Farm efficiency subsidy extended

 

The federal and provincial governments are offering $12 million in a program aimed at helping farmers improve energy efficiency and soil health.

The Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership is offering between $6,000 and $90,000 for projects that support soil health, water quality and energy efficiency improvements, including replacing inefficient on-farm technologies, installing geothermal heating and adopting high-efficiency motor, ventilation, heating, cooling, refrigeration, grain drying and lighting systems. 

This is the fourth intake of the program and builds on the $15.5 million already invested to support approximately 1,000 projects since 2023.

                           

Lawyer to head Animal Review Board.

 

Brian Killick of Sarnia has been appointed to a two-year terms as associate chairman of the Animal Care Review Board.

He is a former staff lawyer with Neighbourhood Legal Services in London and at Community Legal Assistance in Sarnia. 

He is also a former Paralegal Program Professor at Sheridan College. 

The review board hears appeals from owners whose animals have been seized because they were allegedly being abused.

The board membership has many lawyers.

NFU decries Swift Current destruction

The National Farmers Union (NFU) is calling for an independent audit of organic-farmed plots at the Swift Current, Sask. research station and restoration of the land to organic standards.

The government abandoned the organic-farmed area and planted wheat this year.

The NFU said when the cuts were announced, the government said there would be a careful, 12-month wind-down period to permit the completion of research in progress, transfer of assets and preservation of data. 

But the destruction of the organic research project lands at Swift Current is a betrayal of those assurances, and deeply disrespectful of Parliament, as it pre-empts the government’s official response to the Agriculture Committee report which has not yet been tabled in Parliament.

Farmers made investments in the organic research yet they had no say in the decisions that interrupted ongoing work, and have  made it impossible to go ahead with commitments for planned organic research, the NFU said.

The Organic and Regenerative Agriculture program at Swift Current has supported farmer-led alternative plant breeding and addresses urgent problems of climate adaptation, reduced-input production, disease issues, and others faced by all farmers, organic and conventional alike, the NFU said.

The program held well-attended annual field days to communicate its results to the farming community and other researchers. 

The Organic and Regenerative Research program is needed to develop and share critical knowledge for a strong agriculture sector, a prosperous economy and Canada’s future food security, it said.

After an independent audit and restoration of the land to organic farming standards, the NFU wants “a formal commitment to a multi-year, supervised remediation process required to rehabilitate the soil structure, address the disruption of biological integrity, and mitigate the damage caused by the loss and mixing of distinct treatment, crop, and soil histories so that valid organic research can safely resume in the future.”

Why is the Canadian Federation of Agriculture silent?

Carney offers $1 billion for food terminals

 

Prime Minister Mark Carney was at the Ontario Food Terminal where he announced $1 billion for food terminals, including the one where he made the announcement.

He said two more food terminals will be established to help Canadian farmers market their produce.

He said the $1 billion adds to $2.3 billion being spent to help lower-income Canadians afford food.

It also includes $150 million toward a new food security fund, $100 million for supporting global innovation clusters and a $1-billion Agri-Food Project Finance Fund to be delivered through Farm Credit Canada.

The government aims to increase Canadian consumption of domestically produced and processed food from 70 to 80 per cent and he GDP growth of the food processing industry from 1.6 per cent a year to 2.75 per cent between 2027 and 2035.

It’s not clear whether two food wholesale operations in the Waterloo Region might qualify for some of the.$1 billion.

One is the Elmira Produce Auction Cooperate Inc. which wholesales food from Mennonite farms and greenhouses.

The other is St. Jacobs Foods which was purchased by Richard and Sherri Good and moved to New Hamburg.

Four rabid bats detected

 

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency confirmed four cases of rabies in bats in Ontario during May.

Nationally there were 28 confirmations of rabies in animals, including 19 racoons in Quebec.

Mexico bans U.S. livestock

Mexico will stop most imports of live animals from the United States because New World screwworms were found in Texas and New Mexico,.

It’s a case of the pot calling the kettle black because the U.S. screwworms were probably from Mexico which has registered more than 28,200 cases of screwworm since November 2024.

Mexico said it is protecting its cattle herd in the northern states of Baja California, Baja California Sur, Chihuahua and Sinaloa, where there are currently no confirmed cases of screwworm.

Dairy farm fined for manure pollution

 

Henro Dairy Farms Ltd., in Blanford-Blenheim has been fined $270,000 plus a $67,500 victim surcharge for a manure spill that killed about 1,700 fish along a three-kilometre ditch and waterway.

The farm’s manure storage overflowed.

Lactalis milk on recall

Lactalis Canada is recalling its Lactantia UltraPur 2% Protein milk because it has been too heavily supplemented with Vitamins D and A.

Much of it was sold in Costco stores in May and June.

It’s lactose-free milk is also on recall. 

Both were packaged in two-litre cartons.

There is no food safety risk with these milks.

The federal government requires milk to be fortified with Vitamins D and A.

Lactalis said only one batch of milk is involved in the recall.

CFIA tallies 19 avian flu outbreaks

 

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency reported there have been 19 outbreaks of highly-;pathogenic avian influenza in the first five months of this year.

One of them was in Amherstburg Township, Ont., in February.

There have also been five cases of chronic wasting disease and five of equine infectious anemia, none of them in Ontario.

Goat milk marketing board approved

More than two-thirds of Ontario’s goat milk producers have voted in favour of setting up a marketing board so the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission has granted its approval.

The board will be able to charge a fee on goat-milk marketing to fund research and promotion programs.

It will not have supply-management power.

“The creation of a new statutory organization for Ontario’s dairy goat sector is one of the most significant governance changes the industry has faced in decades,” said Michele Bowering, Ontario Goat president. 

“Of additional concern is the fact that a significant number of eligible producers from Amish and Mennonite communities were unable to participate in the vote due to religious objections to voting.”

She said calling it a marketing board prompted concerns from about 200 goat-milk producers in the province, but she said it’s really just an association with power to raise money for research and promotion.

Agropur recalls Costco organic milk

Sanitizer contaminated a batch of one per cent milk Agropur made for Costco, so the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said it’s under recall.

The product involved in the recall is the Kirkland Signature brand Organic 1% Partly Skimmed Milk, sold in packs of three one-litre pouches.

According to the official regulatory filing, the milk carries a best-before date of July 12, 2026 and the plant registration code 1490.

Some milk from the Agropur batch was also distributed by other retailers.

The CFIA said consuming milk contaminated with these chemical agents can cause immediate gastrointestinal distress, burning sensations, or nausea.

There have been no officially verified reports of consumer illnesses or adverse medical events linked to consumption. 

Costco Canada used its membership networks to alert shoppers who purchased the specific organic milk lot to immediately halt consumption. 

Retail managers are authorizing full corporate refunds upon the return of the merchandise to local warehouses.

Japanese soy milk targets U.S. market

The Japanese Soy Milk Exchange (JSME) has launched a campaign in the United States.

It brings together soybean innovators, culinary experts, nutrition professionals and food industry executives to introduce Japanese soy milk.

JMSE will establish Japanese soy milk as a distinct premium category in the U.S. and serve as its authoritative voice, educating consumers on what sets it apart from other soy milks, the organizers wrote in a news release.

It said soy is at the heart of Japan’s food culture, and Japanese soy milk is rooted in centuries of craftsmanship. 

It’s made with soybeans grown in North America, using specialized Japanese technology and processing methods that ensure a silky texture, mild scent and subtly nutty flavor, it said.

Nutritionally, Japanese soy milk is comparable to dairy milk with nine to 10 grams of plant protein per serving and about half the carbohydrates of cows’ milk.

Dyson’s pioneering new strawberry growing system

James Dyson, best known for inventing a new type of vacuum cleaner, is applying his inventive nature to growing strawberries. He wants to grow strawberries year-round and is conducting research at a greenhouse in Carrington where the plants are tended in a series of vertical wheels that resemble a carousel, each about 78 feet long and 16 feet tall populated with 1,225 plants.

Sensors measure photosynthetically active radiation, humidity, carbon dioxide, and temperature and determining when to supplement sunlight with LED lighting and when to adjust the growing environment.  Robots patrol the aisles emitting ultra-violet light to suppress mould so chemical pesticides are not needed.  Machine s detect ripe berries which are harvested by 16 robot arms. The farm harvests 200,000 strawberries a month.  The whole operation runs on a closed-loop energy system: crops from surrounding fields are fed into onsite anaerobic digesters that convert organic matter into biogas, which powers turbines generating enough renewable electricity to run the facility.  The excess heat from those turbines maintains the greenhouse temperature.  Rainwater captured from the roof irrigates the plants. The vertical growing system has increased yields to two and a half times conventional methods.

Almost half of the food consumed in Britain is imported, and the UK produces only 16 percent of the fruit it eats. The same instinct that led Dyson to spend years redesigning the vacuum cleaner because he thought the existing one was needlessly inefficient is now pointed at a food system that imports strawberries from Morocco in February when the engineering to grow them fifty miles from their point of sale already exists.  He owns 36,000 acres across Lincolnshire, the East Midlands of England, and Scotland and grows wheat, potatoes, and oilseed rape. Plus strawberries.

Screwworms might cost Texas $1.8 billion

The United States Department of Agriculture said the last time screwworms got into Texas, it cost Texas $283 to $375 million in the 1970s.

Adjusted for inflation, that would be $733 million lost by ranchers every year and a total of $1.8 billion by the time the pests could be wiped out.

The agency cautioned that direct comparisons are difficult because livestock inventories, veterinary practices and response capabilities have changed significantly over the last five decades. 

Texas’s cattle inventory now exceeds 12 million head, compared with about 7.2 million during the 1976 outbreak, while sheep and goat inventories have declined substantially.

Egg levies have changed

 

The National Farm Products Council has approved changes to egg levies in four provinces.

Ontario’s levy is now 44.45 cent a dozen, Quebec’s 48.05, New Brunswick’s 51.55 and Alberta 51.05.

The national agency increased its levy by six cents a dozen in mid-April and now the provincial levies have been amended

Canada bans cattle from Texas

Canada has banned cattle from Texas because two New World Screwworms have crossed the border from Mexico.

The worms lay eggs and when the larvae hatch, they burrow into flesh, including not only cattle, but also humans.

In response to last week’s discovery of New World screwworm in Texas, Canada has banned livestock imports from the state.

“Animals that originate from or were present in the State of Texas within 21 days prior to border crossing will not be accepted into Canada,” the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) stated in a release. “

States including Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and Montana have issued emergency regulations tightening veterinary requirements for imports of livestock from Texas.

Derrell Peel, Oklahoma State University’s extension livestock marketing specialist, described Canada’s import ban as “a largely symbolic political move as it will affect a very small volume of trade.”

After originating in Panama in 2022 and spreading north through Mexico in the ensuing years, New World Screwworms were found on June 3 in Texas, then later one in New Mexico and another one in Texas.

This is from Facebook

Chapman's Ice Cream just did something EVERY Canadian needs to hear about.

Canada's largest ice cream company used to source their fruits and nuts from US suppliers — some for over 30 YEARS. Then Trump slapped a 25% tariff on Canadian goods.

So what did Chapman's do?

➡️ They called Italy.

➡️ They called Spain.

➡️ They signed multi-year contracts with European suppliers.

And the VP said it perfectly:

"Even if Trump wakes up smarter than he did yesterday, we're about to sign lasting agreements with other countries — and the US companies that supply them are going to be out of luck."

Oh, and on top of ALL that? They're FREEZING their prices so average Canadians don't pay a single extra cent.

This is a family-run business. No shareholders. Just the Chapman family saying: "The least we can do is make sure Canadians can still afford ice cream."

This is what Canadian corporate pride looks like.

Next time you're at the grocery store — grab a Chapman's.
Every scoop is a vote for Canada.

TAG a Canadian who needs to see this!

SHARE if you're proud to be Canadian!

Another housing option for sows

Australians are using Maternity Ring technology for housing gestating sows as an alternative to gestation crates which have been attacked by animal welfare organizations and has resulted in some downstream industry bans.

Many North Americans have switched to loose housing, but Dr. George Charbonneau said typically the perception is that the increased behavioural freedom of sows results in an unacceptable level of piglet mortality. 

Many of the loose housing farrowing designs have a floor footprint (space) that is often 50 per cent greater than a standard farrowing crate per pen footprint., he wrote on the swineweb website.

This larger footprint continues to be one of the impediments to the adoption of confinement-free farrowing. 

The Maternity Ring (MR), is a farrowing system with a similar footprint to a conventional farrowing crate and pen. The Maternity Ring is in use in Australia but its performance, particularly with regard to piglet survival, has not yet been studied in a controlled experiment. 

A team of Australian researchers wanted to determine whether piglet mortality differed between farrowing crates and Maternity Rings. 

First-parity sows were recruited over 12 months and randomly allocated to one of the two treatments: farrowing crate (FC) and Maternity Ring.

The researchers found:

·       There was no difference in total pigs born, pigs born alive, or the number of pigs weaned between the two treatments.

·       There was a tendency for a 0.3-pig-per-litter increase in pre-foster mortality in MR sows, but pigs born dead, post-foster deaths, liveborn mortality, and total deaths were similar to FC sows.

·       Piglet removal for ill thrift was zero.

·       The incidence of medications in sows was six per cent in MR and 15 per cent in FC.

·       MR housing achieved comparable liveborn piglet mortality to FC first-parity sows. Future studies should test whether this performance is repeatable as sows are managed across multiple parities.

Charlebois said the reduced medication needs for MR housing offset a slightly higher mortality rate.

He noted that the MR was installed in the same amount of floor space as the conventional farrowing crate and should provide a commercially viable, close-confinement-free option to replace the traditional farrowing crate. 

This study examined only first parity sows and would need to be repeated in older parities, he said.

Chicken prices rising

Despite record-high production targets set by the national Chicken Farmers of Canada marketing agency, there is a shortage of chicken.

Since a year ago the wholesale price of some chicken products has increased by approximately 12 per cent. 

In April, the consumer price for fresh or frozen chicken rose 2.6 per cent, year-over-year. It was the first time since September, 2025, that annual price hikes dipped below 5 per cent.

Farmers get paid prices that reflect production costs, so they are not pocketing higher profits other than through increased volume.

And chicken farmers are unable to fully respond because there is a shortage of chicks, the result of avian influenza wiping out some hatching egg flocks and a lagging response to increased demand.

Higher prices for beef – up by 23 per cent from the five-year average – is driving demand for chicken.

“We’re just seeing more and more production, and higher and higher prices. It’s the exact opposite of what you learned in grade 11 economics,” said market analyst Kevin Grier.

“Nobody should expect lower chicken prices. Period.”

NFU raises alarms over CFIA

 

The National Farmers Union is raising alarms over provisions in the Liberal government’s budget bill that would allow it to waive Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Pest Product regulations to protect national security or regional economic security.

Neither of those situations are defined in the proposed legislation.

The NFU said “the bill contains a section that would permit Cabinet to override all of the laws under the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s (CFIA) authority – except for the Plant Breeders Rights Act.

 The bill would allow Cabinet to “exempt persons, things or activities, or classes of persons, things or activities” from any provision of these laws or regulations for up to six years if “necessary to protect national economic security, regional economic security or national food security” as long as it is “not likely to pose an unreasonable risk to food safety, animal health, plant health, human health or the environment”.

No definitions or parameters regarding “economic security”, “national food security” or “unreasonable risk” are provided, so this clause would be used entirely at the discretion of Cabinet, the NFU said.

“It unnecessarily politicizes the legal framework governing our food, health and environmental safety and invites self-interested corporations to lobby Cabinet members for exemptions that would be against the public interest.,” the NFU said.

Cabinet deliberations are kept confidential for twenty years, so any considerations leading to exemptions from CFIA laws or regulations would be non-transparent. And because it is rare for governments to reduce their powers, once these amendments are enacted, they will be available to all future governments.

The NFU then outlines some scenarios and asks questions.

If there were no consequences for cutting corners there would be a race to the bottom: the least responsible companies would become the most profitable, and it would be children, families, farmers and ecosystems that would bear the costs. 

It would have ripple effects on our healthcare system, the productivity of our farms and the integrity of our environment. 

An intact, public-interest focused regulatory framework reduces societal costs, sets standards fairly and distributes benefits to improve everyone’s well-being.

Would Cabinet use Bill C-30’s provisions to allow imports of food that does not meet Canadian standards for food safety? Would Cabinet allow importation of livestock and plants that could spread disease or infestations that cause losses for farmers and lead to export bans?  

Would Cabinet suspend inspections of crop exports sales, leading to potential violations and contamination incidents that could close markets? 

How much in-house expertise would be lost if CFIA personnel are terminated during exemption periods? 

Would those who gain from exemptions use the six-year period to lobby for legislation to make these changes permanent? 

Public trust is a critical element of our food system which the proposed amendment undermines.

If Canada is vulnerable to economic and food security crises, the answer is not deregulation., the NFU said.

The federal government needs to address root causes, including lack of infrastructure for local and regional food processing, storage and distribution, high input costs and low prices for commodity producers, excess corporate concentration, and financialization of both farmland and housing.

It's worth remembering that Adolf Hitler needed no new laws or regulations to impose his will on the German people. He misused the laws already on the books.

                 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inflation is widespread

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development reported that energy prices in April rose by 5.1 per cent and food prices by 0.4 per cent on average in its 23 member countries.

That brought food prices up by four per cent from last year and energy prices up by 13.2 per cent.

Inflation rates in Canada, the United States, France, Germany and Italy are now increasing at the highest rates since May 2023 in the aftermath of massive government spending to offset economic challenges related to the COVIC-19 pandemic.

Screwworms detected in Texas

Officials are clamping down on cattle movements in Texas following discovery of New World screwworms in a pasture.

The pest has been moving north in Mexico up to the United States border and has now crossed it.

The North American Meat reacted by assuring the public that beef is safe to eat. It said screwworms are not a food safety issue.

The institute said “our first priority is to protect the health of the nation’s livestock. We are encouraging members of the Meat Institute to work with local, state and federal authorities to detect and irradicate the pest.”

The United States Department of Agriculture "has been working hard to prevent and respond to New World Screwworm. For a year now they have improved biosecurity by investing in protections and treatments and coordinating rapid response. 

"We will look to USDA to brief industry stakeholders and call on them to consider allowing low risk terminal movements for slaughter to ensure animals continue to be processed,” the Institute said.

The pests enter livestock and people through open wounds, eyes, noe, ears and mouths and lay eggs that hatch into maggots that feed on flesh and are painful and foul smelling.

Appeal overturns animal activist snooping

 

The Ontario Court of Appeal has sided with farmers and overturned a lower court ruling that blockd the province’s law against farm trespassing by animal activists.

The so-called gag law was opposed by animal activist groups who want the right to snoop on farms as “under-cover agents”

Lawyer Kaitlyn Mitchell, director of legal advocacy at Animal Justice, said "without laws to protect farmed animals or meaningful oversight, undercover investigations and brave employee whistleblowers are the only way the public can learn the truth about how animals live on large industrial farms and die in slaughterhouses. 

“The public deserves to know how vulnerable animals are being treated behind closed doors," Mitchell said.

Farmers asked the government to pass the law in 2020 against trespassing and snooping on livestock and poultry farms.

The news release from the organization is riddled with overblown rhetoric that skirts the edges of truth.

They would do more good by using their resources and undercover snooping skills to check out homeless encampment for human abuses.

They’re more than the farmer’s wife

A new study from the University of Guelph says women's mental health is further strained by visible and invisible workloads/

They also lack recognition, often referred to as the farmer’s wife, not a farmer.

Jennifer Schooley, president of the Norfolk County Federation of Agriculture told CBC News that one of the more frustrating aspects of being a farmer are the assumptions people make about her as a woman in the agricultural industry.

"Growing up and watching that and the work (her mother and grandmother) put into it, I had no desire to farm because it's a lot of hard work for not a lot of money and it's a thankless job," she said.

It was during the pandemic Schooley decided to get behind the wheel of the family tractor to help her aging parents.

Now she has been able to host talks about life as a female farmer.

"It's a great opportunity to get the conversation started and it's a wonderful opportunity to reflect on the words that [other farmers] use and gender assumptions that they have when working with women in farming," she said.

"You're not just farming outside, but you're also the wife, the mother, most often the dinner maker, the clothes cleaner, the doctor taker, you're the peace maker and problem solver, the school liaison," she said. 

"You're still having all these roles and expectations on you and that can be a lot to juggle."

Andria Jones and her team at the University of Guelph have released studies in the past about the vulnerability of farmer's mental health and found that women were scoring higher in stress, depression, anxiety and burn out.

"Even with supportive partners, the management of the household often falls to them, so all of that combined with on farm work, off-farm work, plus being the chief executive officers of the household makes for very full days and a lot of stress."

Kristin Wheatcroft, director of Agriculture Wellness Ontario, said her organization regularly hears from women who are balancing not only farm operations and work, but family responsibilities, off-farm employment and the weight of supporting those around them.

"Acknowledging these challenges is an important step toward fostering healthier, more supportive farm families, workplaces and rural communities," Wheatcroft said.

It's especially important to address the mental health of female farmers as the number of women choosing careers in agriculture continues to grow.

 

And while there has been some progress made to recognize women for their roles in Canadian agriculture, there's still more to do, Jones said.

"We still have a ways to go. Presently, women make up 30 per cent of the Canadian farming population and I'm not entirely sure we see that reflected in things like leadership positions," she said.

Province supports Farmers Week

 

 This is the United Nations’ International Year of the Woman Farmer and the Local Food Week in Ontario, so the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness is recognizing farmers, food processors and agribusinesses.

“A strong local food supply is critical to the security of our province. When we choose to buy food grown and made in Ontario, we are helping to protect Ontario’s food independence,” said Ontario Agriculture Minister Trevor Jones. “Thank you to the farmers, food processors and people across the sector whose world-class food helps feed our province and the world.”

The agriculture ministry has issued the 2026 Local Food Report and has drawn special attention to:

• Penokean Hills Farms: Five Ontario beef farmers who grew their business into a Simmental-Angus beef brand that supports business across the Algoma region.

• Produce Express: A company sourcing local food for school nutrition programs from a network of more than 300 Ontario producers, farmers and food processors.

• King Cole Ducks: Canada’s largest duck producer, a 100 per cent locally owned, family-run and women-led business.

• Taco House Co: A taco house that pivoted from importing products to sourcing from local farmers in the region.

Goat owners have a say

Goat owners have a say about new traceability regulations put forward by the Canadian Food inspection Agency.

The Canadian Cattle Association and Western Canada’s beef-farmer organizations have pulled out because they say the regulations are too much work.

They require prompt reporting whenever cattle are moved from one property to another.

Dairy Farmers and the Canadian Pork Council have asked for amendments before the regulations become law.

The Canadian National Goat Federation and the Canadian Cervid Alliance support CFIA’s proposals.

It’s in that context that the Ontario Goat association is reminding goat farmers they have an opportunity to offer their opinions about the proposed regulations.

They can e-mail those comments directly to Cecelia Green at national goat federation at cngfinfo@gmail.com.