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
It’s tough being a small fish in a big pond. In this case, Canada’s beef industry is that minnow in the giant ocean that is the U.S. beef industry. Or perhaps that’s not fair — it would seem the big hiccup with the entire mandatory Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) fiasco is that, according to… Read More
Though it has not been grown in nearly a decade, wheat containing the Roundup Ready gene has been reportedly found in an Oregon, U.S., field by the USDA. The Roundup Ready wheat was field tested many years ago by Monsanto in the state from 1999 to 2005, but the crop was never approved for commercial… Read More
The United States was required to come into compliance with its World Trade Organization (WTO) obligations in relation to the WTO dispute on its country-of-origin labelling (COOL) regulations today, May 23. The country has instead implemented proposed changes that many U.S. and Canadian cattle and hog industry players say makes it even worse. The Canadian… Read More
New Year’s Eve held much excitement in U.S. politics, not because of any ball drop or extravagant party, but because of a late-night crunch session to hammer out a tax bill that would pull the U.S. from the so-called “Fiscal Cliff” of mandatory cost cutting and tax hikes. Included in the last-minute agreement was an… Read More
Utter the words “supply management” and those involved in the agriculture industry are likely to have strong opinions for and against. The same can be said for the U.S., where an expired Farm Bill and recent run-ups in feed costs have converged to make a whole lot of farmers and industry folk nervous about the… Read More
Yesterday’s re-election of Barack Obama was the big news story, but tucked in amongst all the election fan fair and references to Mitt Romney’s “binders full of women” was news of several bills being passed or defeated. Of particular note to agriculture was Prop 37, a Californian bill that would require labeling of products that… Read More
I’ll be the first to admit that the U.S. political system with its two houses, governors and senators and congressmen sets my head spinning. I also find it fascinating, as wrangling rules and regulations for so many people just seems like an overly daunting task. It would appear that our friends to the south also… Read More
Cattle producers and industry members from the U.S., Canada and beyond gathered at NCBA 2012 to talk about the state of the industry, the triumphs and the challenges. As we look further ahead into 2012, the challenges for the margin operator don’t seem to get any easier. In fact, you could say that it looks… Read More
With the recent ruling by the World Trade Organization declaring elements of the U.S. Country Of Origin Labelling program to be unfair, Canadian livestock producers feel that the first steps have been made in restoring exports lost when the program began. While Canadian producers applaud the move, there is an underlying skepticism that this decision… Read More
The American market is very important to the Canadian cattle industry. Domestic policies in the United States can greatly impact the Canadian industry. Just think about Country of Origin Labelling (COOL) and the discussion in Canada in terms of mitigating its impact. There are some proposed changes to GIPSA potentially coming and questions and several… Read More
Canada and Mexico have taken the issue of country of origin labelling (COOL) to the World Trade Organization (WTO). We are basically one year into the implementation of COOL and the financial impact is severe. The impact on the Canada and Mexico livestock markets has been very hurtful. The interesting thing that I found at… Read More
One of the great things about attending the NCBA convention is that you get a chance to hear what some of the NCBA analysts an staff have to say about the industry. I was very fortunate to get a chance to talk with Gregg Doud. Gregg Doud is the Chief Economist at the National Cattlemans… Read More
This is my first trip the NCBA convention and I have been amazed at the scope of the convention. The first person that I had a chance to interview was Sara Brown, Livestock & Production Editor, Beef Today. I asked Sara what a couple of the main issues were in the beef business in the… Read More
John Phipps is the Host of the US Farm report and also farms for a living. He also blogs and writes for Farm Journal. I had the chance to sit down with John before his keynote speech at CropWeek and asked him about some of the things in the past that have affected farmers and… Read More
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