Yara’s fertilizer terminal at Stockton, California. (Sebastian Braum photo, Yara.com)

Fertilizer maker Yara says world faces extreme food supply shock

Sanctions cut global fertilizer supply 15 per cent, company says

Reading Time: 2 minutes Davos, Switzerland | Reuters — Norwegian fertilizer giant Yara says donors urgently need to close the U.N.’s $10 billion food programme funding gap to avoid a catastrophe as sanctions on Russian fertilizers and Ukraine’s grain export problems have created an extreme global shock. “The world has realized that food can be a weapon and it […] Read more

File photo of barrels on display in a Nova Scotia vineyard. (Tashka/iStock/Getty Images)

Wastewater regulation eased for Nova Scotia on-farm processing

Reading Time: < 1 minute Nova Scotia has introduced regulatory changes that allow on-farm processing operations to better manage wastewater on their smaller scale. The changes, which took effect May 11, come at the request of the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture (NSFA) — which has said that owners of small farm-level processing facilities shouldn’t be treated the same as […] Read more


Yuri and Oleksiy, farmers wearing body armours and helmets, prepare for field work in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region amid Russia’s invasion, on April 26, 2022. (Photo: Reuters/Ueslei Marcelino)

Worsening global food security needs Ukraine, Russia production, UN chief says

Reading Time: 2 minutes Abuja | Reuters — U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Wednesday the problem of global food security could not be solved without restoring Ukrainian agricultural production and Russian food and fertilizer output to the world market. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February has added to volatility in financial markets, sending commodity prices higher and affecting logistics, […] Read more

A farm worker unloads Ukrainian-made fertilizer from a truck on April 5, 2022 to use on a wheat field near the village of Yakovlivka, outside Kharkiv, after it was hit by an aerial bombardment. (Photo: Reuters/Thomas Peter)

Farming behind the lines: Ukraine’s farmers sow amidst wreckage

Despite their best efforts, however, famine looms as war rages

Reading Time: 5 minutes In early April, Ukrainian soldiers expelled the Russian invaders from the northern regions of Ukraine: Kyiv, Chernihiv and Sumy regions. The wounded enemy left, leaving behind burned-out war machines and the unburied corpses of his soldiers. However, the invaders managed to do a lot of damage. Many of you are probably aware of the atrocities […] Read more


Workers in the JBS beef plant at Brooks, Alta. appear in a screen shot from a 2018 corporate video. (JBS Canada video screengrab via YouTube)

Changes to TFW program to expand worker availability

Workplace LMIAs now valid for 18 months

Reading Time: 3 minutes The federal government is boosting the availability of temporary foreign workers (TFWs) to ag and other understaffed sectors under a list of policy changes announced Monday. Employment and Workforce Development Minister Carla Qualtrough announced what’s called the Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) Program Workforce Solutions Road Map, which the government said “marks the next step in […] Read more

The United Nations’ General Assembly Hall in Manhattan. (BWZenith/iStock/Getty Images)

Food, farming, forestry must be transformed to curb global warming, UN says

Earlier draft of panel report called for reduced intake of meat

Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters — Protecting forests, changing diets, and altering farming methods could contribute around a quarter of the greenhouse gas cuts needed to avert the worst impacts of climate change, according to the United Nations’ climate panel. But the changes are unlikely to happen unless governments act to spur them along, the report from the Intergovernmental […] Read more


A new way to build a farm

It’s called 'agritecture' and it’s quickly gaining attention. What if you could grow a crop in the concrete used to make buildings?

Reading Time: 5 minutes It seems like something you should be reading in a cheap sci-fi novel, not in a magazine for farmers, but this is how urbanites might grow their own food in future if one Mexican company has its way.  Today, if you want to grow food in a city, you grow it beside or in between […] Read more

Low-fat, High-fibre Blueberry Muffins (see recipe below).

Healthy eating for older adults

Food choices are important as you age. Fortunately, says Dr. Alison Duncan, there are loads of great options

Reading Time: 5 minutes We’re living longer, and we are also learning how to live those extra years better. If we want them to be good years, it makes sense to pay attention to what we’re eating as we age. “Diet is a major determinant of health,” says Dr. Alison Duncan, a professor in human health and nutritional sciences […] Read more


A tractor participates in a demonstration by members of Mier Ukrajine (Peace for Ukraine) in front of the Russian embassy in Bratislava on March 16, 2022. (Photo: Reuters/Radovan Stoklasa)

Ukraine war already impacting food security, U.N. agency warns

Reading Time: < 1 minute London | Reuters — The war in Ukraine is already resulting in rising food prices and a shortage of staple crops in parts of central Asia, the Middle East and north Africa, the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) said on Thursday. The Russian invasion of Ukraine last month has severely curtailed shipments […] Read more

(William_Potter/iStock/Getty Images)

G7 ag ministers urge end to food export curbs as prices surge

Nations warn against 'speculative behaviour'

Reading Time: 2 minutes Hamburg | Reuters — Global food exporting countries should not restrict food exports after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine cut world supplies, agriculture ministers of the G7 group of nations said on Friday. The impact on markets escalated this week as a growing list of food producing countries restricted exports, keeping vital supplies within their borders. […] Read more