Migrant workers clean fields in California’s Salinas Valley on March 30, 2020. (Photo: Reuters/Shannon Stapleton)

Farmworkers in the US cultivate their own heat safety standards

Fair Food Program seeks to circumvent slow regulatory process

While regulations to protect agricultural workers from the heat have been held up by political wrangling, Gonzalo and her colleagues have spearheaded an alternate strategy. They seek to sidestep the slow and increasingly politicized government machinery and instead appeal directly to consumers and large brands.

File photo of a desk in Canada’s Senate. (Dougall_Photography/iStock/Getty Images)

Twice-amended Bill C-234 clears Senate

The bill will return to the House of Commons for further debate

A bill to exempt fuel for grain drying from the price on carbon has cleared the Senate and returns to the House of Commons with two amendments.

File photo of a field of soybeans under turbines at southern Manitoba’s St. Joseph wind farm. (Dougall_Photography/iStock/Getty Images)

US-UAE climate-friendly farming effort grows to $17 billion

COP28 has elevated agriculture, U.S. govt's Vilsak says

Funding for a joint effort by the United States and United Arab Emirates to advance climate-friendly farming around the world has grown to more than $17 billion, the countries announced on Friday at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai.

Photo: azgek/iSock/Getty Images

Brazilian state launches mandatory tracking of cattle to stop deforestation

The state government plans to track all 24 million cattle in the Para region by the end of 2026

Sao Paulo | Reuters — Brazil’s Para state, which leads the country for the highest levels of Amazon rainforest destruction, will launch a mandatory program to track cattle in a bid to crack down on related deforestation, a partner in the project said on Friday. Cattle pasture is the most common initial use for deforested […] Read more


A climate change activist plays a violin in New York City’s Times Square as Manhattan is shrouded in haze and smoke which drifted south from wildfires in Canada, on June 7, 2023. (Photo: Reuters/Maye-E Wong)

Climate change made Quebec wildfires twice as likely, scientists say

Early snow disappearance led to earlier fires

London | Reuters — The fires that tore through the province of Quebec between May and July were made at least twice as likely by climate change, scientists said on Tuesday. Climate change, driven by the burning of fossil fuels, also made the fires as much as 50 per cent more intense, according to the […] Read more

Photo: Thinkstock

How El Niño threatens emerging market economies

Significant changes to rainfall, or prolonged droughts, could also impact hydropower output, boost food, fuel prices

London | Reuters – Countries around the world are battling heatwaves and floods fueled by El Niño, a naturally occurring climate phenomenon that has a 90 per cent probability of persisting in the second half of 2023, according to the World Meteorological Organization. The worldwide impact can be enormous, but the stakes are higher for […] Read more

File photo of a storm cloud from the southwestern end of Lake Winnipeg at Matlock, Man. (IanChrisGraham/iStock/Getty Images Plus)

More than half of world’s large lakes drying up, study finds

Gains in Great Lakes, Lake Winnipeg come from runoff, rainfall

London | Reuters — More than half of the world’s large lakes and reservoirs have shrunk since the early 1990s, chiefly because of climate change, intensifying concerns about water for agriculture, hydropower and human consumption, a study published on Thursday found. A team of international researchers reported that some of the world’s most important freshwater […] Read more


Prince Charles (now King Charles III) visits Shane Fitzgerald’s Kil Mige Mogue farm near Waterford in southeast Ireland on March 24, 2022. (Photo: Reuters/Phil Noble/Pool)

What will King Charles’s reign mean for climate action?

Some projects may be handed to other family members

London | Thomson Reuters Foundation — As Britain’s King Charles III begins his reign after the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, environmental campaigners will be watching closely to see if he continues to advocate for climate action and is able to help drive change as monarch. In his first speech to the nation […] Read more

As climatic changes manifest themselves, an Ontario meteorologist says it’s important to understand weather terms and what effect they could have on growing conditions.

Know your weather terminology

Understanding what different terms mean can help prevent loss

Polar vortex, snowmageddon, thunder snow. Such terms likely conjure scenes of wild and chilly weather but what do they actually mean? Knowing the parameters used to determine the names of these and other systems might, quite literally, help farm businesses weather storms with fewer hardships.  Why it matters: Understanding weather system terms can allow for […] Read more