Reading Time: 2 minutes Italian farmers protesting about red tape and cheap imports from outside the EU headed towards Rome in convoys of tractors on Monday, while their colleagues in the north led a cow through the streets of Milan.

Italy’s farmers head to Rome in tractor convoy protest
Protests in France, Germany eased; farmers blocked Dutch-Belgian border

Farmers block Dutch-Belgian border as anger spreads across Europe
Polish farmers threaten closure of Ukraine border; France promises more farm measures
Reading Time: 3 minutes Farmers blocked the Dutch-Belgian border on Friday and occupied roads in Greece while their Polish peers announced plans to shut border crossings with Ukraine as protests for fairer prices and less red tape spread across Europe.

Russia to ban some imports of seeds from Canada, Europe
Canada's Prograin soybean seed on list
Reading Time: < 1 minute Moscow | Reuters — Russia will ban imports of some seeds from several locations in Europe and Canada from Aug. 15, its agriculture safety watchdog said on Thursday, citing non-compliance by suppliers with phytosanitary requirements as the reason. Imports of tomato and carrot seeds will be banned from a nursery of Satimex Quedlinburg, in Germany, […] Read more

Dutch to cull mink at farms hit by COVID-19 outbreak
Order follows mink-to-human virus transmissions
Reading Time: 2 minutes Amsterdam | Reuters — The Dutch government on Wednesday ordered mink culled at nine farms where animals have been infected with the coronavirus, fearing they could form a reservoir of disease infecting humans after the country’s current outbreak has passed. “Clearing the infected farms is in the interest of both human health and animal health,” […] Read more

Mink infected two humans with COVID-19, Dutch government says
Reading Time: 2 minutes Amsterdam | Reuters — Mink with the coronavirus have infected two people in the Netherlands in what are probably the first such cases of transmission during the epidemic, government and health authorities said on Monday. Mink carrying the virus were found on four of the 155 farms in the country where they are bred for […] Read more

EU-Canada trade deal clears hurdle in Dutch parliament
Reading Time: < 1 minute Amsterdam | Reuters — The European Union’s free trade agreement with Canada cleared a political hurdle on Tuesday, when a slim majority of lawmakers in the Dutch lower house voted to ratify the contested deal. Votes by members of the country’s governing coalition were enough to approve the deal, which was rejected by opposition parties […] Read more

JBS says U.S. IPO would not change headquarters
Reading Time: < 1 minute Sao Paulo | Reuters — Brazilian meatpacker JBS SA said in a securities filing late on Friday the company is considering a U.S. listing of its international assets but not a change of its headquarters. The company said it expects to have a capital structure that allows it to compete “on equal footing” with international […] Read more

Angry farmers cause Dutch police to close off parliament square
Reading Time: 2 minutes The Hague | Reuters — Police in the Dutch city of The Hague closed its central parliament square on Wednesday to keep out farmers protesting over what they see as attempts to blame them for nitrogen pollution. Thousands of irate farmers had driven tractors to The Hague hours earlier in their third large protest in […] Read more

Land at $75,000 per acre
Balancing the need for high yields and sustainability — farming a Dutch polder
Reading Time: 8 minutes The newest province of the Netherlands, Flevoland, is flatter than the Canadian Prairies. There isn’t a tree, building or windmill older than 40 years. And while in Canada our farmland was won from the bush, here in the Netherlands it’s wrung from the sea and called polders. Fabulously fertile, furiously high priced and fragile, this […] Read more

New crop of Nuffield scholars named
Reading Time: 2 minutes Canada’s agriculture sector has yielded four new scholars to join the international Nuffield community and receive funding for research in their fields of interest. Nuffield Canada, the Canadian arm of the international Nuffield organization since 1986, has named Ellen Crane, Josh Oulton, Gavin Robertson and Shelley Spruitt as its Nuffield scholars for 2018. The new […] Read more