Reading Time: 2 minutes A poultry processor and its “chicken-catching” service provider whose handling of chickens in British Columbia wound up on network TV are now each on the hook for $300,000 in fines. The fines were levied against Sofina Foods and Elite Farm Services after the two companies pled guilty to two counts each of Health of Animals […] Read more
Chicken abuse caught on video nets $600,000 in fines
Sofina Foods, chicken-catching company fined; other charges stayed
JBS parent pleads guilty to U.S. foreign bribery charges
Reading Time: 2 minutes New York/Rio de Janeiro | Reuters — Brazil’s J+F Investimentos, parent company of the world’s largest meatpacker, JBS, pleaded guilty to U.S. foreign bribery charges and agreed to pay US$128.25 million in criminal fines, prosecutors said on Wednesday. J+F is paying only half of the $256.5 million fines levied due to settlements made with Brazilian […] Read more
Ontario draws new legal lines against on-farm trespass
Reading Time: 2 minutes Ontario has introduced a legislative package setting up new legal boundaries around livestock in that province, whether on farms or in transit. The Security From Trespass and Protecting Food Safety Act, introduced Monday by Agriculture Minister Ernie Hardeman, is expected to “address the unique risks and challenges associated with trespass onto a farm or into […] Read more
Alberta proposes heavier penalties for on-farm trespassing
Reading Time: 3 minutes Alberta’s government proposes to discourage future on-farm protests — events in the style of an occupation held early last month at an Alberta Hutterite colony’s turkey farm — on pain of new penalties. Speaking Thursday at the Jumbo Valley colony near Fort Macleod, Premier Jason Kenney, Justice Minister Doug Schweitzer and Agriculture Minister Devin Dreeshen […] Read more
Brazil ag minister eyes indigenous land for commercial farming
Reading Time: 2 minutes Brasilia | Reuters — Brazil should open indigenous land to commercial farming, Agriculture Minister Tereza Cristina Dias said on Friday, while also seeking to soften many of President Jair Bolsonaro’s controversial stances on native people and the environment. Farmers form a key base of support for right-wing firebrand Bolsonaro who since taking office Jan. 1 […] Read more
Brazil police probe ag ministry for corruption
Reading Time: < 1 minute Sao Paulo | Reuters — Brazilian federal police started two separate investigations on Tuesday into suspected corruption at the Agriculture Ministry to benefit meatpacking, dairy and other food companies. The probes into whether inspection procedures were eased in favour of certain unnamed companies comes two months after the country’s meatpacking industry was rocked by a […] Read more
Oklahoma senators seek tougher cattle rustling penalties
Reading Time: 2 minutes Oklahoma City | Reuters — Oklahoma lawmakers sent a measure to the governor on Tuesday to increase penalties for cattle rustling, in an attempt to curtail a crime associated with the Wild West that has seen a resurgence from ranch hands stealing livestock to feed their drug habits. The bill approved by the Oklahoma Senate […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
