Latest Newsletter

Syngenta’s Interaction Centre at Stein, Switzerland. (Syngenta.com)
Crops

Syngenta buys biologics group Valagro

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Zurich | Reuters — Syngenta, the Swiss agrichemicals giant owned by ChemChina, has acquired Italian biologicals group Valagro, a company with US$175 million in 2019 sales that uses natural solutions to fight pests and diseases and to improve crops. Syngenta said in a statement Tuesday the acquisition positioned its crop protection business as a key […] Read more
File photo of a U.S. cotton crop. (BCFC/iStock/Getty Images)
Crops

Study shows how U.S. farm landscapes could be reshaped by climate

Plains' wheat belt would see 'hollowing-out'

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London | Thomson Reuters Foundation — Climate change could render swaths of agricultural land largely useless for farming in the U.S. South, and force Midwestern farmers to move corn and soybeans elsewhere as crop yields decline, researchers said on Monday. The profits of growing six key crops are set to fall by almost a third […] Read more
New Brunswick’s new agriculture minister, Margaret Johnson. (Facebook)

Rookie MLA named New Brunswick ag minister

Blaine Higgs' Tories sworn in as majority government

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A politically-active retired New Brunswick schoolteacher is the province’s new minister for agriculture, aquaculture and fisheries. Premier Blaine Higgs, whose new Progressive Conservative cabinet was sworn in Tuesday in Fredericton, appointed Margaret Johnson, the newly elected MLA for the northwestern electoral district of Carleton-Victoria, to handle the ag and fisheries files. In last month’s provincial […] Read more
File photo of Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau speaking to media in Winnipeg in March 2019. (Dave Bedard photo)
Markets

Canada not benefiting from CETA, Bibeau says

Ex-premiers write to Ottawa with critique of EU's continued trade barriers

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Canada is not benefiting from the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with the European Union (EU), federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau grants. Expected to spur $1.5 billion in new agri-food exports, the free trade deal has fallen short of those targets since its implementation in 2017. In a letter Monday to Prime Minister Justin […] Read more
Agricultural societies, like the Paris Fair, have access to funding even without hosting a 2020 fair.
News

Fair funds help Ontario ag societies survive

Larger organizations that host many events in a year are hurting financially

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Recent OMAFRA funding for agricultural and horticultural societies will help, but larger exhibitions are having serious challenges. The Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) expanded the eligibility for agriculture societies’ annual grant application to help offset the financial losses brought on by COVID-19. For 2020 nearly $1 million are available to all […] Read more
Charles Baron and partners brought FBN to Canada in 2017, buying Saskatchewan-based Yorkton Distributors. (FBN video screengrab via YouTube)
Crops, Markets

FBN cuts yearly membership fee to zero

Ag e-commerce firm offers free accounts to farmers

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E-marketplace Farmers Business Network (FBN) has disposed of the annual membership fee that allowed members access to its various buying groups and services. California-based FBN, which has operated in the U.S. since 2014 and expanded to Canada in 2017, announced Tuesday (Sept. 15) its farmer members may now have “access to a select range of […] Read more
Ontario greenhouse growers will have to register their boilers by next March.
News

Agricultural exemption dropped for boiler inspection

The change most affects greenhouse and mushroom growers and some syrup producers

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Agricultural operations using boilers and pressure vessels have until March 1, 2021 to register their equipment with the arms-length provincial government agency the Technical Standards and Safety Authority (TSSA), following the lifting of an exemption on July 17. The equipment will also now require TSSA inspections. Why it matters: TSSA registration and inspection adds another […] Read more
(Outdoorfarmshow.com)
Crops, Machinery

Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show looks to lock in land base

GFM plans to buy research land for eastern Discovery Farm

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As Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show goes digital this week, its operator is preparing to secure its real-world footprint in southern Ontario and put that real estate to year-round work. Glacier FarmMedia and the Ontario government on Tuesday announced their intent to work toward a land deal with the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario (ARIO), which […] Read more
Canadian farms are facing large structural changes in global agriculture.
News

Agriculture policy overhaul needed: report

COVID-19 has exposed significant challenges, needed changes

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Glacier FarmMedia – Drastic changes to markets, labour conditions and public perceptions are driving a need for new agri-food policies, according to a report from industry experts. Agri-Food Economic Systems’ latest policy note identified 10 pressures on the industry, each one varying in “magnitude, significance, urgency and permanence.” The report cited massive losses in food […] Read more
Nexus’ prototype R2-Weed2 system. (Nexus Robotics photo by Teric Greenan)
Crops, Machinery

Feds back autonomous weederbot’s Halifax manufacturer

ACOA funding to support field-level trials

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The federal government’s economic development agency for Atlantic Canada is putting up money for a new round of on-the-ground tests of a self-guided field-weeding robot. Halifax MP Andy Fillmore on Wednesday announced a $550,000 repayable investment from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency’s (ACOA) Regional Economic Growth Through Innovation program for Halifax-based Nexus Robotics. Nexus, the […] Read more

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