Reading Time: 6 minutes At first, this example might seem on the edge, but it illustrates a bigger point. When Chris Bodnar and Paige Dampier started farming in 2007, finding affordable land was a major roadblock. So, as founders of Close to Home Organics, they purchased a share in the Glen Valley Organic Farm Co-operative, which provided them affordable […] Read more
Capitalizing on co-operation
Agricultural co-ops are chasing new goals with the times. Could it be time for you to join a land-trust co-op? Or a branding co-op?
Sollio outlines pandemic recovery plan for food sector
Support sought for automation, digitization, telecommunications
Reading Time: 2 minutes Ottawa — One of Canada’s largest agri-food companies has laid out a five-point industry recovery plan for federal politicians to consider. During a meeting Tuesday of the Commons standing committee on finance, the president of Quebec-based Sollio Co-operative Group shared plans to limit consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on the agrifood supply chain. Sollio employs […] Read more
Gay Lea buys northern Ontario cheesemaker
Reading Time: 2 minutes Ontario’s first producer of verified-grass-fed butter and cheeses is set to become part of the province’s biggest dairy co-operative. Gay Lea Foods said Monday it has completed a deal to buy Thornloe Cheese from its current owner, Guelph-based dairy genetics firm EastGen, for an undisclosed sum. Thornloe Cheese on its website says the business takes […] Read more
Agropur to shut Montreal-area ice cream plant
Reading Time: < 1 minute A Quebec ice cream processing plant absorbed in 2017 by Canada’s biggest dairy co-operative will shut its doors in about 10 months’ time. Agropur Co-operative announced Friday it plans to close the former Les Aliments Lebel plant at Lachute, Que., just northwest of Montreal, in August 2020 and transfer the plant’s operations to other Agropur […] Read more
Calgary to step out of Federated Co-op grocery system
Reading Time: 2 minutes Calgary Co-op’s grocery business plans to get all its goods from suppliers other than Federated Co-operatives (FCL) starting in April next year. Saskatoon-based FCL said Thursday it had received notice from Calgary Co-operative Association that it would “discontinue the procurement of all products for their grocery stores from FCL” at that time. The Saskatoon StarPhoenix […] Read more
Poultry co-ops Exceldor, Granny’s to merge
Reading Time: 2 minutes Quebec poultry co-operative Exceldor is expanding its westward reach through a merger deal with Manitoba-based Granny’s Poultry Co-operative. The two co-ops announced the combination Wednesday, noting it’s already been approved by Granny’s producer members in a “unanimous” vote taken in May, and by the federal Competition Bureau in a decision last month. “The main objective […] Read more
U.S. grain firms set up co-ops in tax law’s wake
Reading Time: 3 minutes Chicago | Reuters — U.S. agricultural merchants are scrambling to register themselves as cooperatives after a blunder in the country’s new tax law gave farmers a tax break for selling grains to co-ops rather than private firms. Private crop handlers — including the “big four” merchants Archer Daniels Midland, Bunge, Cargill and Louis Dreyfus — […] Read more
U.S. Congress near deal on tax law’s impact on grain market
Reading Time: 2 minutes Washington | Reuters — U.S. lawmakers are close to resolving a problem with the new federal tax law that gives grain co-operatives an unintended market edge over private companies, but have had a hard time getting agreement among members of the farm sector, a Republican senator said Thursday. A provision in the Republican tax overhaul […] Read more
Rush on to reverse U.S. tax boon for ag co-ops
Reading Time: 3 minutes Chicago | Reuters — Republican U.S. senators are working with some of the world’s biggest agricultural merchants to undo a last-minute provision in the tax overhaul that threatens to distort the grains market and starve private firms of corn, soy and wheat supplies. It was included during final revisions of the tax bill that passed […] Read more
Major U.S. grain firms fear harm from new tax law
Reading Time: 3 minutes Chicago | Reuters — The new U.S. tax law is poised to drive more control over the nation’s grain supply to farmer-owned co-operatives, provoking concern among ethanol producers and privately run grain handlers that they could be squeezed out of the competition to buy crops. Until now, the co-operatives, private companies and publicly traded firms […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
