Reading Time: 3 minutes Canada’s Food Guide is getting revamped for the first time in 10 years — and there’s lots of speculation, especially on social media, about whether meat is being given a thumbs down. “It’s not as harsh as that, really,” said Joyce Parslow, director of consumer relations with Canada Beef. One of the guiding principles of […] Read more

Where’s the beef? New food guide puts focus on ‘proteins’
Meat is being ‘merged’ with plant-based sources of protein in the revamp of Canada’s Food Guide

Big divide in crop and cattle marketing
Grain growers have options that most cattle producers just won’t have this fall
Reading Time: 4 minutes Drought conditions in Alberta will have an upside for crop growers when marketing, but it’s nothing but bad news for cattle producers. “From a bigger-picture perspective, certainly we’re going to have fewer bushels in Western Canada than in the past couple of years, and that is generally going to be supportive to prices,” said FarmLink’s […] Read more

The world has an eating problem — and farming is the solution
Whether it’s obesity or malnutrition, Canadian farmers have an amazing opportunity to be agents of change
Reading Time: 3 minutes “As a farming community we should be the epitome of health.” That was the closing remark of one of the speakers at the Nuffield Triennial Farming Conference in southern England earlier this summer. The speaker had been talking about obesity and food-related health issues, and how farmers could be a solution to this serious problem. […] Read more

Farm leaders ‘cautiously optimistic’ about transport bill
Ottawa’s new ‘transportation modernization’ bill addresses key concerns raised during 2013 rail crisis, but has gaps
Reading Time: 4 minutes Anew national transportation bill could leave a major gap in grain movement during the 2017 harvest — particularly in areas captive to one railway, say Alberta farm leaders. “Between Aug. 1 and when this new bill comes into effect, there’s a period where there might be a hole in performance,” said Alberta Canola director Renn […] Read more
Loonie value will determine 2017 ag outlook
FCC’s chief agricultural economist says a low Canadian dollar is expected to continue to benefit the sector
Reading Time: 2 minutes A low loonie is likely to continue to benefit Canadian farmers through 2017. That’s according to J.P. Gervais, Farm Credit Canada’s chief agricultural economist, who added that will be the continuation of a trend seen throughout 2016. “There are certainly other factors that could influence Canadian agriculture, such as the global economy, the investment landscape, […] Read more
CETA a household word on Canadian farms, in Europe not so much
Trade deal is a ‘non-story’ on the other side of the Atlantic
Reading Time: 2 minutes The man on the other end of the phone is confused. “I have not heard of this before,” Marek Nowak says slowly. “I am of no help for this.” He’s been asked about the impact the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement — commonly called CETA — might have on Polish dairy farmers such as himself. […] Read more