The national association that represents Canadian agricultural retailers has hired a new executive director. Mitch Rezansoff has taken on the lead post with the Canadian Association of Agri-Retailers following Delaney Ross Burtnack’s departure for the Manitoba Canola Growers Association last summer. Rezansoff was most recently the Integrated Solutions Manager at Enns Brothers — a John… Read More
Category: News
Dairy Farmers of Canada has found its new chief executive officer, and he comes with an understanding of the processing side of the dairy business in Canada. Jacques Lefebvre’s first official day in DFC’s Ottawa office is January 8th, as he replaces Caroline Emond, who departed in July 2017. He comes to DFC from his… Read More
The Flax Council of Canada has announced that it’s closing its doors at the end of the month, citing the need to reduce costs. After 32 years representing the flax industry nationally, the organization’s executive committee says it decided to close the Flax Council’s office when it became apparent that a new combined oilseed council… Read More
Monsanto plans to expand its Xtend herbicide tolerance package, which combines tolerance to dicamba and glyphosate, in the coming years, adding other herbicide-tolerance traits, and introducing it to new crops, including canola. Monsanto, subsidiary The Climate Corporation, and The BioAg Alliance — Monsanto’s collaboration with Novozymes — shared their annual innovation pipeline updates in conjunction… Read More
The five candidates running to replace Brad Wall as leader of the Saskatchewan Party and premier of Saskatchewan will be discussing agriculture in Regina on Wednesday. Alanna Koch, Gord Wyant, Ken Cheveldayoff, Scott Moe, and Tina Beaudry-Mellor have agreed to participate in the Saskatchewan Agriculture Discussion Forum, which will be moderated by RealAgriculture’s Shaun Haney…. Read More
Shares for Nutrien — the new company formed by the merger of Agrium Inc. and Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan Inc. — started trading in Toronto and New York this morning. After receiving final clearance from the United States’ Federal Trade Commission on December 27th, the deal to create the world’s largest crop nutrient provider, which also owns… Read More
The Government of Alberta is making some resolutions for the new year. As of January 1, 2018, farm and ranch owners will have some new Employment Standards rules to abide by. The changes are part of Bill 17: The Fair and Family-friendly Workplaces Act, and will apply to farms and ranches that “employ waged, non-family… Read More
The Canadian Transportation Agency says both CN Rail and CP Rail exceeded their maximum grain revenue entitlements during the 2016-17 crop year. CN’s grain revenue of $808,213,784 was $5,773,741 above its volume-based entitlement of $802,440,043, while CP’s revenue from grain of $725,457,448 was $1,078, 947 above its entitlement of $724,378,501. Both railways have 30 days… Read More
India has added two more pulses to the list of crops facing steep import tariffs into the country. The Indian government announced a 30 percent import duty on red lentils and chickpeas on Thursday, which takes effect immediately. It’s expected product already on its way to India will be subject to the duties upon arrival. “Production… Read More
The federal agriculture minister has named a panel of farmers, academics and industry experts to provide input as the federal and provincial governments review business risk management (BRM) programs for agriculture. Agriculture ministers from across the country committed to a year-long review of BRM programs in July. The review will not impact what the BRM… Read More
As part of its ongoing assessment of neonicotinoid pesticides (or neonics), Health Canada has proposed renewed three-year registrations for two of the three neonics under review, with some added restrictions. The review, which began in 2012, was initiated to assess the potential risk to pollinators from the nicotine-based products used to control insect pests. Farmers… Read More
The European Commission published its decision to allow Canadian canola to have continued access to the EU biodiesel market this week. “This decision means continued access to an important market for Canadian canola,” says Jim Everson, president of the Canola Council of Canada (CCC). “The Canola Council has worked hard on this over the past… Read More
Loblaw Companies and parent company George Weston Limited have admitted to participating in “industry-wide” price-fixing of bread for 14 years, dating from 2001 to March of 2015. “Under the arrangement, the participants regularly increased prices on a coordinated basis. The participants included Loblaw and the Weston Bakeries division of George Weston as well as other… Read More
Where can Canadians find everything they need to know about farming all wrapped into a neat 60-page package? It’s all in The Real Dirt on Farming. Farm & Food Care Ontario officially unveiled the newest version of its flagship public outreach publication last month. This new Real Dirt is the fourth edition since the project’s inception in… Read More
Plant-based “meat” is gaining a new level of mainstream presence, as McDonald’s is planning to debut a vegan burger in Europe next week. The McVegan will be added to the menu in Sweden and Finland on December 28th, after testing in a limited number of Finnish restaurants this fall. Produced by Anamma, a subsidiary of… Read More