Ron Friesen

Reading Time: 2 minutes “Right now it’s everybody’s and nobody’s responsibility.” A new report for a federal advisory committee strongly urges a coordinated national approach to implementing food traceability in Canada. The report recommends establishing a national institute for research and development in food traceability. It also calls for a Canada-wide value chain approach to sharing the costs and […] Read more

Reading Time: 2 minutes Canada’s milk producers are evading a dairy crisis raging in the rest of the world, but a renewed threat to their protective shield might change that. A combination of low world milk prices and a strong Canadian dollar could allow cheap foreign dairy products into Canada despite high import tariffs designed to limit them. That […] Read more

Reading Time: 2 minutes Canada’s national beef lobby group could experience a major financial setback following Alberta’s elimination of a non-refundable provincial checkoff on cattle sales. The Canadian Cattlemen’s Association is asking its provincial members for possible ideas on reducing programs because of a potential revenue shortfall stemming from the Alberta checkoff change. The Alberta government earlier this year […] Read more

Reading Time: 2 minutes A new study from Great Britain has revived the old controversy about whether organic food is better for you. The study by a team from the London School for Hygiene and Tropical Health found no major difference in the nutrient content of organically-grown food compared to conventionally-grown food. Any differences that do exist are not […] Read more

Reading Time: 2 minutes “NPPC is keeping all options open to address this issue.” – Don Butler, NPPC President The threat of U.S. trade action has come back to haunt Ottawa as it mulls a recovery program for Canada’s financially devastated hog farmers. American pork producers have given notice they may seek trade retaliation if they perceive a bailout […] Read more

Reading Time: 3 minutes “It is understood that it is not in Canada’s interests to simply prop up the industry in an attempt to maintain the status quo” Canada’s agriculture ministers may consider a massive sow cull program in an effort to help save the nation’s struggling hog industry. The cull is part of a three-point industry transition plan […] Read more

Reading Time: 3 minutes As the hog industry continues its economic free fall and more producers leave the business, a worrisome question arises: will Western Canada have enough pigs for its pork packing plants? The question would have been unthinkable a few years back when production was booming and the sky seemed the limit for the rapidly expanding pork […] Read more