Reading Time: < 1 minute Rogers Sugar says it's reached a tentative deal with the union representing striking workers from its Vancouver refinery.
Striking Rogers Sugar workers reach tentative deal
The walk-out sparked sugar shortages and led Alberta sugar beet producers to call for more local investment
Sugar beet growers seek to expand sector with domestic policy
It wouldn’t stop strikes, but it would recharge Canada’s sugar industry, says producer group
Reading Time: 3 minutes The Alberta Sugar Beet Growers want a national domestic sugar policy, which the organization says could lay the foundation for resurgence in the sector.
Sierra Leone passes new laws to boost landowners’ rights
Reading Time: 2 minutes Freetown | Reuters — Sierra Leone’s parliament on Monday passed two laws that lawyers say will help boost the rights of rural landowners and women against land grabs by big mining and agribusiness firms. The West African country has a history of sometimes deadly conflict between local communities and foreign companies that have cleared huge […] Read more
‘Containergeddon’ drives sugar, rice shippers back to bulk vessels
Reading Time: 2 minutes New York | Reuters — Food traders are switching from containers back to dry bulk vessels to transport refined sugar and rice, hoping to avoid shipping delays caused by container shortages and port congestion the industry is calling “containergeddon,” according to traders. Container-based transportation has been hit by sky-high costs and delays amid booming shipping […] Read more
Chickens culled as Brazil truckers disrupt commodity exports
Reading Time: 3 minutes Sao Paulo | Reuters — Striking truckers in Brazil have disrupted supply and exports of farm produce from one of the world’s agricultural commodity powerhouses. Brazil is the top global exporter of soybeans, sugar, coffee and chickens. The strike over high fuel prices has paralyzed Latin America’s largest economy, emptied Brazilian roadways and left major […] Read more
Honeybees’ attraction to fungicide ‘unsettling’
Reading Time: 2 minutes London | Thomson Reuters Foundation — Honeybees are attracted to a fungicide used in agriculture with “unsettling implications” for global food production, a U.S. scientist said on Tuesday. Tests carried out by a team from the University of Illinois showed bees preferred to collect sugar syrup laced with the fungicide chlorothalonil over sugar syrup alone. […] Read more
From sugar mills to hog farms, U.S. agriculture braces for Irma
Reading Time: 3 minutes Chicago/New York | Reuters — Hurricane Irma sent farmers and food companies scrambling to protect processing facilities, farm fields and animal herds in the south and southeastern parts of the U.S. on Wednesday. Florida sugar and citrus processors rushed to secure rail cars and equipment that could be crushed, blocked or turned into flying projectiles. […] Read more
Cellulosic sugar co-op looking for farmer investors
Reading Time: 4 minutes The Ontario-based Cellulosic Sugar Producers Co-operative is now ready to sign up farmers to supply 55,000 acres of wheat straw and corn stover to a new plant the co-op will partly own in Sarnia, Ont. The co-op will be supplying the biomass to a proposed $70 million Comet Biorefining plant to be built in Sarnia. […] Read more
Revisions in the works for Canada’s Food Guide
Reading Time: 3 minutes Health Canada is planning changes to one of its key policy documents to reflect how Canadians’ diets are generally coming up short in vegetables, fruits, whole grains, milk and milk alternatives. At the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress in Montreal on Monday, the federal health department launched a 45-day public consultation on changes to Canada’s Food Guide, […] Read more
U.S. farmers race to ready for Hurricane Matthew’s blast
Reading Time: 3 minutes New York | Reuters — Hurricane Matthew, the fiercest Caribbean storm in nearly a decade, roiled commodities markets and forced companies from cane refiners to orange juice makers to shutter as it whipped its way toward the southeastern U.S. on Thursday. Southeastern companies were closing down operations ahead of a storm that could threaten some […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
