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Crops

Saskatchewan pushes crop insurance deadline to mid-April

'Logistical challenges' led to extension

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Saskatchewan farmers will get an extra couple of weeks to apply for, cancel, reinstate or change their crop insurance contracts for 2022, due to holdups in the delivery of their application packages. That deadline, originally March 31, has now been extended to April 14, provincial Ag Minister David Marit and his federal counterpart Marie-Claude Bibeau […] Read more
File photo of a P.E.I. potato field against the backdrop of the Confederation Bridge. (Onepony/iStock/Getty Images)
Crops

P.E.I. testing finds potato wart in another field

Testing stemmed from last October's detection

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Soil samples taken on Prince Edward Island following detections of potato wart last fall have turned up another field with the fungus that causes the disease. The P.E.I. Potato Board on Tuesday said the field in question is near to, and is “directly associated” with, a field where the soil-borne disease was found in October. […] Read more
More than 90 per cent of U.S.-grown corn, soybeans and sugar beets are genetically modified. This means that many processed foods containing high-fructose corn syrup, beet sugar or soy protein may fall under the new disclosure standard.
News

Opinion: What is bioengineered food?

An agriculture expert explains

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The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines bioengineered food as food that “contains detectable genetic material that has been modified through certain lab techniques that cannot be created through conventional breeding or found in nature.”  If that definition sounds familiar, it is because it is essentially how genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, are defined – common vocabulary […] Read more
Greenleaf Foods, a subsidiary of meat processor Maple Leaf Foods, last month began providing its plant-based Lightlife Chick’n Tenders to convenience chain 7-Eleven in Canada. (Dave Bedard photo)
Crops, Markets

ADM releases alternative protein outlook for 2022

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MarketsFarm — Major U.S. agribusiness ADM released a report Tuesday identifying the seven biggest trends in the alternative protein market, ranging from creating new protein sources from fungi to making plant-based meat substitutes more affordable and palatable to the general public. The seven trends in the report were: introduction of novel protein sources, using microbial […] Read more
File photo of a Prince Edward Island potato field. (Onepony/iStock/Getty Images)
Crops

P.E.I. potato exports cleared for Puerto Rico

U.S. territory has no commercial potato production

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A U.S. territory with an appetite for Canadian potatoes and no commercial potato production to speak of will be able to resume imports of table stock potatoes from Prince Edward Island starting Wednesday. The resumption of exports to Puerto Rico, announced Tuesday, is a spot of good news for the province’s potato sector. Export certificates […] Read more
File photo of a Prince Edward Island potato field. (Onepony/iStock/Getty Images)
Crops

‘Expedited’ potato wart survey helps make case for P.E.I., CFIA says

National survey done 'ahead of schedule'

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A national survey finding no potato wart in any “unregulated” Canadian fields should offer the reassurance on Prince Edward Island potatoes that trading partners such as the U.S. are now looking for, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency says. CFIA on Thursday reported it has completed this fall’s national survey for the soil-borne fungal potato disease […] Read more
A tractor-mounted snowblower runs through rows of piled-up surplus potatoes on a field near Victoria, P.E.I., about 35 km west of Charlottetown, on Dec. 20, 2021. The shredded potatoes are expected to break down over the winter as compost. (Screengrab from P.E.I. Potato Board video)
Crops, Markets

Feds put up funds toward managing P.E.I. potato surplus

Ottawa budgets $28 million for distribution and disposal

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Prince Edward Island potatoes locked out of the U.S. export market will go either to food banks or “environmentally-sound” disposal with new federal funding. Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau on Monday announced $28 million “to support the diversion of surplus potatoes, including help to redirect surplus potatoes to organizations addressing food insecurity and support for […] Read more
(Sollio Co-operative Group video screengrab via YouTube)
Business, Markets/Business

Resource-rich Canada grapples with key labour issues

From agriculture to the oilpatch, lack of labour is driving up wages

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Canada’s economic recovery from the pandemic is being hampered by labour shortages across industries ranging from energy to aviation to agriculture, forcing companies to consider multiple salary hikes and offer other perks. Statistics Canada data Nov. 5 showed the national unemployment rate hit a 20-month low in October. The shortage of skilled and unskilled workers […] Read more
Although agriculture is exempt from most employment standard rules, any increase in the minimum wage will eventually affect farmers' bottom line.
News

Farmers eye potential impacts from minimum wage hike

Despite agricultural exemptions, pay rates are typically affected

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The significant increase to minimum wage recently announced by the provincial government garnered a muted, and in some cases, positive response from Ontario’s agricultural sector. This is a contrast to reaction from the sector in 2018, when the last major increase occurred. According to one of the loudest voices of dissent from 2018, Hamilton-area broccoli […] Read more

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