Cairo | Reuters — The price of wheat and flour used to make unsubsidized bread has spiked in Egypt as importers struggle to pay for wheat stuck at ports amid a dollar shortage, traders and the country’s chamber of cereals told Reuters this week. Around 700,000 tonnes of wheat haven’t been released from customs, causing […] Read more

Egypt’s private sector wheat imports stall due to dollar shortage
"We are in the red zone"

Dairy commission fills board vacancy
Green tech CEO named to commissioner spot on CDC board
Concerns that the Canadian Dairy Commission could be caught short at its board table have been resolved with a new appointment to a vacant commissioner’s chair. Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau on Sept. 27 announced Shikha Jain will be the CDC’s commissioner for a four-year term effective Sept. 15. Jain, who lives at Guelph, is […] Read more

‘Let’s give this a whirl’ – a farmers’ market can be a rewarding sideline
Reading Time: 4 minutes A central Alberta grain and cattle producer is sharing what it takes to add a farmers market sideline to a busy commercial farming operation. Double J Crop and Cattle is a third-generation family cattle and grain farm near Rimbey. In addition to beef (they have 300 head of cattle), they sell pork, poultry and lamb […] Read more

Smithfield Foods to pay US$75 million in pork price-fixing settlement
Follows similar settlement by JBS
Reuters — Smithfield Foods has agreed to pay US$75 million to settle a lawsuit by consumers who accused the meat producer and several competitors of conspiring to inflate prices in the $20 billion-a-year U.S. pork market by limiting supply. A preliminary settlement in the antitrust case was filed on Tuesday night with the federal court […] Read more

U.K. is asked to reconsider ag tariff in Trans-Pacific talks
Tokyo | Reuters — Japan, Australia and other members of a trans-Pacific trade pact have asked Britain to reconsider tariff conditions in its entry negotiation talks, Jiji news reported on Monday. Britain has opposed expanding the target of tariff-free items, particularly among agricultural products, to near 100 per cent as set by the Comprehensive and […] Read more

B.C. to back Indigenous food system projects
New program taking applications starting Monday
A new British Columbia program will provide up to $80,000 each for projects in agriculture, food processing or other sectors to improve food security in that province’s Indigenous communities. The province on Wednesday rolled out a new Indigenous Food Systems and Agriculture Partnership Program, which is set up to take applications starting Monday (Sept. 26) […] Read more

Swiss reject initiative to ban factory farming
Voters back narrowly back rise in women's retirement age to 65
Geneva | Reuters — Swiss voters on Sunday rejected a proposal to ban factory farming in a referendum on whether the wealthy country’s strict animal welfare laws need to be tightened yet further. The government’s VoteInfo App showed a provisional result of 62.86 per cent of votes against the proposal, put to a referendum under […] Read more

Cleanup work begins for Eastern Canada after Fiona
Five provinces assessing damage from 'unprecedented' storm
Port aux Basques | Reuters — It will take several months for Canada to restore critical infrastructure after the powerful storm Fiona left an “unprecedented” trail of destruction, officials said on Sunday, as crews fanned out in five provinces to restore power and clean up fallen trees and debris. One 73-year-old woman died during the […] Read more

Nearly a million people face starvation in hunger hotspots, U.N. agencies report
London | Reuters — Nearly one million people in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Somalia and Yemen are starving or will face starvation this year in the absence of aid, as the global food crisis worsens, United Nations agencies warned on Wednesday. Local conflict and weather extremes remain the primary drivers of acute hunger, aggravated this […] Read more

Schoepp: Times have changed, and so must the way you treat employees
A living wage is important but there are other things that today’s workers expect from employers
Reading Time: 3 minutes It’s crunch time as the harvest begins and farmers scramble for the help they need. A lot has changed on farms in the last decade as the baby boomers retire and are replaced by millennials and Gen Z. These generations have nurtured a different set of values and ethics. There has never been such a […] Read more