People cook food beside their damaged house following rains and floods during Pakistan’s monsoon season at Jafarabad, about 400 km north of Hyderabad, on Aug. 28, 2022. (Photo: Reuters/Amer Hussain)

Produce prices spike in flood-hit Pakistan as food crisis looms

Flooding wrecks crops, hampers logistics

Reading Time: 3 minutes Lahore | Reuters — Vegetable and fruit prices have soared in markets across Pakistan as devastating rains ruin crops and disrupt supplies, an early sign of how the worst floods in decades are creating food shortages at a time of financial crisis. Pakistan’s 220 million people are already facing rampant inflation, with consumer prices up […] Read more

Syngenta’s headquarters in Basel, Switzerland. (Photo courtesy Syngenta)

Italian court upholds veto against Syngenta purchase of seed producer

Reading Time: < 1 minute Rome | Reuters — An Italian administrative court ruled that a government veto of the purchase of seed producer Verisem by Chinese-owned Syngenta was valid, the agrochemicals giant said on Wednesday. Prime Minister Mario Draghi blocked the proposed takeover in October, the second time he used the special “golden power” rules to ward off an […] Read more


File photo of Canadian farm-grown blueberries. (LittleCityLifestylePhotography/iStock/Getty Images)

Prizes put up to develop year-round berry production in Canada

Weston Foundation's new challenge backed with $33 million

Reading Time: 3 minutes A philanthropic foundation focused on improving public health now wants to improve diets by finding ways to juice up Canada’s home-grown fruit supplies. The Weston Family Foundation on Tuesday pledged $33 million over six years for what it calls the Homegrown Innovation Challenge, a prize challenge pitting ideas against ideas with the goal of extending […] Read more

Quebec leads indoor urban agriculture trend

Quebec leads indoor urban agriculture trend

Guide Canada: LEDs plus cheap electricity opens new opportunities

Reading Time: 7 minutes Quebec is already a leader in urban agriculture. It has many small urban farms and a number of community-led rooftop gardens, and is home to the world’s first commercial rooftop greenhouse operation, Lufa Farms, which recently expanded into a new 163,000-square-foot greenhouse atop a former Sears warehouse in the St-Laurent area of Montreal. The Quebec […] Read more


Onions are sold at a market at Dharavi, one of Asia’s largest slums, in Mumbai, India on April 7, 2020. (File photo: Reuters/Francis Mascarenhas)

High food prices hurting India’s poor

Inflation pain expected to persist for months yet

Reading Time: 2 minutes New Delhi | Reuters — India’s retail inflation may stay elevated for at least three more months after hitting a six-year high in October, as excess rain has damaged standing crops and seedlings, while edible oils that the country imports have become expensive. The high prices are a particular cause of concern for India’s hundreds […] Read more

(File photo by Greg Berg)

Newfoundland farmers may shoot problem moose at night

Province to provide permits to qualified farmers

Reading Time: 2 minutes Moose causing crop damage on farms in Newfoundland and Labrador may now be shot by farmers at night under a new special permit system. Farmers dealing with “problem moose” can now apply for permits for night shooting, via provincial agriculture development officers in their areas, the provincial fisheries and land resources department said Thursday. The […] Read more


“It’s all based on your contribution to the profits,” says Rod Bradshaw, here with Shelley and sons.

Teamwork makes the dream work for this group of Alberta farmers

These five Alberta farms have built a co-op that reduces their costs, increases their efficiency, and gets them into markets they otherwise couldn’t tap. The big question is, could it work for you too?

Reading Time: 10 minutes For these five adventurous Alberta farmers, a co-op is more than a way to structure operations. It’s more, too, than the camaraderie and the mutual support they get from working together with the same goal in mind, important though that is. For this group, it’s also about profitability, and about efficiency, and about enhancing their […] Read more

(SerresLefort.ca)

Major Quebec hothouse grower seeks creditor protection

Reading Time: 2 minutes One of Quebec’s best known greenhouse propagators, who in recent years launched an aggressive expansion into organic vegetables, is seeking creditor protection. Les Serres Lefort, which operates almost 50 acres of greenhouse facilities at Sainte-Clotilde in Quebec’s Monteregie, announced Sept. 10 it had filed a notice of intention on Sept. 6 to file a proposal […] Read more


Fibre is found mainly in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes.

Guide Health: Are you getting enough dietary fibre?

Start slowly — adding too much fibre too fast will result in adverse effects

Reading Time: 2 minutes You know that fibre is an important part of your diet, but do you get enough? Daily recommendations vary from 25 to 30 grams of fibre, with older people and women needing even more. A penny weighs about a gram, so that’s about 25 to 30 pennies in weight. (I suspect you can remember pennies!) […] Read more

(Food-guide.canada.ca)

Eat plant-based foods more often, new Food Guide says

Reading Time: 2 minutes Health Canada unveiled a new Canada Food Guide today that ends the era of the ‘four food groups,’ no longer refers to serving sizes nor specific amounts of food to eat daily, and replaces the former iconic rainbow with a dinner plate comprised mostly of plant-based foods. This new guide is all about proportion rather […] Read more