Earlier this month, the Washington State Academy of Science published a white paper on Initiative 522 (I-522), a Washington State initiative aimed to institute mandatory labeling of food containing Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). On November 5th, the initiative will be taken to the public, and the state will vote on the proposal. The debate continues… Read More

In a surprising move, U.S. company Merck Animal Health has suspended sales of the beta-agonist Zilmax, a cattle growth promotant, according to a Reuters report. The decision comes on the heels of Tyson Foods Inc. announcing last week that the company would no longer accept slaughter cattle that had been fed the feed additive. JBS… Read More

As Gary Larson once said, The Chickens are Restless. If you’re not on Twitter, you likely haven’t heard about a growing group of disgruntled farmers taking aim at Panera Bread Company’s cheap shot at conventional agriculture. Cheap shot is perhaps being generous — an entire ad campaign has been built around fear mongering and misinformation,… Read More

Forbes recently published an article asking the (rehtorical, I assume) question, “Is Organic Agriculture Affluent Narcissim?” My answer? Of course it is. I thought we all knew that. I find myself in an interesting position these days. I consider myself rather neutral — I’m happy we’re all free to choose what we put in our… Read More

With the recent flooding that’s plagued Alberta, cattle producers understandably have other things on their mind besides new technology. But at some point, when the situation settles down, they’ll find themselves in a delicate position – that is, heading for the front lines of science, promoting irradiation for beef. Irradiation would help kill nasty E-coli… Read More

As farmers continue to look for ways to capitalize on the local food movement, some new hints were offered up earlier this week from researchers at the University of Florida. In the southeastern U.S., Florida is considered the state with the greatest diversity of what most people would typically call local food, particularly fruit and… Read More

In 1998, the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association brought forward a petition to Health Canada to amend regulations so that irradiation of ground beef  could be used in Canada. The scientific review proving the safety and efficacy of the bacteria-killing process was completed by Health Canada. The petition moved to step one of a two step process… Read More

Almost 10 years ago, Canada got its global butt kicked when news broke about a lone case of BSE in Alberta.  Naysayers everywhere – competitors and anti-corporate activists, among them — were lurking in the weeds, waiting for an opportunity to discredit our food system. The agriculture minister at the time, Lyle Vanclief, tried hard… Read More

Once again Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz took to the stage at the FarmTech conference to talk to a packed house about the state of agriculture in Canada. This year saw the Minister announce details on two federal Growing Forward 2 programs as well as address a number of other topics including the lay of… Read More

 

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