Thieves rob Cambridge community garden

Thieves struck twice, taking tools and farm equipment from Springbank Community Garden in Cambridge.

The second time the thieves were spotted driving away on Blair Road in a pickup truck.

Taryn Jarvis, the facility co-ordinator for the Charitable Research Reserve where the gardens are located, said she hopes enough money can be raised from the community to replace the stolen items.

"They were only up there for about two minutes because we can see them go up the hill with their truck, and then drive down the hill with my trailer and the riding lawn mower in the back of it," Jarvis said of the second theft.

She said some community gardeners no longer feel safe and may not continue gardening there next year., yet she doesn’t feel anybody is at risk of harm.

"Over these past 10 years we've grown well over 35,000 lbs of organic vegetables that are harvested and delivered to the Cambridge Food Bank on the day they're picked,” she told CBC news Kitchener.

 “t's the best quality produce the food bank is getting and a lot of people come out to help with that project," she said.

Jarvis said they plan to install some new security features, including a lockable barn structure.

China rolls back pork tariffs

China is rolling back tariffs on European pork from up to 65 per cent down to between five and 20 per cent.

It imposed the tariffs after Europe put a tariff on China’s electrical vehicles.

There has been no word yet about a similar 25 per cent tariff on Canadian pork imposed in March after Canada put a tariff of 100 per cent on Chinese electrical vehicles. China also hit Canada with tariffs of 76 per cent on canola seed and 100 per. Cent on canola oil, meal and peas,

China said its new and lower tariff on European pork will remain steady for five years.

Two bird flu cases in North Perth

 

 

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has established quarantine zones in North Perth County because there have been two outbreaks of highly-pathogenic avian influenza.

                           

 

 

Canada’s wheat exports increase

 

Canada’s wheat exports are ahead of last year and trending towards a record, according to one Canadian market analyst.

 

The world’s top seven wheat-exporting countries have also had record harvests.

They are looking to China which they hope will import more wheat and feed grains because of poor quality corn and spring wheat harvests there.

Market analyst Chuck Penner said If China were to start buying corn and wheat again in a bigger way, that changes the global dynamic to quite a large degrees.

Penner works for Leftfield Commodity Research and made his comments during a meeting of the Canaryseed Development Commission of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon.

He said Canadian wheat exports might set a record of 24 million tonnes this crop year.

A big barley harvest is displacing Canadian imports of U.S. corn and is fuelling exports because Canadian barley prices are more competitive with France, Ukraine, Argentina and Australia, he said.

Prices for some grains are under downward pressure, he said, including feed wheat, durum and oats due to quality issues with those crops.

Canadian farmers produced 7.1 million tonnes of durum, the largest crop since 2016-17.

Mexico investigating pork imports

Mexico has launched an investigation into whether pork imports have been unfairly subsidized.

The United States is the chief target and the complaints filed by Mexico’s largest hog producers points to a number of subsidies, including ones during COVID-19, the one to encourage more meat-packing competitors and subsidies for corn and soybeans.

United States President Donald Trump recently announced $12 billion in farm subsidies to compensate for the impacts from the tariff wars he started.

 Mexico Business News said the farmers who called for the investigation account for 64 per cent of the nation’s pork production.

They Mexican allege that U.S. exports of pork leg and shoulder were, because of federal and state subsidies, guilty of price discrimination and illegal subsidies in 2024, and that such practices damaged the Mexican pork industry.

The U.S. exported more than 92 million pounds of pork products to Mexico last year; it was the chief export market.

Canada ought to launch its own investigations into unfair U.S. farm subsidies.

Fish farmers want into Agriculture Canada

Canada’s fish farmers want out from under Fisheries and Oceans Canada and into Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC).

Tim Kennedy president and chief executive officer of the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance said efforts are underway to have aquaculture defined as a bona fide farming enterprise and brought under the umbrella of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC).

As well as better promotion the association’s members would benefit from agriculture’s risk management and safety net programs, he said.

Aquaculture needs a department to champion and promote its cause as a viable agricultural enterprise,” he said in a recent speech in Calgary.

Canada could become a world leader in farmed fish and seafood, he said.

Yet a ban on open-net salmon farming along the British Columbia coast is coming into effect in 2029 and that whole approach to fish farming is under public attack, mainly because of concerns about spreading diseases.

Kennedy argued that penned fish farming is safe.

It is also important to indigrnous communities along Canada’s coasts, he said with backing from Kallie Woo, president and chief executive officer or the National Circle for Indigenous Agriculture and Food.

Kennedy said Canada has far more coastlines than Norway, which is the world’s leader in farmed salmon production.

Canada’s aquaculture industry peaked in 2018 at 200,000 tonnes of fish and seafood products. However, with the two salmon farms closed in B.C. in the Broughton Archipelago and Discovery Island in British Columbia and production declined by about 40 per cent.

In 2023, total aquaculture production dropped to 145,000 tonnes (including farmed fish and shellfish). Of that total, about 80,000 tonnes was farmed salmon.

Kennedy expects the 2024 production numbers to further drop to about 130,000 tonnes.

Public consultation opens on trade deals

 

The federal government is inviting public reaction to four potential trade deals with India, Thailand, the United Arab Emerates and the Mercosur bloc of nations.

The Mercosur bloc is Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Venezuela was kicked out.

The comment period is open to Jan. 26.

Europe has also negotiated a deal with Mercosur, but it has strong opposition from farmers, especially in France.

They insist that any imports must meet European production standards.