Reading Time: 2 minutes Glacier FarmMedia – When shelves across Western Canada were empty of sugar after strike action at the Rogers Sugar refinery in Vancouver, Canada’s sugar beet growers renewed calls for a national sugar strategy. Groups including the Alberta Sugar Beet Growers have long decried Canada’s reliance on imported cane sugar rather than Canadian-grown sugar beets. Alberta’s crop makes up about eight per cent of the sugar consumed […] Read more
Beets won’t benefit from Hamilton sugar refinery
Sugar beet growers want more market share for their locally grown crop, but they won’t get it from Canada’s newest sugar refinery
Striking Rogers Sugar workers reach tentative deal
The walk-out sparked sugar shortages and led Alberta sugar beet producers to call for more local investment
Rogers Sugar says it's reached a tentative deal with the union representing striking workers from its Vancouver refinery.
Sugar beet growers seek to expand sector with domestic policy
It wouldn’t stop strikes, but it would recharge Canada’s sugar industry
Reading Time: 4 minutes Glacier FarmMedia – A domestic sugar policy would help kickstart the Canadian and particularly the Albertan sugar industry, says a major player in the sector. The Alberta Sugar Beet Growers want a national domestic sugar policy, which the organization says could lay the foundation for resurgence in the sector. Such a policy would regulate the […] Read more
‘We’ve always taken for granted that the sugar’s always been there’
Sugar shortage highlights beekeeper feed vulnerability, Praire beekeepers say
Reading Time: 4 minutes Glacier FarmMedia – Beekeeping groups on the Prairies say it’s a good thing Western Canada’s sugar shortage didn’t happen a few months ago. The bees are now tucked away for the winter, but August and September are prime feeding seasons when beekeepers condition their colonies for winter and natural nectar sources are drying up. “We’ve […] Read more
Sugar beet growers seek to expand sector with domestic policy
It wouldn’t stop strikes, but it would recharge Canada’s sugar industry, says producer group
The Alberta Sugar Beet Growers want a national domestic sugar policy, which the organization says could lay the foundation for resurgence in the sector.
Sierra Leone passes new laws to boost landowners’ rights
Freetown | Reuters — Sierra Leone’s parliament on Monday passed two laws that lawyers say will help boost the rights of rural landowners and women against land grabs by big mining and agribusiness firms. The West African country has a history of sometimes deadly conflict between local communities and foreign companies that have cleared huge […] Read more
‘Containergeddon’ drives sugar, rice shippers back to bulk vessels
New York | Reuters — Food traders are switching from containers back to dry bulk vessels to transport refined sugar and rice, hoping to avoid shipping delays caused by container shortages and port congestion the industry is calling “containergeddon,” according to traders. Container-based transportation has been hit by sky-high costs and delays amid booming shipping […] Read more
Chickens culled as Brazil truckers disrupt commodity exports
Sao Paulo | Reuters — Striking truckers in Brazil have disrupted supply and exports of farm produce from one of the world’s agricultural commodity powerhouses. Brazil is the top global exporter of soybeans, sugar, coffee and chickens. The strike over high fuel prices has paralyzed Latin America’s largest economy, emptied Brazilian roadways and left major […] Read more
Honeybees’ attraction to fungicide ‘unsettling’
London | Thomson Reuters Foundation — Honeybees are attracted to a fungicide used in agriculture with “unsettling implications” for global food production, a U.S. scientist said on Tuesday. Tests carried out by a team from the University of Illinois showed bees preferred to collect sugar syrup laced with the fungicide chlorothalonil over sugar syrup alone. […] Read more
From sugar mills to hog farms, U.S. agriculture braces for Irma
Chicago/New York | Reuters — Hurricane Irma sent farmers and food companies scrambling to protect processing facilities, farm fields and animal herds in the south and southeastern parts of the U.S. on Wednesday. Florida sugar and citrus processors rushed to secure rail cars and equipment that could be crushed, blocked or turned into flying projectiles. […] Read more
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