Several jurisdictions in Canada have imposed a ban on disposal of food scraps as garbage, including Metro Vancouver, which required food waste to be recycled starting in 2015. (Vancouver.ca)

Ontario waste plan to include ban on food waste disposal

Ontario’s new strategy for a “waste-free” province includes a proposal to ban food waste from disposal, instead finding “creative strategies” to recycle it. The province on Wednesday announced its new “Strategy for a Waste-Free Ontario: Building the Circular Economy,” which calls for industries to divert more of the waste they produce away from landfills, and […] Read more

Crop fact sheets available

Crop fact sheets available

Reading Time: < 1 minute Three crop varietal fact sheets are now available. The Varieties of Cereal and Oilseed Crops for Alberta 2017 that provides agronomic characteristics and disease-resistance information are provided for varieties of wheat, barley, oat, rye, triticale, flax and canola. Varieties of Pulse Crops for Alberta provides information on pulse variety performance for varieties of field pea, […] Read more



(Lightlife.com)

Cash-rich Maple Leaf sees abundant U.S. opportunities

Reuters — Canadian meat packing company Maple Leaf Foods is hunting for acquisitions in the U.S., after years spent upgrading old factories and shedding business lines, its CEO said on Wednesday. Maple Leaf, which reported on Wednesday its profits doubled in the fourth quarter, sees growth opportunities from meat produced humanely and without antibiotics, and […] Read more


A meal in a bowl is a hot trend for 2017, as is vegetarian cuisine.

Root vegetables are hot and pulses continue to find favour

If vegetarian cuisine isn’t your thing, there’s another trend you will like — chocolate for breakfast

Reading Time: 2 minutes Grain bowls for breakfast; vegetables as restaurant entrees; and lots more pasta and pulses are among the predicted food trends for the coming year. “CBC food writer Julie Van Rosendaal believes that grain bowls for breakfast are returning,” said Rosalie Cunningham, a researcher with Alberta Agriculture. “Recent years have seen an increase in one-bowl meals […] Read more

(Lightlife.com)

Maple Leaf to buy U.S. veggie dog, burger maker

Canadian meat packer Maple Leaf Foods is buying space on the non-meat side of the deli section with a deal for U.S. processor Lightlife Foods. Toronto-based Maple Leaf announced Tuesday it would pay US$140 million for Lightlife, which makes vegetarian burgers, hot dogs, sausage, deli cuts, jerky and other meatless protein products at Turners Falls, […] Read more


Blair Roth (centre) with Alberta Pulse Growers past chair Allison Ammeter and Richard Pepneck, chair of the advisory board for Zone 1, which nominated Roth for the Alberta Pulse Industry Innovator Award.

Blair Roth wins pulse innovator award

Reading Time: < 1 minute Blair Roth is the winner of the third annual Alberta Pulse Industry Innovator Award. While working at Alberta Agriculture in the 1980s, Roth ran field-scale demonstrations for early soybean, lupin, fababean, chickpea, bean, pea and lentil crops. He helped establish the Alberta Pulse Growers Association and its transition to the Alberta Pulse Growers Commission in […] Read more

Canada’s pulse sector is poised to soar, says Murad Al-Katib.

Producers could score big in pulse industry

Murad Al-Katib says Alberta has it all — good growing conditions, port access, and containers

Reading Time: 3 minutes Alberta has a huge opportunity in the pulse sector — and that’s just to meet demand already out there. That was only part of the good-news message that Murad Al-Katib brought to this year’s FarmTech. The future looks even brighter, said the president and CEO of AGT Foods in Regina. “Meeting the demand and supply […] Read more


Pulses can be used for food ingredients as well as in snack foods, tortillas, and breakfast cereals.

Pulse Canada sets ambitious target to expand markets

The goal is to find new uses for 25 per cent of the industry’s production by the year 2025

Reading Time: 2 minutes Pulse Canada is aiming to find new uses for up to 25 per cent of the industry’s production by the year 2025. The recently approved “25 by 2025” target was set as part of the organization’s long-term planning process and will give the whole industry a target to strive for. The industry will marshal its […] Read more

Indiana-based Enjoy Life Foods in 2012 launched Plentils, a high-protein snack product made with lentil powder and billed as “chips with benefits.” (EnjoyLifeFoods.com)

Pulse crop strategy aims to broaden pulse demand

A new market development goal for Canada’s pulse crop industry hopes to create demand in use categories where pulses aren’t yet a major player. Pulse Canada’s board on Wednesday released a new target dubbed “25 by 2025,” under which the Canadian pulse crop grower/processor industry “will marshal its resources to create new demand in new […] Read more