Reading Time: 3 minutes Reuters — Marlboro cigarette maker Altria Group announced a $2.4 billion investment in Cronos Group on Friday, which could give it up to 55 per cent ownership of the Canadian cannabis producer. The deal represents by far the biggest investment by a major tobacco conglomerate in a cannabis company. It comes after Canada legalized the […] Read more
Altria to marry Canadian pot with big tobacco
World crop briefs: North Carolina losing crops, livestock to Florence
Reading Time: 2 minutes CNS Canada — Record-setting rain and floods in North Carolina caused by Hurricane Florence have destroyed the state’s poultry sector with 3.4 million chickens and turkeys reported killed. Pig losses are estimated at 5,500. Widespread power outages and flooded roads are making it difficult to get help to abandoned livestock operations. The state is home […] Read more
Florence shuts down U.S. slaughterhouses
Reading Time: 3 minutes Chicago/Los Angeles | Reuters — U.S. food companies kept slaughter plants shut on Monday in southeastern states swamped by Hurricane Florence as flash floods collapsed the walls of at least two hog manure pits, made roads undriveable and delayed rail shipments. Catastrophic flooding from Hurricane Florence, which has dumped up to 36 inches of rain […] Read more
U.S. farmers rush to clear crops but animals stay in Florence’s path
Reading Time: 3 minutes Chicago | Reuters — As powerful Hurricane Florence advanced toward the southeastern U.S., farmers in North Carolina rushed to harvest corn and tobacco and stock up on pig rations, while the danger of sustained rain and deadly flooding threatened a state where millions of farm animals are housed. “The governor said that North Carolina is […] Read more
Canadians spent $5.7 billion on cannabis in 2017
Reading Time: < 1 minute Ottawa | Reuters — Canadians spent an estimated $5.7 billion on cannabis in 2017, Statistics Canada said on Thursday, with the country on track to legalize recreational use of the drug nationwide later this year. About 4.9 million Canadians between the ages of 15 to 64 purchased both medical and non-medical cannabis last year, the […] Read more
Precision ag tech’s link to broadband under study
Reading Time: 2 minutes Crop growers in southwestern Ontario are being asked how their access to high-speed internet, or lack thereof, has helped or hindered their adoption of precision ag tools. Researchers at the University of Guelph’s Ontario Agricultural College (OAC), as part of the Regional and Rural Broadband (R2B2) project, are studying how “current and future connectivity” influences […] Read more
EU crop chem firm takes stake in Engage Agro
Reading Time: 2 minutes A Belgian crop protection firm may bring some of its products to Canada’s vegetable, vine and corn markets as it moves to take a minority stake in Canadian crop chemical distributor Engage Agro. Belchim Crop Protection announced last week it will take a “significant” but undisclosed minority stake in Guelph-based Engage Agro for an undisclosed […] Read more
Zimbabwe farmers resist compensating evicted landowners
Reading Time: 4 minutes Harare | Reuters –– Zimbabwe’s plan to win back international funding by paying compensation to white farmers forced off their land faces a major snag: the black farmers expected to stump up the cash say they don’t have it. The new occupants working the land, many of who had few farming skills when they were […] Read more
U.S. EPA moves to pull crop insecticide from sale
Reading Time: 2 minutes CLARIFIED, March 7, 2016: Chicago | Reuters — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday it was moving to halt sale of insecticides from chemical firms Bayer and Nichino America containing an active ingredient, flubendiamide, found to pose risks to the environment. Bayer CropScience had anticipated the action after rejecting the EPA’s request to voluntarily […] Read more
Court rules medical marijuana users can grow their own
Reading Time: 2 minutes Vancouver | Reuters — A federal court judge in Vancouver on Wednesday ruled that medical marijuana patients have the Constitutional right to grow their own cannabis, striking down a ban introduced by Canada’s previous Conservative government. The court suspended its decision for six months to give Ottawa time to respond. A group of British Columbia […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
