Workers at Ontario’s third-biggest federally inspected beef plant voted Friday in favour of a new contract, ending a three-week lockout for Toronto’s Ryding Regency Meat Packers. The new contract, retroactive to March 2012, runs until March 2016 and covers 130 workers at the Toronto slaughter and processing plant, according to their union, United Food and […] Read more
Deal ends lockout at Toronto beef packing plant
U.S. court won’t reverse COOL changes
A U.S. District Court judge has rejected a plea from Canada’s cattle and hog producer groups, in tandem with U.S. livestock producer and packer groups, to halt changes to the U.S. government’s country-of-origin labelling (COOL) rules. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Wednesday morning released her […] Read more
Canadian, U.S. meat industry groups take COOL to court
Rather than wait for the World Trade Organization or the U.S. Congress to fix mandatory country-of-origin labelling on meat sold in the U.S., Canada’s cattle and hog producer groups have signed on to take Washington’s rules to court. The Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (CCA) and Canadian Pork Council (CPC) said Tuesday they’ve filed as co-plaintiffs seeking […] Read more
High River to resume cattle slaughter Wednesday
Cargill plans to resume harvesting of cattle Wednesday (July 3) at its beef slaughter and processing plant — one of Canada’s largest — at flood-battered High River, Alta. The news comes as local and provincial authorities assess residential and commercial buildings and re-open parts of the community to public access. About 1,500 residences and 219 […] Read more
Sobeys to buy Canada Safeway
The Canadian owner of the Sobeys grocery store chain is poised to make itself Canada’s second-biggest grocer through a surprise takeover of Canada Safeway. Stellarton, N.S.-based Empire Co. announced Wednesday it has signed a deal with Safeway Inc. to buy all of Canada Safeway’s assets for $5.8 billion plus “certain liabilities” through its Sobeys food […] Read more
Turkey to accept Canadian sheep, goat genetics
Exporters of embryos and semen from Canadian sheep and goats can expect to see up to $250,000 in added revenue over the next five years now that Turkey has again approved their products for import. Advancing trade with other countries in this region has been at the “forefront” for Canadian producers, the federal government said […] Read more
Pulse crops eyed for fast-tracked registration
Reading Time: 2 minutes Lentil, field pea, field bean and faba bean growers are being asked to consider a proposal under which new varieties submitted for federal registration could skip one or two levels of assessment they now receive. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency last month released a draft discussion document as part of an overall review of the […] Read more
Ex-CFIA researcher charged over stray brucellosis
A former federal researcher, lauded for his work toward a quicker and cheaper brucellosis test for cattle, has been arrested and charged after allegedly taking a trip carrying vials of the live bacteria in an “unsafe manner.” Dr. Klaus Nielsen, who had worked at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s Fallowfield lab southwest of Ottawa, was […] Read more
Canada wins high praise for its contribution to food security
STABLE Canada has pledged stable, long-term funding through the newly ratified Food Assistance Convention
Reading Time: 3 minutes Canada has won high praise from a senior official with the UN’s World Food Program for becoming one of the first countries to make its minimum nine-figure annual pledge up front as it formally adopts a new international treaty. “Canada is one of the strongest supporters of the World Food Program,” said Pedro Medrano Rojas, […] Read moreFNA to act as CWB agent
Staff with Farmers of North America (FNA) will soon be able to act as the middleman for farmers interested in contracting grain to CWB. Saskatoon-based FNA, a farmers’ buying group negotiating deals on low-cost inputs and other farm supplies and services, announced Thursday its staff will act as "a key sourcing agent for CWB contracts" […] Read more