The Nursery Sod Growers Association of Ontario is seeking marketing board status and wants the province to hold a vote to determine the degree of support among sod growers.
The Ontario Farm Products Marketing Council is proposing to honour that request and has opened a public comment period on that decision.
The deadline to file comments on whether it should conduct a plebiscite is Sept. 1.
Eleven farm workers in Colorado have contracted avian influenza, eight of them while working with chickens, one while working with dairy cattle. Ten of them were this year.
It sets a record as the largest outbreak of avian influenza in people in U.S. history.
The state health agency said It has counted 47 infected cattle herds in the state.
The federal government is giving $500,000 to Dairy Farmers of Canada for its proAction quality assurance program and $3.5 million over five years to bolster DairyTrace.
Federal Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay announced the subsidies during the annual meeting of Dairy Farmers of Canada in Newfoundland.
So much for the dairy industry claims that it takes no government subsidies because supply management is all it needs.d
Semex is gaining $153,846 as one of four semi-finalists in the Agricultural Methane Reduction Challenge organized by the federal agriculture department.
The others are AbacusBio of Alberta, the University of Saskatchewan and TerraWave Radar Solutions of Manitoba.
The semi-finalists can use their winnings to prepare for the choice of the winner next spring.
Loblaws has apologized for an advertisement urging shoppers to bypass farmers’ markets to instead buy from its NoFrills stores.
“The text was meant to direct customers to our NoFrills local summer produce program,” Loblaws said in its apology on X. (formerly Twitter).
“However, the message in the text didn’t match the spirit of the campaign for this we sincerely apologize.”
Loblaws posted a message on July 20 to subscribers to its NoFrills internet flyer saying “Skip the line at the farmers’ market. We have fresh produce at low prices.”
Loblaws and parent company Weston have reached an out-of-court settlement of $500 million to settle a class-action lawsuit over a plot to hike bread prices.
Weston owned both Loblaws and Weston's Bakery at the time of the violations.
The company admitted price-fixing after the federal government filed price-fixing claims in 2015 and Loblaws distributed $25 gift cards to customers.
The other major bread company involved in the scheme was Maple Leaf Foods, at the time headed by Michael McCain; it subsequently sold its Canada Bread business to Grupo Bimbo bakery.
In June of 2023, Canada Bread agreed to pay a $50-million fine to settle its part of the bureau’s investigation, pleading guilty to involvement in the price-fixing scheme.
Parent company Grupo Bimbo, which acquired the business in 2014, acknowledged that Canada Bread had made “arrangements” with senior executives at its competitor, Weston Foods, which led to two wholesale price increases in 2007 and 2011.
Maple Leaf Foods, which owned a majority stake in Canada Bread at the time, has denied unlawful behaviour at Canada Bread while it was a shareholder.
Loblaw and George Weston have also agreed, as part of the settlement, to co-operate with the plaintiffs by providing information about the arrangements, as the lawsuits remain active against other defendants.
The Ontario case, for example, includes as defendants Canada Bread Co. Ltd., Metro Inc., Sobeys Inc., Walmart Canada and Giant Tiger Stores Ltd. Others named in the suit have denied participating in the alleged scheme.