Quarantine zone lifted

 

The first of several quarantine sones established around turkey farms in Strathroy-Caradoc has been lifted.

Outbreaks of avian influenza prompted the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to order the turkeys euthanized and they established the quarantine zones which restricted traffic in and out of a circle around the infected premises.

Juilie Henderson named manager at OSCIA

Julie Henderson has been appointed general manager at the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association.

She will be the organization’s link to the board of directors and will lead a team of four department heads.

Gabriella Visontai Perry will be the director of IT(Information Technology) and shared services. 

Nicole Mackellar will be the director of member services and business development.

Two directors remain to be named: director of programs and a director of research and knowledge transfer. 

The changes come as a result of a two-year organization review.

The OSCIA administers a number of government programs dealing with soils and crops.

                           

Julie Henderson

Beef leaders not consulted on Lacombe closure

The Beef Cattle Research Council was not consulted before the federal agriculture department announced it will close the research station at Lacombe, Alta.

It did research on cattle and pastures and on hog genetics, rations and management.

Dr. Howard Fredeen, who developed the Lacombe hog breed, was among high-profile researchers who worked there.

Reynold Bergen, science director with the Beef Cattle Research Council, said “we weren’t consulted, but we were kind of expecting that the votes of confidence we have put in in the past based on past funding decisions or funding investments in these programs would indicate where our priorities are and those priorities don’t line up with the decisions that have been made here.

Bergen said the news has caused uncertainty because they don’t know which researchers will be retained and where they will be moved.

Nitrogen leaf spray unveiled

 

Tidal Grow AgriScience has announced a nitrogen product that can be sprayed on leaves to boost yields of canola, corn and wheat.

The company said the technology results in maximum crop uptake of 18-0-0 fertiluizer.

“Canadian growers now have a new way to protect their precious fertilizer investments,” said Norm Davy, president and chief commercial officer for Tidal Grow AgriScience.

The company said trials it conducted indicate wheat yields can be increased by 22 per cent and canola by 10 per cent and improve net returns by $15 to $35 per acre.

                  

AGCO sales, profits slump

 

AGCO reported a 10 per cent decline in tractor sales and 27 per cent decline for combines in North America last year.

In dollars, sales in North America were down by 7.8 per cent,

But Eric Hansolia put a brave face in the financial report, saying “AGCO delivered strong fourth quarter results . . .”, reduced dealer inventories and gained market share.

Sales were also down in its divisions for Brazil and Western Europe.

The outlook for this year is for production and sales to hold steady.

Strychnine denied registration

 Grain Growers of Canada is disappointed that the Pest Management Regulatory Agency has denied emergency use registration for two per cent liquid strychnine to Alberta and Saskatchewan and is seeking a reconsideration.

Grain growers in Alberta and Saskatchewan wanted to use it to rid fields of gophers that are destroying crops.

Grain Growers of Canada said it recognizes the importance of strong environmental and health protections, but said the Pest Management Regulatory Agency should also ground its decisions in sound science and reflect on-farm realities.

“Farmers are responsible stewards of the land and depend on practical, effective pest-management tools to maintain sustainable production and protect Canada’s food supply.” Grain Growers of Canada said.

It said the application included enhanced stewardship measures, targeted application windows, and additional safeguards to mitigate risks to non-target species. 

It said that by rejecting this request, the current regulatory approach disregards both on-farm realities and the need to maintain agricultural competitiveness and food system resilience.

In its request for reconsideration, it noted that there is a Prime Minister’s initiative to make regulations more sensitive to the needs of the economy.

 

                         

 

Land market cooled

The red-hot market for farm land cooled off last year, according to the annual report from Valco Consultants.

Ryan Parker, who wrote the report, said some farms listed for sale did not find a buyer, particularly south-west of London and along the shore of Lake Erie.

He said some of that is sellers asking for prices that were too high and another part was lower profits from crops.

Prices remain highly variable by location.

His report said:

• $27, 258 – average per acre value across all 11 counties in 2025 compared with $6,000 in 2010.
• $38,000 – average per acre value in Perth and Oxford.
• $20,000 – average per acre value in Essex County.
• 10.7 per cent – average annual value change from 2010 to 2025.
• 2.7 per cent – overall value increase from 2024 to 2025.

Kimberly Earls heads Rural Ontario Institute

 

Kimberly Earls heads Rural Ontario Institute

 

Kimberly Earls has been chosen executive director of the Rural Ontario Institute.

She has worked in the business community in Norfolk County and served on a number of provincial and federal advisory boards.

She has a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Western Ontario and teaches at Fanshawe College.

She takes over from Gabe Ferguson who has been acting executive director.

Farmers’ confidence shaken

 

Farmers’ confidence is being shaken by lower profits, according to the monthly survey conducted by Purdue to calculate its Ag Economy Barometer.

Farm sentiment dropped sharply in January – by 23 points to 113.

Half of the farmers said their financial conditions have worsened from a year ago and 30 per cent believe things will worsen this year.

Producers reported worsening financial conditions compared to a year ago, with half indicating operations were worse off. Thirty percent expect Operating loans are rising, often due to carryover debt from prior years, signaling increasing financial pressure, the report said.

Concerns about U.S. agricultural exports also grew, particularly for soybeans, with competition from Brazil weighing heavily on producers.

Five named to Hall of Fame

 

Five people will be added to the Ontario Agriculture Hall of Fame in June.

They are Senator Rob Black, Scott Graham, Brian O’Connor, and the late Dr. Helen Fisher and the late Percy Hodgetts.

Black is chairman of the Senate’s committee on agriculture. He was named a senator after serving as the founding chief executive officer of the Rural Ontario Institute, program director for the Advanced Agricultural Leadership Program and transitioning 4-H Ontario into an independent charitable organization.

O’Connor is EastGen’s founding general manager which he helped create by merging Gencor with Eastern Breeders Inc. 

At Gencor he set up Gencor Foods to take over a Kitchener beef-packing plant to provide a market for cull cows which were banned from their traditional markets in the United States because bovine spongiform encephalopathy turned up in Alberta. He also used EastGen to support the revival of Thornloe Cheese. Both businesses subsequently folded.

Scott Graham was chairman of Egg Farmers of Ontario marketing board and was instrumental in developing an egg quality assurance program and a quota transfer system. He became a marketing board director when his father retired.

Dr. Helen Fisher helped Ontario grape growers to transition vineyards from labrusca to vinifera grapes which have earned an international reputation for wine excellence.

Percy Hodgetts spent 41 years at Ontario’s Department of Agriculture and 35 as the first director of the Ontario Fruit Branch, transforming household orchards into a thriving commercial industry. He was Ontario’s first specialized apiarist and entomologist and he establishment the Horticultural Experimental Station at Vineland.

He standardized box packing, cold-storage infrastructure, and “Big O” brand, conducted many training programs, provided growers with vital knowledge and laid a strong foundation for the industry’s resilience and adaptability even during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Ostrich cull costly

The ostrich case cost taxpayers $6,810,846, health reporter André Picard has found.

The farm, in comparison, was fined $10,000 as it stubbornly refused to sacrifice the flock in British Columbia where highly-pathogenic avian influenza infected some of the birds.

A billionaire in the United States footed the ostrich owners’ legal bills.

The flock was finally euthanized early this year.

Picard wrote that “the important number that doesn’t get mentioned is what the cost of inaction would have been: the threat to Canada’s $6.8-billion poultry industry. Failure to cull an infected flock could be a violation of trade agreements, and put $1-billion in exports at risk.

In that context, $6.8-million was money well spent. Doing the right thing, no matter how unpopular, often comes at a steep price.

Turkey agency allow Ontario more quota

 

The national agency for turkeys has increased Ontario’s quota for exports from 1.8 to 1.87 million kilograms.

The Farm Products Council of Canada has approved the increase.

The council also approved an increase in per diem and meal allowances for directors of the national chicken agency. The per diem rate for the chairman increases from $585 to $595 and for directors from $440 to $450. The meals allowance increases from $90 to $100 per day.

The national agency for hatching eggs received council approval to increase its levy from 0.0034 to 0.0038 per chick. In Ontario, the combined provincial and national levies are now 0.0051 per chick.

The hatching agency and chicken agency plans to increase production both received council approval.

Sex matters in pigs’ survival

 

Gilts survive better than barrows, according to research by Adam Moeser, a professor at the Michigan State University College of Veterinary Medicine.

Much of that traces to early gut development and stresses at weaning that result in persistent leaky gut, chronic low-grade inflammation and altered enteric nervous system function, which increases disease risk, he found.

Females exhibit a stronger immune response but are more prone to chronic inflammatory disorders.  He said research has shown that females typically have higher survivability rates than males, with males dying at a disproportionately higher rate from infection compared with females. That’s likely due to a more robust immune response in female pigs.

A weakness for gilts because when there are chronic and unrelenting stressors, female pigs are more prone to chronic pain and inflammation disorders.

“That may give them a trade-off for survivability versus chronic disease,” Moeser said.

A conservative estimate suggests there’s a two to four per cent higher mortality rate in castrated males. That puts a big dent in potential profits.

For decades, Dr. James Squires of the University of Guelph has been researching boar taint which results in an objectionable odour when boar pork is cooked. If ie succeeds, castration would no longer be necessary.

Moeser said “If we can understand the biology, what’s really different between a male and a female, maybe we can come up with some new interventions, or targeted strategies, or sex-specific strategies, that can put a dent in this health disparity.” 

U.S. farmers sell soybeans, hold corn and wheat

 

CoBank said its data and analyses indicate farmers have sold more soybeans than this time a year ago, but are holding on to wheat and corn.

Some of those holdings are in commercial storage, but awaiting deferred pricing and sales.

“CoBank’s data reveals that farmers have been patient sellers of corn and wheat,” said Tanner Ehmke, lead grains and oilseeds economist with CoBank. 

“Any material increase in corn and wheat prices will likely be met with heavier selling pressure compared to soybeans, which already experienced a higher level of farmer selling last fall. 

“The increase in on-farm storage for corn implies there is more corn in the countryside also waiting to be priced, which will pressure both flat price and basis,”he said.

McWilliam’s term extended

 

Cameron McWilliam of Dutton has been appointed to a two-year term as vice-president of the Farm Products Marketing Commission.

McWilliam has served as a commission member since 2019, is an active turkey, beef cattle, and cash crop producer and former reeve of Elgin County.

Cheap farmland rents near Toronto

 Farmland rent rates continue to be much lower on some of the province’s most expensive land, shows a survey data published by Prof. Brady Deaton of the University of Guelph.

In York Region, for example, rental rates in 2024 were only $75 an acre compared with $360 an acre in Huron County, even though sale prices in York averaged $55,000 an acre and in Huron County $25,000 in 2024.

Rental rates averaged $100 an acre in Peel Region while sale prices averaged $75,000 an acre, the highest in the province.

The reason why rents are so low on high-priced land is because developers own a significant chunk of the land in the urban areas and want it farmed so they can qualify for lower property tax rates.

PED in Huron finisher barn

 

Swine Health Ontario has reported an outbreak of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus in a finisher barn in Huron County.

                           

Tyson pays $48 million for pork price-fixing

 

Tyson Foods will pay $48 million to settle a price-fixing class-action lawsuit filed by indirect buyers of its pork.

The Commercial and Institutional Indirect Purchaser Plaintiffs said the proposed deal with Tyson Foods Inc., Tyson Prepared Foods Inc. and Tyson Fresh Meats Inc. included cash payments and cooperation terms as the case neared trial. 

Plaintiffs said Tyson also agreed to help authenticate Tyson documents for use at trial and to provide the settling plaintiffs the same access to potential trial witnesses that Tyson provided to non-settling defendants.

The pork cases alleged major pork producers conspired to constrain supply and fix prices beginning in 2009, including by exchanging competitively sensitive information through Agri Stats benchmarking reports. Plaintiffs said they and other class members paid artificially inflated prices for pork during the class period

 

The settlement would cover entities that indirectly purchased uncooked pork bacon or raw pork cuts including loins, shoulder, ribs, hams or pork chops for use in commercial food preparation from June 28, 2014, through June 30, 2018.

Heavy snow collapses barn rooves

 

 

 

At least two dozen broiler and turkey houses in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley were damaged or entirely collapsed in the aftermath of the weekend storm that dumped an unusually heavy snowfall topped by a thick glazing of ice, the Virginia Poultry Federation said.

Federation President Hobey Bauhan said that several inches of wet, heavy snow overnight Saturday was followed by hours of icy sleet on Sunday in the region, causing partial or total collapse of 24 poultry houses by his count, as of late Wednesday.

CFIA secures convictions

 

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has secured convictions against Roger Snow and company 299614 Alberta Ltd.

 

The first offence was for the obstruction or hindering of a CFIA inspector by failing to provide requested information.

The second conviction was for advertising hemp hearts in a manner that suggested it was Health Canada-licenced which was false.

China already bought 10 boatloads of canola

Chinese importers have already bought at least 10 boatloads of Canadian canola cargoes following Prime Minister Mark Carney recent visit to China where he announced China’s tariffs on Canadian canola, oil and meal will end March 1 and that Canada will allow up to 49,000 Chinese electrical vehicles into Canada at about six per cent tariff instead of the 100 per cent tariff that went into place after the U.S. placed a similar tariff on Chinese 

Each boat will carry about 65,000 tonnes of canola.

“It is easy to get Canadian canola into the Chinese market. Crushers have gone ahead and booked these cargoes,” said one of the sources at an international agricultural company told Reuters news agency.

CFIA cuts imperil food safety

 

The Canadian Agriculture Union said cutting 1,371 jobs at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency imperils food safety.

The union represents 4,500 of the approximately 6,400 CFIA employees.

“More people will get sick from preventable food-borne illnesses, more poultry and livestock will die from avian flu and other diseases, and our food production industry will suffer,” said union president Milton Dyck.

The union said staffing at CFIA has declined by three per cent in the last decade compared to the a 30 per cent increase in the federal public service.

United States president Donald Trump’s administration also made big cuts to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and Dyck said that puts the quality of imported food in doubt.

Dyck said food recalls rose by 150 per cent in the last decade. Many of the recalls are the result of CFIA testing for food-poisoning bacteria and undeclared allergens.

PED up in Ontario, down in Manitoba

While Ontario is experiencing new outbreaks of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus weekly, Manitoba has cut its outbreaks to only four last year after challenges in 2017, 2019 and 2021-22.

The Manitoba pork producers’ association credits a sustained focus on biocontainment and practical biosecurity.

Biosecurity is measures taken to keep diseases out of barns. Biocontainment is measures taken to prevent disease spreading inside barns.

According to Jenelle Hamblin, director of swine health fo® Manitoba Pork, the improvement reflects the success of the province’s PED elimination plan, particularly its prevention pillar.

Rather than applying a one-size-fits-all approach, farms worked closely with veterinarians to identify site-specific improvements, with particular emphasis on entry and exit protocols—how people, equipment, and materials move onto and off the farm.

A key priority, Hamblin explains, was ensuring biosecurity protocols were sustainable and practical, allowing staff to follow them consistently without adding unnecessary complexity to daily operations.

One of the most impactful shifts has been a stronger emphasis on biocontainment.

By practicing biocontainment measures every day—regardless of whether a disease is present—farms are better positioned to respond immediately if an infection does occur. Hamblin said that having biocontainment protocols already in place before disease detection significantly reduces the risk of inadvertently spreading infection within or between sites.

This proactive approach helps limit disease movement during the most critical early stages, when risks are often highest.

Hamblin said the measurable reduction in PED cases has reinforced confidence across the sector and motivated producers and staff to continue strengthening biosecurity and biocontainment practices.

The experience in Manitoba highlights how consistent, practical biosecurity—supported by industry coordination and veterinary collaboration—can deliver long-term disease control results, even for pathogens that have historically caused recurring challenges, said Manitoba Pork.

Tony McQuail still in NDP leadership race

 Tony McQuail remains in the race for leader of the New Democratic Party after raising the needed $25,000 to meet the party’s requirements for candidates.

The next hurdle is another $33,000 by Jan. 28.

McQuail is an ecological farmer from Lucknow who has used horses instead of diesel-guzzling motors and who once served as executive assistant to former Ontario Agriculture Minister Elmer Buchanan.

He said he is running because he wants to improve the quality of life so every Canadian has the basic needs for water, food, shelter, clothing, healthcare and education.

 His vision is a caring, and compassionate country, both for its residents at home and to the broader world community.

"People are starting to understand that the economy has been designed to concentrate wealth into fewer and fewer hands. That's not working out very well for us as a Canadian society, and we need to develop a more distributive economy."

McQuail would like to see the federal government work with provinces, municipalities, housing cooperatives and housing non-profits to build affordable and inclusive ecological housing.

He said it's time to ensure that one full time job can cover the basic cost of living with a fair tax system and a universal basic income.

"We need to start really looking at regeneration, and how do we heal the damage that we've done to our life support system, the planet earth," he said.

He also wants electoral reform so there is proportional representation, not first-past-the-post on an individual riding basis. Under a proportionate system, some of the politicians chosen would reflect the percentages of votes for qualified parties on a nation-wide basis.

The NDP leadership convention will be in Winnipeg in March.

Farmers Union condemns agriculture cuts

 

 

The National Farmers Union (NFU) has condemned the federal cuts of about 675 staff and seven research facilities.

The cuts mean “Canada will be foreclosing on the discovery, problem-solving, and knowledge-base that would have been created by these institutions, leaving us more vulnerable with fewer options,” the NFU said in a news release.

Policy vice-president Phil Mount said “we need more investment, not less, in our public research institutions and personnel. The planned cuts would remove about $154 million from AAFC’s annual budget, but this is a false economy. 

“Cutting our capacity to address known and emerging agriculture problems will be far more costly. For just one example, agricultural economist Dr. Richard Gray has shown that there is a $35 return to farmers and the public for every dollar invested in public plant breeding.”

The NFU also noted that farmers have partnered with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) by putting tens of millions of check-off dollars into these research projects, as has the Western Grains Research Foundation (WGRF) which allocates money indirectly contributed by farmers.

 

“Closing these AAFC facilities will make it that much harder to find institutions with the capacity to utilize these funds,” said Terry Boehm, NFU representative on the WGRF.

President Jenn Pfenning of New Hamburg, ONt., said “cutting the Organic and Regenerative Research Program at the Swift Current Research Centre, the sustainable livestock programs at Lacombe and the Nappan Research Farm, along with the agro-ecosystem resilience research at Quebec City, weakens Canada’s ability to deal with climate change impacts and biodiversity loss. 

“Research is needed to develop the best kinds of solutions that will be cost-effective for farmers and help us strengthen our food sovereignty.”

By comparison, the Canadian Federation of Agriculture president Keith Currie withheld criticism and said seeking efficiencies is understandable.

He said farmers ”scratch our heads over some of the AAFC research projects.

CFIA suspends shipper’s licence

 

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has suspended the licence of 7N3JGLG8 of 9259-8796 Québec Inc.

According to online information, it’s a water transport company.

Two added to Species at Risk board

 Two people have been appointed to three-year terms on the Species at Risk advisory committee.

Dr. Ashley Thomson  of Thunder Bay has been re-appointed vice-chair. She is an associate professor in the faculty of Natural Resources Management at Lakehead University and a registered professional forester in Ontario. She specializes in forest and wildlife genetics, with research focused on population and conservation genomics of boreal species such as woodland caribou and black spruce.

Megan Thompson, also of Thunder Bay, is a new appointee.

She is an aquatic researcher at Thompson Aquatic Consulting.

The committee's recommendations might call for farm management practices to protect species' habitat.

Interest rates may decline says FCC economist

Interest rates may decline again this year, Krishen Rangasamy, principal economist with FCC, said at its 2026 Economic Outlook.

“I understand that what we’re saying here is quite different from consensus on interest rates, because most forecasters are predicting either no change to the overnight rate or even an increase later this year,” he said.

“That may well be the right forecast if the economy picks up materially. But … we think economic growth will weaken this year and  if we’re correct about that, additional stimulus by the central bank should not be ruled out.”

He expects U.S. tariffs to remain high and said Canadians should do more to take advantage of trade agreements with countries other than the United States.

He also said some Canadians are not taking advantage of tariff-free status contained in the Canada-U.S.-Mexico trade agreement and are paying a Trump-announced tariff on expots to the U.S.

He said it’s due to confusion over rules of origin requirements.

“Remember that the majority of our exports to the U.S. is tariff-free thanks to CUSMA, and yet, outside of the energy sector, our exporters have really struggled since the U.S. tariffs were imposed,” he said.

“Over the last eight years (EU) exports grew by 40 per cent to Canada. Our exports to the European Union have barely budged over that eight-year period,” he said. “So we’re struggling to even take advantage of the trade deals we’ve got already.”

Metro sales up, profits down

Metro Inc., Canada’s third-largest supermarket business, reported a 3.3 per cent increase in sales, but a 12.8 per cent decline in net revenues last year.

Profits took a hit because its frozen foods distribution centre in Toronto was down for several months.

The company said its prices increased less than the national five per cent food inflation rate last year, but did say what its percentage increase was.

When it posted its financials for the year, it also announced an increase in dividends for shareholders.   

                  

 

Farmers’ Market set a record

 

The St. Jacobs Farmers’ Market had a record 1.6 million visitors last year, about 30 per cent more than the year before.

Michele Saran, the chief executive officer of Explore Waterloo Region, said tourism to the Waterloo Region was up as many Canadians boycotted the United States because they don’t like U.S. President Donald Trump and the tariffs he imposed on Canadian exporters.

She said final numbers are not yet confirmed, but the region saw an increase in tourists from the year before with a vast majority of people coming from the Toronto area as well as southern and southwestern Ontario

.She said in 2024, there were about five million visitors to the region who spent about $829 million. She said last year’s final tallies from the organization’s 500 members are not yet in, but there were significant increases for the first three quarters of the year.

Joanna Loebach, the general manager of the St. Jacobs Market District, said  "it was a crazy year for us for sure. Our best year on record. Our attendance for the year was at 1.6 million. For us, that represents a 30 per cent growth over 2024."

Saran and Loebach made their comments on CBC Radio in Kitchener.

AAFC cuts impact 1,000-plus staff, union says

 

The Agriculture Union which represents workers at the federal agriculture department said the government cuts will impact “roughly 1,043” people.

That’s far more than the department’s announcement that 650 will be cut.

The union also said it got no advance notice of the plans to close seven research facilities and no details about any of the layoffs.

It said the cuts are not fair because Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada already decreased its employee count by 14 per cent between 2012 and 2025 while the government’s total staffing increased by 30 per cent.

“Our union represents 2,500 employees at AAFC, all of whom are essential to the health and resilience of our agricultural sector,” the union said.

It said 494 of its members are affected by this round of cuts.

“Our AAFC members are the backbone of Canadian agriculture research. They assist farmers by mitigating the impacts of climate change and drought, performing groundbreaking research, and keeping our food production industries competitive on a global scale."

“These cuts will sabotage important gains we’ve made in agricultural research and set research on Canadian food products back by decades,” said Milton Dyck, national president of the Agriculture Union. 

“We have been warning the federal government for months about cutting an already-decimated department. There is simply no more room to cut,” he said.

Swine vets say new vaccines could help

 Vaccines to control bacterial diseases would bring major benefits, a survey of 19 swine veterinarians across the United States has found.

The results identified Streptococcus suis, Escherichia coli, Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae, and Glaesserella parasuis as the most critical pathogens needing improved vaccines. 

Veterinarians anticipated significant improvements in vaccine efficacy for S. suis and E. coli during the nursery stage and expressed a willingness to pay almost two per cent more than current prices.

While expectations for M. hyo vaccine improvements were not significant, veterinarians expressed the willingness to pay 4.2 times the current price because it could eradicate this disease.

One of the major benefits would be reduction of antibiotics to control these diseases.

Trucks’ electricity demand over-estimated

 A study by the Pembina Institute found that electricity demand for electric trucks has been overestimated resulting in calls for 60 to 75 per cent more infrastructure than could be needed.

The study shows that if Toronto reaches a 35 per cent electric truck share by 2030, electric medium- and heavy-duty vehicles would account for less than 1.5 per cent of current daily electricity consumption and peak demand. That increase falls well within normal day-to-day fluctuations on the grid.  

The research also found that focusing early electrification on lighter trucks, targeting charger deployment to high-traffic locations, enabling shared charging across fleets and shifting more charging to overnight depot locations, cities can significantly reduce infrastructure costs without slowing adoption. 

Across Toronto, Brampton, Mississauga, Hamilton and Markham, these strategies together could cut total charging infrastructure costs by 60 to 75 per cent by 2030, the report said. That represents roughly $1 billion in cumulative investment savings.  

“When planning assumes that light delivery vans and heavy long-haul trucks electrify at the same rate, it overstates near-term electricity demand and charger costs,” said Chandan Bhardwaj, senior transportation analyst with the Pembina Institute.

“Our analysis of real-world truck travel data shows that early electrification is led by lighter trucks, which require far less charging power. That distinction has major implications for how municipalities and utilities plan grid investment today,” he said.

This is the first study of electrification of trucks in Canada.

Pizza Pops on recall

 

Ten types of Pillsbury Pizza Pops are on recall because they might be contaminated with E. coli food-poisoning bacteria.

Health Canada reports that 23 people from coast to coast have been infected. Two are in Ontario.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency tested the Pizza Pops and identified the bacterial contamination.

Fed’s Guelph research centre to close

The federal agriculture department said a research center in Guelph is one of seven research centres across Canada that intends to close.

The only Agriculture and Agri-Food research centre in Guelph was opened in 1997. 

Other main research centers on the hit list are at Quebec City and Lacombe, Alta.

Satellite research farms at Nappan, N.S., Scott, Sask., Indian Head, Sask. and Portage la Prairie, Man., will also close.

 

The AAFC said it will remain Canada’s largest agricultural research organization, with 17 research centres nationwide and research farmland in every province. 

There are no imminent site closures, and any wind-down of scientific operations would follow a careful decision process that could take up to 12 months. Many employees may be retained, reassigned, or relocated. It is too early to determine final workforce impacts.

 

Keith Currie, President of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) called the cutbacks a “necessary evil”.

“There’s nothing wrong with efficiencies,” Currie said. “And if … there were hirings that didn’t make sense, taking a look at it and getting leaner and meaner, I think that’s what we do in business. That’s what you do on our farms.”

Tyler McCann, managing director of the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute told a reporter for Glacier News “hopefully this reminds everyone else in the ag ecosystem that research and development and innovation is critical to competitiveness, and we need to double down on making that a priority going forward.”

It could be a chance for the AAFC to do more with less. McCann said there is an argument to be made that the department “had too broad of a research footprint for the research funding envelope that they had.

“What will determine whether or not we can be competitive at a time of cuts is whether or not they’re going to make other changes to how they fund and do research to streamline and improve the efficiency of the work that they do.

“That is a real opportunity for governments and the stakeholder community around them to double down on innovation and to say, yes, we know that (AAFC) shrank its footprint, but in the Next Policy Framework, for the next five years, governments are going to commit more resources and more energy and more focus to innovation,” McCann said.

The Canadian Wheat Research Coalition said the staff cuts and resulting impacts are a tremendous loss for the industry.

“It is a loss of not only expertise and people who have contributed to farmers’ success, but also of agricultural research capacity that is crucial to fueling innovation and maintaining progress throughout the industry,” said chair Jocelyn Velestuk in a news release.

The feds have been chipping away on research for 75 years, forgetting that it was once the nation's largest and oldest research institutions and responsible for Canada's world lead in agriculture quality and success.

During that same 75 years subsidies and supply management have taken precedence and Canada's leadership has been lost.