Maple Leaf posts losses

Maple Leaf Foods lost almost $22 million in the fourth quarter and $12.3 million on the year, according to its financial report released today.

More worrisome is the fact that the meat division lost $43 million in the fourth quarter compared with a $43-million profit for the same quarter last year.

The bakery division was the only one to turn a profit and Maple Leaf announced a deal recently to sell that to Grupo Bimbo of Mexico. The bakery division made a profit of $31 million in the fourth quarter compared with $33 million last year.

Total sales for the quarter were $1.1 billion, 2.1 per cent less than last year. Sales for the year were 3.2 per cent less than the previous year.

Maple Leaf also sold its Rothsay Concentrates and Oliviera bakery businesses last year for a total of $745 million. It has not disclosed the sales price for its turkey farms and quota and hatchery that were part of Cold Spring Farms bought by J.M. Schneider Inc. just before Maple Leaf bought Schneiders.

President and ceo Michael McCain said the fourth-quarter losses reflect the company’s three-year investment in a major restructuring that involves building five new facilities to replace older plants, including the Schneider plant in downtown Kitchener.

He said the older plants will all be closed by the end of the year and the new ones, including the biggest at Hamilton, will be fully commissioned then. He said operating margins will improve when this transition has been completed.

He said Maple Leaf will use its 90 per cent share from the $1.83 billion sale of Canada Bread to Bimbo bakery to pay down debt, to invest in the meat business and to “return excess capital to shareholders.: He did not put figures to each of those three.

Maple Leaf shares have declined since the announcement of the sale of Canada Bread.

Conference board slams dairy supply management – again

The Conference Board of Canada is taking another run at supply management, particularly for the dairy industry, saying it’s costing Canada significant opportunities to expand production for export markets.

“There is a big prize out there for our dairy farmers to go after,” Michael Bloom, the Conference Board’s vice-president of industry and business strategy, said Wednesday in Ottawa at a panel discussion organized by the Ottawa Economics Association.

High tariffs to protect supply management also mean that those who are able to sell into the Canadian market make huge profits, economist Bruno Larue of Université Laval said at the same meeting.

Those imports could be significantly reduced if Canadians were able to increase milk production and lower prices.

Foreign suppliers are eager to grab even a small slice of the Canadian market, which boasts some of the highest prices and margins in the world, Larue said, pointing to the concessions the European Union sought in a recently-negotiated trade agreement.

The Conference Board of Canada is taking another run at supply management, particularly for the dairy industry, saying it’s costing Canada significant opportunities to expand production for export markets.

“There is a big prize out there for our dairy farmers to go after,” Michael Bloom, the Conference Board’s vice-president of industry and business strategy, said Wednesday in Ottawa at a panel discussion organized by the Ottawa Economics Association.

High tariffs to protect supply management also mean that those who are able to sell into the Canadian market make huge profits, economist Bruno Larue of Université Laval said at the same meeting.

Foreign suppliers are eager to grab even a small slice of the Canadian market, which boasts some of the highest prices and margins in the world, Larue said, pointing to the concessions the European Union sought in a recently-negotiated trade agreement.

It will gain access to the Canadian market for an additional 18,500 tonnes of cheese per year. The high tariffs will not apply to this cheese, but those who hold import permits will be able to charge the going Canadian price which will be about 2.5 to three times higher than the world price for the cheese.

“Foreigners like our market because the prices are high,” Prof. Larue said. “They don’t have to export a lot to make a lot of money in Canada.”

He suggested that producers in Europe, the United States, Australia and New Zealand are actually better off with supply management because they make so much money selling small quantities here. “They just want a bigger piece of the action,” he said.

Canada’s high prices are the result of “successive monopolies” and “cascading high margins” throughout the supply chain, from farmers to processors and grocery chains, he said.

The industry will lose in the long run unless it reforms now because more and more foreign product will come over the tariff wall, Prof. Larue added.

Among his suggested solutions: significantly boost production quota, break down provincial barriers and make it easier to buy and sell quota. The longer farmers and governments wait, the more costly it will be to phase out supply management, he said.

Bloom said that buying out Canada’s dairy quotas need not cost about $23 billion, which is the market price, because the government could pay farmers their book value for quota, which would be$3.6 to $4.7 billion. 

Many farmers didn’t pay anything for their quota because they were in the business when supply management was launched; others have written off much of the cost of the quota they have purchased. 

But I can anticipate howls of protest, insisting that they get full market price for quota. And I can see some justification because Canadian governments have consistently and loudly proclaimed full support for supply management, and no farmer can get into the business without buying quota.

Bloom said the market price for poultry quotas is about $7 billion.

There has been less international pressure to lower or scrap poultry tariffs, perhaps because Canada is not seen as a significant market for chicken, eggs and turkey.

The Conference Board argument that Canada could benefit from export earnings from poultry does, however, apply.

Canada’s poultry and dairy farming is concentrated in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia, all locations with ready access to major urban markets in the United State and all with roughly the same natural resources and infrastructure as competitors in the U.S.i

The Conference Board of Canada is taking another run at supply management, particularly for the dairy industry, saying it’s costing Canada significant opportunities to expand production for export markets.

“There is a big prize out there for our dairy farmers to go after,” Michael Bloom, the Conference Board’s vice-president of industry and business strategy, said Wednesday in Ottawa at a panel discussion organized by the Ottawa Economics Association.

High tariffs to protect supply management also mean that those who are able to sell into the Canadian market make huge profits, economist Bruno Larue of Université Laval said at the same meeting.

Those imports could be significantly reduced if Canadians were able to increase milk production and lower prices.

Foreign suppliers are eager to grab even a small slice of the Canadian market, which boasts some of the highest prices and margins in the world, Larue said, pointing to the concessions the European Union sought in a recently-negotiated trade agreement.

The Conference Board of Canada is taking another run at supply management, particularly for the dairy industry, saying it’s costing Canada significant opportunities to expand production for export markets.

“There is a big prize out there for our dairy farmers to go after,” Michael Bloom, the Conference Board’s vice-president of industry and business strategy, said Wednesday in Ottawa at a panel discussion organized by the Ottawa Economics Association.

High tariffs to protect supply management also mean that those who are able to sell into the Canadian market make huge profits, economist Bruno Larue of Université Laval said at the same meeting.

Foreign suppliers are eager to grab even a small slice of the Canadian market, which boasts some of the highest prices and margins in the world, Larue said, pointing to the concessions the European Union sought in a recently-negotiated trade agreement.

It will gain access to the Canadian market for an additional 18,500 tonnes of cheese per year. The high tariffs will not apply to this cheese, but those who hold import permits will be able to charge the going Canadian price which will be about 2.5 to three times higher than the world price for the cheese.

“Foreigners like our market because the prices are high,” Prof. Larue said. “They don’t have to export a lot to make a lot of money in Canada.”

He suggested that producers in Europe, the United States, Australia and New Zealand are actually better off with supply management because they make so much money selling small quantities here. “They just want a bigger piece of the action,” he said.

Canada’s high prices are the result of “successive monopolies” and “cascading high margins” throughout the supply chain, from farmers to processors and grocery chains, he said.

The industry will lose in the long run unless it reforms now because more and more foreign product will come over the tariff wall, Prof. Larue added.

Among his suggested solutions: significantly boost production quota, break down provincial barriers and make it easier to buy and sell quota. The longer farmers and governments wait, the more costly it will be to phase out supply management, he said.

Bloom said that buying out Canada’s dairy quotas need not cost about $23 billion, which is the market price, because the government could pay farmers their book value for quota, which would be$3.6 to $4.7 billion. 

Many farmers didn’t pay anything for their quota because they were in the business when supply management was launched; others have written off much of the cost of the quota they have purchased. 

But I can anticipate howls of protest, insisting that they get full market price for quota. And I can see some justification because Canadian governments have consistently and loudly proclaimed full support for supply management, and no farmer can get into the business without buying quota.

Bloom said the market price for poultry quotas is about $7 billion.

There has been less international pressure to lower or scrap poultry tariffs, perhaps because Canada is not seen as a significant market for chicken, eggs and turkey.

The Conference Board argument that Canada could benefit from export earnings from poultry does, however, apply.

Canada’s poultry and dairy farming is concentrated in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia, all locations with ready access to major urban markets in the United State and all with roughly the same natural resources and infrastructure as competitors in the U.S.

Some maple syrup has been boiled

A handful of producers have boiled maple syrup from sugar bushes in Southwestern Ontario when temperatures rose as high as five degrees last week.

But the return of the deep freeze has put the season on hold again.

Snow is so deep in the Haliburton area that producers who normally work with lines at chest height are having to stoop down and sometimes even dig them out of the snow, reports Todd Leuty, agroforestry specialist for the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food.

Leuty said many producers were busy tapping trees last week, but with the return of extremely low temperatures this week, trunks are frozen and ought not be tapped because of the damage that would cause.

Leuty said the small volume of sap that did run last week was mainly used to simply rinse pipelines.

Farmers blamed for Lake Erie algae blooms

Lake Erie is once again plagued by algae blooms that suck oxygen out of the water leading to massive fish kills, and farming is being blamed this time.

The last time agriculture was only one of several sources of phosphorous and the main action to clean up the lake was outlawing laundry detergents that incorporate phosphorous and adding tertiary treatment at sewage treatment plants.

The result was a dramatically cleaner Lake Erie.

This time agriculture stands at the top of the hit list of a new report that will be coming out later this week from the International Joint Commission, a body created by the United States and Canada to deal with water issues of interest to both nations.

The U.S. side takes the hardest hit because of increased phosphorous fertilizer applications to grow more acres of corn to meet the demand for ethanol.

But the Grand and Thames rivers that carry water from the richest farming fields in Southwestern Ontario are also blamed in the report.

What remains to be seen is any detailed recommendations the report may offer about reducing the phosphorous runoff from fields.

One solution has been shelved by the Ontario Pork marketing board and a research team at the University of Guelph.

That’s the Enviropig, a genetically-engineered strain of pigs that have had a gene inserted to produce phytase in their saliva so they need less phosphorous in their feed rations to achieve optimum meat-producing performance.

That, in turn, means they poop out lower levels of phosphorous, meaning there is less to run off into lakes and streams fertilized with hog manure.

The Enviropig was shelved because it became too expensive to keep on providing ever-more data to the federal government officials in Canada and the U.S. who decide whether genetically-modified organisms ought to be approved in the food-production system.

Ontario’s main response to the challenge of phosphorous runoff from farm fields has been the development and implementation of a Nutrient Management protocol.

It was required of the largest and newest farms when it was launched and has progressively been required for more farms. It is designed to balance the amount of fertilizer applied to fields with the amount that will be used to grow the crop in question.

Canadians buying America’s best foods

Canadians are the best foreign customers for high-value U.S. foods, says a new report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

And that, says Meatingplace Magazine, makes those exports a prime target if the World Trade Organization rules that Canada is justified in complaining about the Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) regulations that have depressed Canadian hog and cattle prices by a combined total of more than $1.6 billion per year.

If the U.S. fails to scrap the offensive COOL provisions after WTO rules them illegal, as it did for an earlier version of COOL, then Canada could seek permission to apply tariffs to U.S. exports.

The report says Canada remained the top destination for “U.S. exports of high value agricultural products, with a total of nearly $17 billion” last year.

The category includes meat, fresh and processed fruits and vegetables, prepared food, snack food, wine and beer, and pet food. Those are items Canada has already included on a list to which it would apply tariffs if it wins at the WTO.

These U.S. consumer-oriented products typically sell directly from small and medium-sized U.S. processors to Canadian supermarkets and restaurants, says the report.

Overall, Canada is the second-largest export destination for U.S. agricultural products, totaling $21.3 billion in 2013.

Canada follows China, the first export market since 2010, which bought $25.9 billion worth of U.S. agricultural exports.

“It is also interesting to point out that overall U.S. exports of agricultural products grew by two percent from 2012 to 2013, totaling $144.1 billion.

“During the same time period, U.S. agricultural exports to Canada grew by 3.4 percent, while U.S. exports to China remained flat (0.1 percent growth rate),” the report says.

Grilled and broiled meats found unhealth

A new study says grilling and broiling meat seems to be increasing the risk of Alzheimer’s and pre-diabetes.

Meatingplace Magazine reports on the study saying grilling and broiling creates compounds called advanced glycation endproducts, or AGEs, and that they suppress levels of “sirtuin, or SIRT1, a natural defense that protects against Alzheimer’s disease as well as metabolic syndrome, a pre-diabetic condition.”

Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York studied AGE levels in mice and in healthy humans over the age of 60.

“The study showed that people with high blood levels of AGEs over a nine-month period developed cognitive decline and signs of insulin resistance and SIRT1 suppression,” says the magazine.

“Our studies of both animals and human subjects confirm that AGE-rich foods are a lifestyle-driven reality with major health implications,” it quotes from the online journal of proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“The findings point to an easily achievable goal that could reduce the risk of these conditions through the consumption of non-AGE-rich foods, for example, foods that cooked or processed under lower heat levels and in the presence of more water – cooking methods employed for centuries," said Helen Vlassara, a professor of geriatrics at Mount Sinai.

Two more Ontario PED cases

As if in defiance of the optimism that Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus has been contained, two more Ontario cases surfaced Tuesday and Wednesday.

On Tuesday, it was a farrow-to-finish operation in Oxford County and on Wednesday a farrow-to-finish operation in Essex County.

Earlier this week, Dr. Doug McDougald of the Ontario Swine Health Advisory Board and the Ontario Pork Industry Council expressed optimism that the outbreak can be contained now that the main source – nursery feed rations with a blood plasma from the United States – is off the market.

On its website, and copied on the Ontario Pork marketing board site, is a message from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food that begins:

“PED is not a risk to human health or other animals. It is not a food safety risk.

“Given the hardy, virulent nature of PED it is not unexpected to find it present in various locations. The experience in the U.S. has shown us that.

The virus is generally fatal for very young animals. Older animals can recover, as in fact some are on affected farms.

“The present goal is to limit the spread of the virus through stringent biosecurity measures. It is critical that all those in the industry - producers, transporters, suppliers - work together and increase vigilance with biosecurity measures.”

Grilled and broiled meats found unhealthy

A new study says grilling and broiling meat seems to be increasing the risk of Alzheimer’s and pre-diabetes.

Meatingplace Magazine reports on the study saying grilling and broiling creates compounds called advanced glycation endproducts, or AGEs, and that they suppress levels of “sirtuin, or SIRT1, a natural defense that protects against Alzheimer’s disease as well as metabolic syndrome, a pre-diabetic condition.”

Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York studied AGE levels in mice and in healthy humans over the age of 60.

“The study showed that people with high blood levels of AGEs over a nine-month period developed cognitive decline and signs of insulin resistance and SIRT1 suppression,” says the magazine.

“Our studies of both animals and human subjects confirm that AGE-rich foods are a lifestyle-driven reality with major health implications,” it quotes from the online journal of proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“The findings point to an easily achievable goal that could reduce the risk of these conditions through the consumption of non-AGE-rich foods, for example, foods that cooked or processed under lower heat levels and in the presence of more water – cooking methods employed for centuries," said Helen Vlassara, a professor of geriatrics at Mount Sinai.

Judge tosses case vs. Burnbra

Justice D.L.Corbett has tossed the egg-industry conspiracy charges against Burnbrae Farms Limited, Burnbrae Holdings Inc. and Maple Lynn Farms Ltd.

Corbett says Sweda Farms Ltd. has been unable to prove the list of allegations it has made in court documents that accuse Burnbrae, L.H. Gray and Sons Ltd. and the Egg Farmers of Ontario marketing board of conspiring to drive Sweda out of the Ontario egg-grading business.

But Corbett says if the allegations against Gray can be proven, it will be judged guilty.

Gray’s lawyers lost in an earlier bid to get many of the allegations against it tossed out of the lawsuit.

Corbett says that evidence and testimony provided by whistleblower Norman Bourdeau, a former employee at Gray’s Strathroy head office, is limited to Gray’s performance and that Bourdeau provided no direct evidence of similar wrongdoing at Burnbrae.

Corbett deals with the allegations in detail in his 49-page decision. He also ruled that Sweda must pay Burnbrae’s legal costs.

Stuart Jackson, a former Burnbrae employee who went to work for Sweda, testified by way of affidavit that a man in charge adjusted an egg-grading machine to allow cracks into Grade A cartons.

Corbett said that even if that’s true, it does not prove that Burnbrae conspired with Gray and the egg board against Sweda.

Sweda alleged that Burnbrae knowingly provided shoddy eggs to keep Sweda from obtaining a supplementary import permit to meet customer demand.

Corbett noted that Joe Hudson, the owner of Burnbrae, testified that the eggs were graded under Canadian Food Inspection Agency inspection and the truck to deliver them to Sweda was sealed.

Hudson suggested that Svante Lind of Sweda may have tampered with the shipment after arrival and before another CFIA inspector condemned the shipment.

Corbett said he can’t judge whether Lind or Hudson is right and said in any case, this is not proof of conspiracy with Gray and the egg board.

He said there is no evidence that Burnbrae sicked the egg board on Sweda to investigate whether Sweda was short-changing producers by grading their eggs too harshly. The egg board charged Sweda with failing to accurately grade eggs, leaving producers short of money and the egg board short of levies to support its operations.

Sweda has counter-charged that it was Gray and Burnbrae who were putting cracked and dirty eggs into Grade A cartons, inflating provincial averages and making Sweda’s accurate grading look like cheating.

Corbett said Sweda failed to provide any evidence or documentation to prove that Burnbrae has cheated on egg grading. He referred to witness examination in which Hudson said he understands that the CFIA has a tolerance of five to seven per cent for undergrades, such as cracks, in Grade A cartons.

Sweda’s lawyers said the regulations contain no provisions for tolerances. Corbett simply decided he can’t decide on that issue.

Corbett said e-mails between Ian McFall, husband of Hudson’s daughter and a senior executive at Burnbrae, and Gray, discussing a deal to swap a Quebec client and noting this type of discussion is illegal, are not pertinent to Sweda’s conspiracy charges. Both Ian and Mary Jane McFall are lawyers.

Corbett said Sweda has been unable to prove that Burnbrae took a single egg-farming supplier or customer from Sweda.

Corbett said Sweda needed to “put its best foot forward” to stave off Burnbrae’s motion to have it taken out of the conspiracy case and said “It has not.”

In another place, Corbett writes that Sweda needed to “play trumps”, but instead tried to “finesse” the case and “the finesse failed.”

He wrote that many of the allegations try to paint Burnbrae as a company that cheats, but said that's a failed attempt to make the conspiracy charge stick by "inference" and lacks direct proof.

Farmers blamed for Lake Erie algae blooms

Lake Erie is once again plagued by algae blooms that suck oxygen out of the water leading to massive fish kills, and farming is being blamed this time.

The last time agriculture was only one of several sources of phosphorous and the main action to clean up the lake was outlawing laundry detergents that incorporate phosphorous and adding tertiary treatment at sewage treatment plants.

The result was a dramatically cleaner Lake Erie.

This time agriculture stands at the top of the hit list of a new report that will be coming out later this week from the International Joint Commission, a body created by the United States and Canada to deal with water issues of interest to both nations.

The U.S. side takes the hardest hit because of increased phosphorous fertilizer applications to grow more acres of corn to meet the demand for ethanol.

But the Grand and Thames rivers that carry water from the richest farming fields in Southwestern Ontario are also blamed in the report.

What remains to be seen is any detailed recommendations the report may offer about reducing the phosphorous runoff from fields.

One solution has been shelved by the Ontario Pork marketing board and a research team at the University of Guelph.

That’s the Enviropig, a genetically-engineered strain of pigs that have had a gene inserted to produce phytase in their saliva so they need less phosphorous in their feed rations to achieve optimum meat-producing performance.

That, in turn, means they poop out lower levels of phosphorous, meaning there is less to run off into lakes and streams fertilized with hog manure.

The Enviropig was shelved because it became too expensive to keep on providing ever-more data to the federal government officials in Canada and the U.S. who decide whether genetically-modified organisms ought to be approved in the food-production system.

Ontario’s main response to the challenge of phosphorous runoff from farm fields has been the development and implementation of a Nutrient Management protocol.

It was required of the largest and newest farms when it was launched and has progressively been required for more farms. It is designed to balance the amount of fertilizer applied to fields with the amount that will be used to grow the crop in question.

Feed carried PED to P.E.I.

Officials believe that the single case of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus (PEDv) on Prince Edward Island developed from feed that contained imported blood plasma.

The same is apparently not true for the single case of PEDv in Manitoba.

Feed from Grand Valley Fortifiers at Cambridge is now thought to be the main source of the virus in Ontario where the toll now is 21 farms.

The 21st case turned up this week in Wentworth-Hamilton.

There are some Ontario farms that probably picked up the virus from another source, such as a contaminated livestock truck.

Grand Valley moved immediately to alert its customers and to stop using the spray-dried blood plasma from the United States in formulating its nursery-pig rations.

Dr, Doug McDougald of South West Veterinary Service in Stratford, and a leading member of the Ontario Swine Health Advisory Board and the Ontario Pork Industry Council, says that now that the feed source has been eliminated, he believes the virus can be contained across Ontario.

Not so in the United States where there have been about 3,000 farms infected since the first case in April, claiming more than one million piglets and affecting the North American hog market prices.

The virus is still in Ontario, so it will be in the manure of trucks hauling infected pigs to market. Until all those hogs have been slaughtered and the province is clear of the virus, high-level biosecurity protocols will be required to contain the highly-contagious and deadly disease.

When it shows up in a sow barn or nursery pig operation, it typically kills all the piglets. Older pigs can survive after a period of severe diarrhea and vomiting.

One of the most effective, but expensive and difficult, biosecurity measures is thoroughly washing, disinfecting and drying livestock-hauling trailers and trucks. There aren’t enough facilities in Ontario to wash all hog-hauling livestock trailers, but more are being built with help from the provincial and federal governments.

The governments are also offering subsidies to hog farmers so they can step up biosecurity, such as well-separated facilities for disposing of pigs that die of the disease. 

Deadstock-hauling livestock trucks are supposed to avoid any contact with healthy hog barns and staff which means pickup bins should be well away from the barn and staff should approach from the opposite side of deadstock pickup trucks and staff.

The disease survives well in cold weather, meaning the unseasonably cold weather now has increased the challenges of containing the virus.

                        

Hamburger breaks record price

Boneless beef prices have set a North American record, topping $250 per hundredweight.

It gives a boost to prices for cull cows and pasture-raised cattle as the North American market continues to split between increased demand for lower-cost hamburger and reduced demand for higher-cost grain-ration prime cuts.

The reference point for boneless beef markets is central United States where the prices on Friday hit $250.68 per hundredweight, 16 per cent higher than a year ago and 31 per cent higher than less than six months ago.

The sharp price increase will ripple down the supply chain into a broad range of meat products, foodservice companies and restaurant chains.

It will, farmers hope, also ripple backwards into higher prices for cull cows and lower-cost pastured and forage-fed beef cattle.

Gilvesy named to Species at Risk committee

Bryan Gilvesy of Tillsonburg, owner of YU Ranch and a member of the Bob-O-Link Roundtable, has been appointed to a two-year term on the Ontario government’s Species at Risk Program Advisory Committee.

He is one of 19 members that can be appointed to the committee.

Also recently added is Merla Allison of Vale Canada Limited, a major mining company, where she serves as senior environmental analyst, a job that includes preserving environments for birds, fish and animals at risk of becoming extinct.

Gilvesy is chairman of Norfolk Alternative Land Use Services, co-chairman of the Sustain Ontario Steering Committee and a member of the Ontario Agricultural Biomass Steering Committee and the Ontario Bob-O-Link Roundtable.

Farmers have been challenging the government's attempts to regulate pastures and hay fields to protect nesting areas for Bob-O-Links.

Genetic engineering to protect bees

BeeOLogics is close to developing a genetic spray that will wipe out verroa mites, one of the most significant factors in reducing honey bee populations around the world.

The genetics involves messenger DNA that can kill the mites. It is designed as a crop spray that the mites pick up in the food they eat.

Ironically, Monsanto owns BeeOLogics and is likely to play a key role in helping bee populations survive.

Another branch of Monsanto is being blamed for killing honey bees that are poisoned by its seed-treatment neonicinitoid products.

The Motley Fool publication says some thought when Monsanto bought BeeOLogics that it was trying to silence critics of its pesticides.

However, others say the biotechnology company is an excellent fit with Monsanto’s biotechnology researchers who have developed genetically-engineered crops that can survive weed sprays and can kill crop-munching insects.

Burnbrae won't let grading information go public

Burnbrae Farms of Mississauga, one of a number of divisions of Burnbrae Farms Limited, has gone to court to block release of its egg-industry performance.

More specifically, it doesn't want the records of Canadian Food Inspection Agency audits of its business to be released under an Access-to-Information request I filed two years ago.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency decided it would release the audit reports, but Burnbrae objected.

That moved the situation up to the federal government's commissioner of information and privacy.

Mediation failed, so it went to an adjudicator.

Earlier this year the adjudicator issued a report saying the information ought to be released.

And now Burnbrae is challenging that in federal court.

So what do you think Burnbrae has to hide?

And do you think that what the company is trying to hide affects the integrity and reputation of Ontario's egg industry?

And you do think affects the reputation of Ontario's egg industry, then why is the Egg Farmers of Ontario marketing board sitting on its hands? 

The egg board was quick off the mark to accuse Best Choice Eggs of cheating on egg grading. Does it operate under a double standard?

U.S., Canada adopt common names for meat

A deal to adopt the same names for meat cuts for the U.S. and Canada came into force this week.

It will make it easier to trade, say officials of the United States Department of Agriculture, but they did not say anything about the ongoing dispute over Country of Origin labeling regulations that hinder trade.

The agreement applies only to wholesale meat cuts, not retail.

The Canadian meat classification system uses a Meat Cuts Manual. The United States uses the Institutional Meat Purchase Specifications which is a set of voluntary standards maintained by agriculture department’s Agriculture Marketing Service.

Both countries will now be working with the Institutional Meat Purchase Specifications.