of the store. That’s pantry goods and dry goods. This is not going to help consumers,” he said.

“We think it’s going to push inflation higher,” he said.

The ongoing trade dispute with the United States will continue to affect prices next year. The inflationary aspects of the tariffs and counter-tariffs will continue in 2026 as trade tensions reshape the economic landscape. Canada is strengthening its relationships with other international trading partners to build resilience and competitiveness.

The post Canada’s Food Price Report shows meat, pantry goods prices expected to rise “a lot” in 2026 appeared first on Country Guide.

At a panel titled Sustainability Disclosure in Canada: Overcoming the Headwinds, hosted by the Canadian Sustainability Standards Board (CSSB), speakers discussed the challenges and opportunities for Canadian businesses as international trading partners increasingly look for environmental, social and governance (ESG) transparency.

Eight out of Canada’s 10 biggest trading partners either have or will soon have mandatory disclosure rules — including those in the Indo-Pacific region, an emerging market for Canada’s agri-food sector, said Canadian Sustainability Standards Board chair Wendy Berman.

She called Canadian Sustainability Standards the “ticket to play” in a global market which may also be moving toward sustainability disclosure practices.

Canadian standards in the global market

Companies do not need to be perfect, only rigorous, Berman said.

“If you communicate that rigour, and you put sunlight around the main assumptions, which our standards tell you to, then that is what you’re communicating to the market.”

Berman said the standards board is helping Canadian companies address the market’s needs by looking at global reporting baselines and adding changes to reflect the uniqueness of the Canadian market.

“What we also have is a Canadian version of proportionality mechanisms,” she said. “What we’re saying to the market is ‘It’s okay, build capacity on these items and continue to do that so that you’re ready to enter the global market’.”

Ontario Securities Commission CEO Grant Vingoe said Canada will need to follow a global baseline if it wishes to continue on the path of market diversification. He said he hears many investors express frustration at a lack of a consistent global framework, forcing them to rely on private sources.

Disclosure fatigue

Canada is in a “pivotal moment for sustainability in Canada,” one “full of complexity and uncertainty and also real possibility,” said Elizabeth Dove, executive director of the UN Global Compact Network Canada.

“Over the last few years, Canadian companies have stepped up,” Dove said. “They’ve adopted climate action strategies. They’ve incorporated ESG into governance and risk. They’ve built systems to measure, disclose and manage sustainability performance. But let’s be honest, it hasn’t been easy.”

There has been fatigue around disclosure, and some businesses are now asking if the measures are necessary — particularly if they seem to hamper the company’s ambitions.

“We cannot allow ambition to be the casualty of uncertainty,” Dove said.

“Climate change is not waiting for regulatory clarity.”

Adoption of ESG will likely increase as the means of measuring climate risks improve, said Peter Routledge, superintendent of the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions.

“Guess what? As you measure the risk more effectively, boards of directors and senior management teams will make really smart decisions about how to invest to counteract that risk,” Routledge said.

“That’s the beauty of market capitalism at work.”

“It is not a regulatory burden for the sake of increasing costs to in pursuit of some abstract virtue,” Routledge said. “That’s the last thing we’re interested in. What we’re interested in is creating management and risk measurement discipline to elevate and improve and sustain shareholder value.”

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The mean near-surface temperature in January-August 2025 was 1.42 C above the pre-industrial average, said the WMO report, released just ahead of the United Nations climate change summit (COP30) in Belém, Brazil, Nov. 10-21. The past 11 years, 2015 to 2025, will individually have been the eleven warmest years in the 176-year observational record, with the past three years being the three warmest years on record.

Why it matters: Rising global temperatures are influencing agricultural production and food systems

Concentrations of heat-trapping greenhouse gases and ocean heat content, which both reached record levels in 2024, continued to rise in 2025, said the WMO. Arctic sea ice extent after the winter freeze was the lowest on record, and Antarctic sea ice extent tracked well below average throughout the year. The long-term sea level rise trend continued despite a small and temporary blip due to naturally occurring factors, said the report.

Weather and climate-related extreme events to August 2025 — ranging from devastating rainfall and flooding to brutal heat and wildfires — had cascading impacts on lives, livelihoods and food systems. This contributed to displacement across multiple regions, undermining sustainable development and economic progress.

“This unprecedented streak of high temperatures, combined with last year’s record increase in greenhouse gas levels, makes it clear that it will be virtually impossible to limit global warming to 1.5 C in the next few years without temporarily overshooting this target,” said WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo in a press release. However, she added that “the science is equally clear that it’s still entirely possible and essential to bring temperatures back down to 1.5 °C by the end of the century.”

UN Secretary-General António Guterres called on nations to “act now, at great speed and scale, to make the overshoot as small, as short, and as safe as possible – and bring temperatures back below 1.5 C before the end of the century.”

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Owner-operator Sarah Callow-Fisher and her husband, Devan, market their products through local farm stands, a flower CSA (consumer supported agriculture), farmgate sales and by creating custom arrangements for weddings and funerals.

But in the 10 short years Callow-Fisher has been in business she’s noticed changes in the climate — changes that have prompted her to explore different ways to work with, rather than against, nature.

Heat, cold, wind, water — too much or too little — can have a disastrous effect on her crops. Insect life cycles are also affected by changing weather patterns and too many pests can stress plants.

• RELATED: Nova Scotia greenhouse rebuilds after severe snow storm

Not too hot, please

Heat, for example, can cause a bloom to open too quickly which affects how long it lasts in a customer’s bouquet.

“You have to pick things at the right stage of harvest for it to last longer for the consumer,” Callow-Fisher says. “Sometimes I’m out there three times a day picking the same crop to get it picked at the perfect stage.”

Heat is a double-edged sword for an early crop such as tulips.

Callow-Fisher uses low plastic tunnels (temporary structures, approximately 4 feet tall and 3 to 6 feet wide, constructed of wire or pipe hoops and plastic cover) to trap heat and encourage the thousands of tulip bulbs to grow and bloom early, but a mild day can cause the buds to open too quickly. Tunnels also protect the delicate plants from hail and heavy spring rains. 

“If tulips are budded and ready to be picked and then we get hit with hail, that will ruin the entire crop. Conversely, we keep the tunnel sides up because if the tulips get too hot, then they’ll sizzle. So, it’s this dance of what’s the best option,” she says.

Water, water everywhere

Water is also a challenge. Too much can cause disease or even the death of a plant, and damp conditions can encourage bugs or disease.

As Callow-Fisher expanded her gardens she’s learned that not all plants do well in the same area of her property.

“A couple years ago we had quite a bit of torrential rain. There were low-lying areas that hadn’t shown themselves before. A few perennial crops were flooded under two inches of water for a week which killed the roots.”

The loss of crops she thought she’d have for many years was a big learning curve. She says that’s part of business, figuring out which crops she can plant in those areas — ones that can handle water and wet feet. Adding tile drainage isn’t a practical investment for her small property. 

So, this year she’s planting irises in those low areas as they tolerate wet feet for extended periods.

But too little water, especially when accompanied by heat, can also cause problems.

The last couple of springs in Nova Scotia have been dry with hot temperatures in May. Because Callow-Fisher lives where she farms, she’s keenly aware of water usage and looks for ways to manage water during dry spells.

“We have rain barrels under eaves to collect rainwater,” she says. “That way we’re not using water from our well. We also soak seedlings before we plant them so, when they go in the ground, they’re already wet and we don’t have to water as soon as they hit the dirt.”

Working with nature

Callow-Fisher has also learned that some plants need a chill to thrive. 

“Some flowers I’m planting eight weeks before our last frost. So even though it’s still cold outside and they could still get frost, they’ll grow better that way. 

“When I first started, I wouldn’t plant anything until the last frost date, but then I didn’t have anything blooming in June.”

For late spring or early fall nights when the temperature takes an unexpected plummet, Callow-Fisher uses row covers to protect plants from the frost.

“Our last frost date has really changed (from) the first week of June to now the middle of May (and) we’re hitting heat waves.”

To get a jump on spring planting, she spends time in the fall tilling and adding manure or compost to spring beds. 

Heat stress

Early summer temperatures in the middle of spring are as much of a threat as cold.

Seedlings are vulnerable to random 30-degree days in May. It can fry their delicate stems, even when they’ve been hardened off.

The early spike in heat also affects crops like tulips or peonies. 

“Peonies usually bloom mid-June, but if the beginning of June is really warm, they’ll come on and within two or three days the whole crop will be blooming and gone,” she says. “If you’re not on top of that, then a crop that you may think is going to bloom at the middle of the month could be gone the first week, and you didn’t even have a chance to cut it.”

She grows a wide range of annuals and perennials and saves her own seeds to help acclimatize plants to her specific microclimate. 

Pest management

The lack of deep winter freezes, extended wet spells, and heat waves combine to increase the effects of insect pressures. Callow-Fisher is adamant about not using chemical controls.

“There are many beneficial bugs, and you have to be willing to have the bad bugs to get the good bugs.”

She over-plants, knowing part of her crop will get eaten. 

It’s an ill wind

Wind can cause significant damage to flowers so low tunnels help in some cases.

Later in the season, Callow-Fisher uses a type of netting for taller plants. It’s laid over plants horizontally and they grow through the netting to stay straight and secure. 

“In a windstorm or a hurricane, plants will snap and that’s it. You won’t have enough time for them to regrow and to produce more blooms so you can lose your whole crop overnight if you’re not prepared.”

Callow-Fisher just bought an acre of adjacent property so that she can rest her flower beds for a year and more tightly manage crop rotations.

“I’ve noticed different types of diseases are staying in plots, so I want to cover crop and rest those areas for a while.”

She’s doing her best to work with nature and adapt to the changes she’s seeing around her.

The post Outdoor weather affects indoor crops, too appeared first on Country Guide.

The new measures will establish guidelines for quantifying, reporting, and verifying greenhouse gases (GHGs) associated with the production of biofuel feedstock commodity crops grown in the U.S. In addition, the guidelines will facilitate the recognition of climate-conscious agriculture for clean transportation fuel programs, creating new market opportunities for biofuel feedstock producers while enhancing climate benefits.

The interim rule was made with regards to three crops: corn, soybeans and sorghum. It also allows for climate-smart agricultural practices such that could reduce GHGs or sequester carbon, including reduced- and no-till agriculture, cover cropping, and nutrient management practices such as the use of nitrification inhibitors. The new regulations allow for farmers to utilize these practices individually or in combination.

Standards were also adopted to quantify, track and report the effects of these practices. These include: chain of custody standards for entities in the biofuel supply chain, including traceability and recordkeeping standards; auditing and verification requirements; and climate-smart agriculture practice standards for the biofuel feedstock crops included under the rule.

The USDA believes the improved guidelines will heighten credibility and confidence in biofuel feedstock crop production, create new marketing opportunities for U.S. farmers, and generate environmental benefits like improved water and soil quality.

“Today’s announcement from USDA reinforces the important role climate-smart agriculture plays in our rural economy, including in fueling clean transportation solutions, as well as the importance of providing pathways for unbundled, science-based accounting of the carbon benefits of climate-smart practices that help farmers earn more for what they grow,” said White House Senior Advisor for International Climate Policy John Podesta.

“The new guidelines are a win for farmers, biofuel producers, the public, and the environment. The action today marks an important milestone in the development of market-based conservation opportunities for agriculture,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

Podesta and Vilsack are expected to leave their posts after U.S. president-elect Donald Trump is sworn in on Jan. 20.

The USDA also added an online tool called the USDA Feedstock Carbon Intensity Calculator to help growers quantify the carbon intensity of their crops.

The interim rule will be posted for public inspection on Jan. 16 and will be published on Jan. 17. Interested parties may submit comments to the USDA during the 60-day public comment period.

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This weather system occurs all over the world. It starts when a large amount of water vapor from tropical oceans is carried by a jet stream toward land. As the air rises, it cools and condenses, resulting in rain or snow. They most commonly form in mid-latitude oceans, roughly 30 and 60 degrees north and south, according to NASA. They appear as a trail of wispy clouds that can stretch for hundreds of miles.

Atmospheric rivers can carry up to 15 times the volume of the Mississippi River, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Most atmospheric rivers are weak and do not cause damage. They can provide much-needed rain or snow.

Sometimes they do both. In drought-stricken California, such storms have triggered mudslides, toppled utility poles and blocked roadways, but also helped replenish depleted reservoirs and reduced the risk of wildfires by saturating the state’s parched vegetation.

In 2019, an atmospheric river nicknamed the “Pineapple Express” hit California. The water vapor from near Hawaii brought rain and triggered mudslides that forced motorists to swim for their lives and sent homes sliding downhill.

In 2021, an atmospheric river dumped a month’s worth of rain on British Columbia in two days, prompting deadly floods and landslides, devastating communities and severing access to Canada’s largest port.

According to scientists, atmospheric rivers of the kind that drenched California and flooded British Columbia in recent years will become larger—and possibly more destructive—because of climate change. There are projected to be 10 per cent fewer atmospheric rivers in the future, but they are expected to be 25 per cent wider and longer and carry more water, according to a 2018 research paper.

This could make managing water supply much harder as moderate atmospheric rivers, which can be beneficial for water supplies, will be less frequent, and strong ones could become more calamitous.

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That has Lupe Gonzalo worried.

“A lot of places in the field, you don’t have access to shade, to clean and fresh drinking water,” said Gonzalo, a senior staff member with the non-profit Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), who works with farmworkers across several southern states.

For years Gonzalo picked tomatoes, berries, sweet potatoes and other produce, and the heat was always an issue. But her concerns are mounting.

“It’s getting hotter and hotter as climate change continues, and it will continue to be an issue for workers,” Gonzalo, 43, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“We’ve already seen far too many people become ill and even lose their lives. So this is truly an urgent issue,” she said.

While regulations to protect agricultural workers from the heat have been held up by political wrangling, Gonzalo and her colleagues have spearheaded an alternate strategy.

They seek to sidestep the slow and increasingly politicized government machinery and instead appeal directly to consumers and large brands.

Gonzalo and others in the CIW set up the Fair Food Program to strike deals directly with large companies.

The companies pledge to pay fair wages, eliminate sexual harassment and other issues – including increasingly stringent heat protections – in return for Fair Food Program certification for their products.

The heat-related measures include providing shade, having required breaks, training for workers and supervisors, electrolyte-infused water, and the ability to seek care without fear of retaliation.

‘Sourced for good’

The program currently covers tens of thousands of workers in 10 states, through agreements with companies such as Walmart, McDonald’s, Subway and others.

The group also works with farmworkers in Chile and South Africa, and is seeking to expand to other countries.

At national grocery store Whole Foods, for instance, consumers can purchase Fair Food Program-certified sweet potatoes and cut flowers labelled as “Sourced for Good”.

Now the program’s reach is about to expand significantly, after the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) highlighted its approach for special acknowledgement under a new program aimed at addressing human rights and worker retention on farms.

Last month, the first-ever pilot awards were made under the program, which the Fair Food Program said would see it expand to 13 new states, nearly doubling the number of farms covered.

Tomato grower Jon Esformes, whose company received one of the awards, has implemented the Fair Food Program guidelines on his operations across the United States and Mexico, though the CIW is not present in the latter country.

He said he took the steps after sitting down for the first time to simply talk with CIW leaders about their concerns.

“I found very quickly a group of people that were interested in the same things I was interested in,” he said. “We want to provide a safe and fair workplace, we want to have transparency, we need our workers to feel like it is their farm.”

Protection decades overdue

The U.S. government has dragged its feet on worker heat protections for decades, said Juanita Constible, a senior advocate with the heat solutions program at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

About 51 million U.S. workers are at high risk to heat, with less than a fifth of those covered by standards, the think tank has found.

The federal government is only now updating 1970s rules, last week releasing a proposal that would offer heat protections for indoor and outdoor workers, including requiring employers to provide workers with water and shaded or air-conditioned areas above certain temperatures.

Still, a final rule could take years, with recent moves by the Supreme Court potentially further threatening such efforts.

While business associations said they were still reviewing the new proposal, farming and construction lobby groups have criticized early steps in the new process, warning of burdens to businesses.

Yet, Constible said, “the research has kept piling up that heat is not only potentially deadly to workers, but also drastically affects their productivity – billions of work hours lost in the U.S. and around the world because it’s too darn hot.”

The probability of work-related accidents rises by nearly six per cent when temperatures pass 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius), according to research from the Workers Compensation Research Institute published in May.

In the absence of federal action, five states have passed their own laws with a sixth on the horizon, though these vary significantly in scope.

Cities have also taken proactive steps, including in June in Tucson, Arizona, but such efforts have run into political resistance, with new local rules in Florida and Texas halted by state officials.

Constible worries such politicization could continue, which she says underscores the importance of the Fair Food Program’s strategy of appealing to brands and consumers.

“I’m a huge fan. I think it’s been amazingly significant for those workers,” she said.

Farms that can ensure workers feel safe and have access to the tools to keep them healthy have found it easier to entice prospective workers, a UDSA spokesperson said.

That is what Esformes, the CEO of Pacific Tomato Growers, has found amid recent worker shortages.

“When the rest of North America was reeling with lack of workers, we did not have enough jobs for the people who wanted to work for us. And the reason is we’ve created a workplace-of-choice environment,” said Esformes, 61.

He said May saw the hottest temperatures ever recorded in parts of Florida, just as farms were in full harvest, but that Fair Food Program heat guidelines were in operation for the nearly 3,500 workers on the company’s 15,000 acres (6,070 hectares).

“There’s definitely a cost associated with it. Electrolyte powder is not cheap; breaks aren’t cheap,” Esformes said. “But you know what also is not cheap? People getting sick and people feeling like they’re not safe.”

—The Thomson Reuters Foundation is the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters. 

—Updated July 9. Clarifies that CIW is not present in Mexico.

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Yesterday evening, senators read Bill C-234, An Act to amend the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act, for the third time, and passed it.

The bill received two amendments in the Senate. On Monday, senators voted to reduce the bill’s sunset clause to three years from eight. Previously, senators amended the bill to remove barn and greenhouse heating from proposed carbon price exemptions in the bill.

Farm groups and government officials aligned with the bill have expressed concerns that, since the bill must now be returned to the House of Commons for further debate, it will be delayed until it dies on the order paper.

According to its online schedule, the House of Commons will rise for the year on Dec. 15.

—Geralyn Wichers is associate digital editor of AGCanada.com. She writes from southeastern Manitoba.

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The Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate (AIM for Climate) was launched in 2021 at COP26 in Glasgow and its funding comes from governments, companies, and non-governmental organizations.

Globally, food and farming contribute about a third of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, according to the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization.

Nearly 80 projects have been announced under the AIM for Climate initiative since 2021, with goals to expand agricultural research, implement sustainable farming practices, and reduce methane emissions.

“I think it’s made people think about food and agriculture in a much different way,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told Reuters on the sidelines of the conference.

“And I think it’s reflected, frankly, in the fact that this COP… has actually elevated food (and) agriculture to the point where it’s an integral part of COP meetings. That has not been the case for the previous 27.”

Funding for the effort has grown from $13 billion in May, when the U.S. and UAE co-hosted an AIM for Climate summit in Washington, and from $8 billion at COP27.

The new total includes $12 billion from governments and $5 billion from non-government parties such as companies and humanitarian organizations, said an AIM for Climate spokesperson.

The 27 new projects announced at COP28 range in size from $500 million to $150,000.

In one of the largest projects, companies including Bunge BG.N and Alphabet’s Google GOOGL.O are working with the Nature Conservancy and the Brazilian state of Para to expand regenerative agriculture, which generally refers to practices like reduced tillage of cropland and lower pesticide use.

For the first time, agriculture is a major focus at this year’s climate summit, with a full day on Dec. 10 dedicated to food and farming topics.

“We understand that we need to speed up innovations… to be able to transform agriculture food systems to more sustainable systems,” UAE Minister for Climate and the Environment Mariam Almheiri told Reuters.

Advocacy groups want the nations and companies in attendance to pledge to tackle agricultural methane emissions in particular, most of which is from livestock production.

–Reporting for Reuters by Leah Douglas, Simon Jessop and Mohammed Benmansour

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