Officials shrug off rabies

I found a roadkill skunk yesterday and moved it, with gloved hands, to the side of the busy Kitchener street.

And I called the Waterloo Region Health Unit, informing them that the dead skunk had no odour and might therefore be rabid.

The woman who answered my call said they do not pick up dead skunks and that I should contact the local  humane society.

Then I called the Canadian Food Inspection Agency in Guelph (the CFIA website for Kitchener has neither a phone number nor e-mail address) and the lady there said they used to pick up and test roadkill skunks for rabies, but no longer do so.

She suggested I try the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.

I didn't. But I wonder what might happen if the skunk is actually rabid and a dog decides to lunch on the corpse.

I guess these people don't really care about rabies.

Polievre wants to axe foreign worker program

Conservative party leader Pierre Poilievre wants the federal government to axe the temporary foreign worker program.

He said it has flooded the market with cheap labour and made it harder for young Canadians to find work.

But he also said he would have a way to hire foreigners for difficult-to-fill agriculture jobs, presumably meaning crop workers and meat-packing industry jobs.

"The Liberals have to answer, 'Why is it that they are shutting our own youth out of jobs and replacing them with low-wage, temporary foreign workers from poor countries who are ultimately being exploited,'" Poilievre said.

Canada already has a separate immigration stream for farm workers called the Seasonal Agriculture Worker Program (SWAP) that allows employers to bring in workers from Mexico and other participating Caribbean countries. 

Poilievre stressed that he doesn't blame the temporary foreign workers themselves but the Liberal government and "liberal corporate elites" who he says are exploiting these workers to enrich themselves. 

                           

Farmers eligible for land, water protection funds

 

The federal and Ontario governments announced they will offer $14.6 million to farmers who undertake conservation measures.

The RALP Marginal Lands Initiative, delivered by Conservation Ontario, is receiving an additional $9.6 million to help farmers create or enhance natural features such as wetlands or pollinator habitats on marginal agricultural lands. 

The program connects farmers to technical support and organizations that can make it easier for farmers who carry out large-scale environmental projects on their land, including carbon sequestering and reducing emissions.

An additional investment of up to $5 million is being invested in the RALP Ontario Agricultural Sustainability Initiative, delivered by the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association (OSCIA), to help farmers access funding to plant grasslands and trees, reduce

tillage and build water retention features. 

These improvements help farmers better withstand extreme weather, improve soil and water health and boost biodiversity.

Kraft-Heinz to split

 

First they merged in 2015. Now Kraft-Heinz has announced plans to split into two separate companies by the second half of next year.

One company which will be named North American Grocery Co. will take over the meat, cheese and prepared foods products. Those now garner about $10 billion a year in sales.

The other company, Global Taste Elevation Inc., will take over sauces, spreads and shelf-stable meals sold under brand names such as Heinz, Philadelphia and Kraft Mac and Cheese.

Earlier this summer, Warren Buffet took a second major write-down on the value of Kraft-Heinz shares. He wrote off $3 billion in 2019, five years after he bought about 27.5 per cent of the company’s shares and another $3.8 billion this August.

Buffet said during an interview with MSNBC that he is disappointed about the planned split.

Canada accepts Mexico’s meat inspection

 

Canada has endorsed the equivalence of Mexico's Federal Inspection Type (TIF) system for beef, pork, and poultry products, ensuring the continuity and expansion of Mexican meat exports to the Canadian market.

The move came as health officials met to strengthen the safe trade of agri-food products.

They are working toward new strategies to streamline existing protocols and open up trade for new products, both conventional and organic.

Plant hardiness zones updated

 

Canada is warmer by one to three degrees than in the mid-1800s, so the federal government has updated plant hardiness zone maps.

They are designed for gardeners, not farmers, the creators caution, yet the report said “these changes have significant implications for plant growth and survival across the country.”

Federal employees who are part of the Canadian Forest Service have created a website called www.planthardiness.gc.ca.

It contains updated maps with new plant hardiness zones for Canada’s different regions.

Farmers’ mood continues decline

For the third straight month, a survey of farmers indicates they are more pessimistic about the farm economy.

The Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer Index fell 10 points to 125. 

Farmers were “markedly less optimism about the future” with the index of future expectations declining by 16 points to 123, which is the lowest since last September.

Crop specialists were pessimistic, but livestock farmers, led by beef producers riding a wave of high prices and record-setting profits, were optimistic.

The Short-Term Farmland Value Expectations Index reading of 112 dropped three points from July, continuing a three-month trend. 

But any reading higher than 100 indicates that more farmers still expect rising values in the coming year than those who consider declining values as more likely. 

Three-quarters of crop producers expect farmland cash rental rates in to remain unchanged next year; only 12 per cent felt rents will go lower.