The Alberta-to-Hawaii hog shipping route detailed in a report Tuesday by an international coalition of animal welfare groups as “one of the world’s cruelest transport routes” hasn’t seen any Canadian hogs since October last year, one of the groups said Wednesday. The World Society for the Protection of Animals, a partner in the Handle with […] Read more
No Alta. pigs bound to Hawaii, for now: WSPA
Canada’s GM crop acres up: report
Canadian acreage devoted to genetically modified (GM) crops rose 13 per cent in 2007 over 2006, according to a report from an international biotech agency. Canada’s biotech crop acres rose from 15 million acres in 2006 to 17 million last year — just above the same percentage increase that was seen worldwide, according to a […] Read more
NOFG manager to run P.E.I. hog board
The plant manager for Prince Edward Island’s ill-fated NOFG pork processing plant has been hired as the new executive director for the Prince Edward Island Hog Commodity Marketing Board. Tim Seeber has over 30 years’ experience in the industry, currently as the plant manager for the Charlottetown facility that Quebec City-based NOFG recently handed over […] Read more
Ag contest wants media-savvy young Manitobans
Manitobans between ages 9 and 24 with an eye or ear for presentation and a germ of an agriculture-related idea can put their skills to the test in a new Keystone Agricultural Producers (KAP) contest with the help of the Manitoba Co-operator. The “Share What You See in Agriculture” media competition will accept projects from […] Read more
Agropur posts record earnings
Quebec dairy co-op Agropur reports that it’s still in expansion mode, having posted “new record” results in 2007. At its annual meeting Wednesday in Montreal, the company reported 2007 earnings (before patronage dividends and taxes) of $129.7 million on sales of $2.45 billion, up from $110 million on $2.3 billion in 2006. “Despite a fiercely […] Read more
JRI to expand two Pioneer sites in Man.
Two Pioneer Grain elevators in Manitoba are slated for capacity expansions this summer, following announcements of six other projects at five sites in Alberta and Saskatchewan. Pioneer’s parent, Winnipeg’s James Richardson International (JRI), on Wednesday announced it will add an extra 10,000 tonnes of storage capacity at its Mollard elevator near Brunkild, about 35 km […] Read more
Quebec farming risks “suffocating:” commission
The much-anticipated report from a provincial commission on the future of agriculture and agri-food in Quebec finds a sector so closed in by its regulations, systems and structures that “they are in danger of literally suffocating it.” The report from the Commission sur l’avenir de l’agriculture et de l’agroalimentaire quebecois, released Tuesday, generally recommends that […] Read more
Former CGC head John O’Connor, 75
Services will be held Thursday in Winnipeg for John O’Connor, a retired former executive director of the Canadian Grain Commission, who died last week on vacation in Mexico. O’Connor was born in Wainwright, Alta., studied agriculture at the University of Alberta and also earned a business administration diploma from the University of Western Ontario. By […] Read more
Alta.-Hawaii hog shipments dubbed “worst” cruelty
An international coalition of animal welfare groups has launched a humane transport campaign with what it claims is damning video footage of live hogs shipped by land and sea from Lethbridge, Alta., to Hawaii in inhumane conditions for pork labelled as a Hawaiian product. The groups, spearheaded by the World Society for the Protection of […] Read more
CN rail car plan will harm grain handling: shippers
A group of Prairie grain shippers including the Canadian Wheat Board and five of the Prairies’ smaller grain firms want “emergency interim relief” from federal regulators to put a stop to Canadian National’s (CN) new rail car allocation system. The railway’s new system, which the companies said was launched Feb. 1, will throw grain handling “into […] Read more
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