Dennis Laycraft, executive vice president of Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (CCA), is on location at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) annual convention happening now at Houston, Texas. Laycraft is part of the Canadian contingent and is taking part in several meetings with his U.S. and Mexican counterparts, discussing country of origin labeling, sustainability, processing capacity, and… Read More
Category: Ag Policy
The federal government has put out a call for nominations for an advisory committee within the Pest Management Regulatory Agency, in a move that CropLife Canada says creates redundancy in the pest product approval process and could detract from the science-based system. CropLife says that it supports “an independent, science-based and transparent pesticide risk assessment process… Read More
The federal agriculture minister remains fully committed to her government’s cross-border vaccination mandate for truck drivers, despite pressure from some industry groups and provinces to loosen the requirement to reduce the impact it’s having on specific supply chains. While there’s been much discussion about the direct effect the mandate could potentially have on grocery prices,… Read More
Five federal ministers hosted a National Supply Chain Summit January 31st to discuss the challenges facing Canada’s supply chain and to identify potential solutions to ensure that what Canadians need reach their households as quickly as possible. Participants for this initial event included representation of Canadian organizations including business associations, manufacturers, exporters associations, as well… Read More
The conversation surrounding supply chains and transportation have been plentiful as of late, and coming up on the list of things to watch is the National Supply Chain Summit. On January 31, the Minister of Transport Omar Alghabra is hosting a trade summit, with the participation of five other ministers, including Minister of Agriculture and… Read More
Canada has quietly joined a coalition of countries promoting “sustainable productivity growth” in agriculture. The Sustainable Productivity Growth Coalition for Food Security and Resource Conservation, known as the SPG Coalition, was first championed by U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack at the UN Food Systems Summit in September 2021. The coalition’s stated goal is to “accelerate… Read More
Manitoba’s new agriculture minister says helping producers recover from the drought of 2021 and maintaining cross-border movement of feed and the province’s agricultural exports are top priorities as he settles into the minister’s office. Derek Johnson was sworn in as Manitoba’s minister of agriculture last week, as the province’s new premier, Heather Stefanson, appointed her… Read More
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
Federated Co-operatives Limited (FCL) and AGT Foods have announced a joint venture partnership that will see a 1.1 million metric tonne/year canola processing facility in Regina, Sask. The canola crush plant is part of a larger $2 billion investment FCL is making in the construction of an Integrated Agriculture Complex (IAC). The announcement builds on… Read More
Have you ever tried to solve a problem and the solution you come up with is actually worse than the original problem? Sometimes, in our quest to solve an issue, we fail to realize the full ramifications of the potential solutions we come up with. It’s this kind of chain reaction that makes decision making… 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