Reading Time: 3 minutes Updated, July 15 — The federal government has announced a pilot program that will make it easier for farms and food companies to maintain workers they recruit from around the world. Ahmed Hussen, minister for immigration, refugees and citizenship, announced the program Friday at Maple Leaf Foods in Mississauga. Why it matters: There’s a labour […] Read more
Agriculture foreign workers get new path to residency
Vegetable seedling grower, cannabis grower to merge
Reading Time: 2 minutes A B.C. company that raises seedlings for greenhouse vegetable growers is set to devote its existing square footage to weed, following a takeover by a B.C. cannabis grower and processor. Langley-based, publicly-traded Bevo Agro on Thursday announced a reverse takeover deal with Surrey-based, privately-held cannabis firm Sun Pharm Investments, which will see Sun Pharm shareholders […] Read more
Could the future of farming lie indoors?
Innovation: The scale seems much too small, say farmers. But that may be its greatest strength
Reading Time: 5 minutes Outside of maybe the health care field, there are few sectors that are as innovative and changing as rapidly as agriculture. It’s what I’ll write about in this series of columns for Country Guide, because frankly, some of the technologies that are coming off the drawing boards are going to challenge the way we think […] Read more
Aurora to buy Ontario’s MedReleaf in biggest-ever pot deal
Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters — Aurora Cannabis will buy rival MedReleaf Corp. for $3.2 billion in the biggest deal yet to unify major Canadian pot growers, as the country moves toward legalizing marijuana for recreational use. The deal announced Monday is the latest in a wave of mergers in the industry as marijuana producers — emboldened by pot […] Read more
EU nations back ban on all outdoor neonic use
Reading Time: 2 minutes Brussels | Reuters — European Union countries backed a proposal on Friday to ban all use outdoors of insecticides known as neonicotinoids that studies have shown can harm bees. The ban, championed by environmental activists, covers the use of three active substances — imidacloprid, developed by Bayer CropScience; clothianidin, developed by Takeda Chemical Industries and […] Read more
Farm feedback
On this savvy farm, feedback is mined for real value, producing a happier, more efficient workforce
Reading Time: 9 minutes On the farm, we’ve heard the jokes about feedback being a load of barley that gets rejected at the elevator, or maybe it’s how a cow chews her cud. In bizspeak, though, feedback gets taken a lot more seriously than that. As a human resources strategy, feedback is gaining global attention because of the power […] Read more
Hothouse produce grower to devote site to marijuana
Reading Time: 2 minutes Canada’s only publicly traded greenhouse produce-growing company plans to put up one of its British Columbia greenhouses for a new venture in cannabis production. Vancouver-based Village Farms announced Tuesday it has partnered with Victoria-based medical cannabis producer/processor Emerald Health Therapeutics in a 50/50 joint venture to grow cannabis for medical use and, pending changes to […] Read more
Ontario greenhouse growers get competitiveness fund
Reading Time: < 1 minute The Ontario government is putting $19 million into a new initiative to support the competitiveness of the greenhouse sector in the province. Provincial Agriculture Minister Jeff Leal announced the funding on Thursday at Link Greenhouse near Bowmanville, just east of Oshawa. The Greenhouse Competitiveness and Innovation Initiative aims to provide funding for the creation of […] Read more
Lake Erie plan’s farming recommendations released
Reading Time: 2 minutes A federal/provincial action plan to reduce phosphorus loading in Lake Erie has been released for public comment — and many of its recommendations will have implications for farmers in the Lake Erie basin. None of the numerous recommendations are particularly new or surprising and mostly call for using existing funding programs to encourage certain production […] Read more
Russian farming firm to test investor appetite
Reading Time: 2 minutes Moscow | Reuters — Russian farming conglomerate Rusagro launched a secondary share offering on Thursday which will test foreign appetite for Russian assets. Share sales by Russian companies have been rare since Western sanctions imposed in 2014 over Ukraine cut access to foreign capital markets and after a sharp drop in global oil prices, the […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
