Updated Jan. 18, 2021 Municipalities in the major greenhouse-growing area of the province are clamping down on increasingly bright greenhouse lighting making night into day in the rural areas where they operate. The municipality of Leamington recently enacted a bylaw to stem and roll back light pollution emitted from the region’s sizeable and diverse greenhouse […] Read more
Local governments hit greenhouse light pollution
Growing clusters of greenhouses light up the night sky, creating problems with neighbours
Ontario government looks to greenhouses in the north
The Ontario government is providing $16,500 to help the town of Rainy River conduct a greenhouse feasibility study. The study is expected to help identify the infrastructure required for a greenhouse facility, as well as assess the advantages of the greenhouse industry, such as increased variety and availability of produce, longer growing seasons, lower produce […] Read more
Bibeau says government committed to federal plant breeding
Seed royalty consultations stalled
The Canadian government is committed to plant breeding, federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau told members of the Canadian Farm Writers’ Federation on Tuesday. Some farmers and seed industry officials suspect Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s (AAFC) variety development work, along with many other programs, will be on the chopping block post-COVID-19 as the government tackles its […] Read more
Vilsack expected to return as USDA secretary
Washington/Chicago | Reuters — U.S. President-elect Joe Biden plans to nominate former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack for agriculture secretary, Axios reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter. The Biden transition office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report. Vilsack, who led the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) under […] Read more
Farmers protest across India against Modi’s farm market reforms
New Delhi/Mumbai | Reuters — Farmers’ protests against new laws liberalizing agricultural markets spread across India on Tuesday, as farm organizations called for a nationwide strike after inconclusive talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. In eastern and western states, farmers blocked roads and squatted on railway tracks, delaying hordes of people getting to work, […] Read more
Strategy created for 2021 planting worker protection
The government and industry collaborated on the detailed strategy for farm workers
The Ontario horticulture sector has been the hardest hit of agriculture sectors by COVID-19, but it has a plan in place to help reduce risk from the virus when foreign workers arrive for 2021 planting. OMAFRA and producer groups came together to create a 35-point plan that outlines areas of responsibility and direction to help […] Read more
India considers changing new farm laws after mass protests
New Delihi | Reuters — India’s government is considering rolling back some parts of its agricultural reforms after they triggered the biggest protests by farmers in years, officials said on Friday. Tens of thousands of farmers were out on the streets around Delhi again on Friday, rallying against three laws that the government says are […] Read more
Peru farm protests grip country, turn deadly
'There are no harvests, there is nothing'
Lima | Reuters — Protests by farm workers demanding better wages in Peru raged on for a fourth day Thursday, spreading north into key agricultural areas of the Andean nation, derailing harvests of some crops, snarling transport of produce and leaving at least one dead. Peruvian interim President Francisco Sagasti called the death of a […] Read more
AgriStability proposal could have hidden cost, Pedersen warns
Manitoba's ag minister warns Bibeau's plan may hurt crop insurance, AgriInvest funding
Ottawa’s proposal for an improved AgriStability program could give farmers short-term gain for long-term pain, Manitoba’s agriculture minister Blaine Pedersen warns. At the online federal-provincial-territorial agriculture ministers’ meeting on Friday, federal Agriculture Minister Marie Claude Bibeau proposed dropping AgriStability’s maximum reference margin, and increasing the compensation rate from 70 to 80 per cent retroactively this […] Read more
No BRM breakthrough reached at ministers’ meeting
AgMins fail to find solution to business risk management program woes
No consensus on changes to business risk managements (BRM) programming was reached during the latest round of federal-provincial-territorial agriculture ministers’ meetings. After the meetings ended Friday, federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau explained Ottawa was willing to maintain the current cost sharing of the programs at a 60-40 split between her government and the provinces. Bibeau’s […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
