South Korea has announced it will end its almost month-long ban on buying Canadian beef. The ban lasted almost one month, after an atypical case of BSE was reported in a beef cow on an Alberta farm Dec. 17, 2021. South Korea closed its doors to Canadian beef on Dec. 21. This morning, South Korea… Read More
There might be some assumptions about what the impact of the ongoing pandemic has been on the global middle class and there might also be the underlying realities that explain what’s going on. COVID changed everything in supply and production chains and really pointed out the precarious nature of those systems, says Carlo Dade, director… Read More
This story, including the headline, has undergone a major update as of late January 13. The Canadian government says news reports that it had backed off its plan to require cross-border truck drivers be vaccinated for COVID-19 as of Saturday, January 15 are incorrect. Several media outlets published stories late Wednesday and early Thursday quoting… Read More
China and the Philippines have joined South Korea in temporarily suspending imports of Canadian beef following the discovery of an atypical case of BSE in an Alberta cow in mid-December. The Chinese customs administration has stopped issuing certificates for beef and beef products from Canada, while hides are still eligible for export, according to a… Read More
A resolution from the dispute panel regarding dairy tariff rate quota (TRQ) allocations has been reached, and the news is a bit, well, divisive. The panel’s decision includes the statement that because Canada’s reserving of access of 85 to 100 per cent of 14 separate TRQs for Canadian processors is “inconsistent with Article 3.A.2.11 (b),”… Read More
Both Canada and the U.S. are claiming victory in a panel ruling that upheld Canada’s supply management system for dairy, but found Canada’s handling of tariff rate quotas (TRQs) for processors in violation of Article 3 of the United States Canada Mexico Agreement (USMCA). The dispute is the first test of the USMCA agreement for… Read More
Kody Blois, Liberal Member of Parliament for Kings-Hants, N.S., was recently named chair of the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food in the House of Commons. Blois joined RealAg Radio host Shaun Haney to break down the context of the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food, and what kind of work they do. “We’re parliamentarians… Read More
AgriStability, the whole farm, business risk management program has been in place for Canadian farmers for 16 years. In that time, it’s been maligned and criticized, and it continues to be subject to an ongoing tug-of-war between federal and provincial politicians. But with a new ag policy framework to be unveiled for 2023, changes to the… Read More
Former federal Agriculture Minister Bob Speller has passed away at the age of 66. Speller (above left) was named Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food by Prime Minister Paul Martin in December 2003, during the Canadian cattle industry’s BSE crisis. He passed away on Dec. 16 at a care facility near Waterford, Ontario, following an illness. “Bob was… Read More
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has issued mandate letters to his ministers, outlining the Liberal government’s priorities for the session of Parliament that started last month. The letters were made public on Thursday (Dec. 16), 51 days after the cabinet was sworn in, and the second last day of sitting in the House of Commons before… Read More
2021 has been a tough weather year. From prolonged drought and excessive heat, to the flooding witnessed in recent weeks in British Columbia — weather disasters have had a tremendous impact on Canadian farms and agriculture businesses. Erik Davies, from Barefoot Consulting, has spent his career working on disaster recovery and risk management issues. Last month… Read More
A month into the job as Minister of Agriculture, Forestry, and Rural Economic Development, Nate Horner says he’s catching up with producer groups in the province and working to get up to speed on the priorities for Alberta agriculture. Up first on the docket following his appointment was the Federal-Provincial-Territorial ministers meeting last month, where Horner… Read More
New details on how the federal government plans to rebate carbon taxes paid by farmers in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta were included in the Dec. 14 fiscal update presented by Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland. The Liberal government had previously promised, in the lead-up to the federal budget in spring 2021, that it would refund… Read More
This column was written by Greg Northey, with Pulse Canada, prior to the flooding of B.C.’s Fraser Valley. If Canada wants to address climate change in the now, we can start by fixing the current supply chain issues plaguing our exporters and driving up the cost of living for us all. The global container shortage not… Read More
In November, John Barlow, MP for Foothills, was re-named to the position as the Conservatives’ shadow minister for agriculture. Among Barlow’s current priorities is the attention — or lack thereof — that country-of-origin labelling (COOL) is currently getting in Ottawa. As the conversations grow in strength with a bipartisan bill in the U.S. senate surrounding… Read More