Winnipeg | Reuters — Canadian grain exporters are boosting sales in a slumping global economy, as demand for commodities like oil weakens and frees up railway space. Brisk crop movement […] Read more

Grain exports flow fast as pandemic lockdowns clear rail capacity
Traffic accelerates on lower coal, crude volumes

As meat plant infections rise, Canada lets packers choose when to close
Beef plants at heart of Alberta's largest COVID-19 community outbreaks
Winnipeg | Reuters — In Cargill’s High River, Alta. plant, supplier of more than one-third of Canada’s beef, 391 workers were sick with COVID-19 when the company suspended operations, according […] Read more

Canada sees no beef shortage, but prices may rise due to coronavirus
JBS plant at Brooks dials back to one shift
Ottawa/Winnipeg | Reuters –– The Canadian government is not expecting a beef shortage despite the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus in certain meat-packing plants, though prices may rise, Prime Minister […] Read more

‘Elbow to elbow:’ North America’s meat plant workers fall ill, walk off jobs
Supply chains struggling to keep pace with surging demand
Chicago/Winnipeg | Reuters — At a Wayne Farms chicken processing plant in Alabama, workers recently had to pay the company 10 U.S. cents a day to buy masks to protect […] Read more

Canadian, U.S. farms face crop losses on foreign worker delays
Winnipeg/Chicago | Reuters — Mandatory coronavirus quarantines of seasonal foreign workers in Canada could hurt that country’s fruit and vegetable output this year, and travel problems related to the pandemic […] Read more

Alberta’s Harmony Beef halts slaughter on positive COVID-19 test
CFIA pulls inspectors after plant employee tests positive
Ottawa/Winnipeg | Reuters — Harmony Beef, an Alberta packing plant, halted cattle slaughter on Friday after the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) kept some inspectors from work, due to a […] Read more

Farm suppliers race COVID-19 spread for planting season
Winnipeg/Chicago | Reuters — North America’s biggest farm suppliers are accelerating shipments of fertilizer, seeds and agricultural chemicals to crop-growing regions in an unprecedented race against the coronavirus that threatens […] Read more

North America’s millers, bakers scramble to satisfy bread binge
Chicago/Winnipeg | Reuters — North American flour mills and bakeries are rushing to boost production as the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus leads to consumer stockpiling of staples such as […] Read more

Wheat in Whitehorse: How climate change helps feed Canada’s remote regions
Newfoundland and Labrador also pushing to expand arable land base
Winnipeg/Ottawa | Reuters — After failing to grow wheat in the Yukon territory 15 years ago, farmer Steve Mackenzie-Grieve gave it another shot in 2017. Thanks to longer summers, he […] Read more

Canada to cut speed limits for trains hauling dangerous goods
New curb follows another Saskatchewan crash, fire
Ottawa/Winnipeg | Reuters — The federal government said Thursday it would impose temporary speed limits on trains hauling dangerous goods after a Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) crude oil train derailed […] Read more