PED hits Waterloo farm

 

Swine Health Ontario reported an outbreak of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus at a hog finishing barn in the Waterloo Region.

It is the first outbreak in Ontario since September 10.

Perth County invites grant applications

Perth County is open for applications for its Stewardship Program Spring 2027.

Past experience indicates the money will soon be snapped up.

The grant program "supports local landowners and community groups in enhancing the natural environment through projects focused on planting windbreaks, block plantings, forest restoration, forest health assessments, and community tree sale events," said a posting on the county website.

Since 2024, the Stewardship Program has had 99 project applications, planted 28,429 trees, and 43 kilometers of windbreaks across Perth County. The 2027 program offers four grant streams:

·       Forest Management: supporting management strategies for woodlots and woodlands.

·       Living Snow Fence: supporting rural landowners planting trees along roads to make a windbreak.

·       Landowner Tree Planting.

·       Community Tree Planting: supporting non-profit community groups that plant trees on public lands.

More information is available online at www.perthcounty.ca/stewardship.

Eleven organic cheeses on recall

Because Canadian Food Inspection testing detected Listeria monocytogenes food-poisoning bacteria, 11 organic cheeses distributed across Canada are on recall.

Four were from Farm Boy stores and six from L'Ancêtre.

There have been no reports of illnesses linked to these cheeses.

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High demand for AI chips for machinery

 

ASML computer company said its customers are already queuing for machines to be delivered in 2030.

That’s because chip makers can’t keep up with demand.

Nigel Green, deVere Group chief executive officer said it is exploring ways to increase its chip-making capacity more than its already planned increase of 30 per cent.

“Everyone’s focused on how much money is pouring into AI,” said Green. 

 “The more useful question is how fast it can actually be spent, and that comes down to how many of these machines get built each year. 

“A trillion-dollar pledge doesn’t mean much if the equipment won’t turn up until 2030.

“Only one company in the world can make the machines the most advanced chips depend on, and there’s a limit to how many it can build. 

“You can raise all the capital you like, but if the equipment isn’t there, the money sits and waits.”

 

Hackers attack European grocers

 

Hackers raised the temperature of refrigerators and freezers at hundreds of French supermarkets to as high as 50 degrees overnight, causing fires ‌and spoiling food.

The spoilage is estimated to be tens of millions of Euros.

Félix Aimé, a senior ​cyber threat intelligence analyst at Sekoia Threat Detection and Research, said Spain, Portugal, Poland, Germany and Belgium ​had also been affected.

Carrefour said 80 of its supermarkets were hit, while Monoprix, which operates about 490 stores in France, said five per cent of its stores were affected.

Les Mousquetaires, owner of retailer Intermarché, said fridges at around 150 of its stores were heated up to 50 ​C for six hours overnight. A spokesperson said all affected food had been discarded to eliminate health risks.

Coopérative U’s chief executive officer (CEO) Dominique Schelcher said his supermarket group had also been targeted.

Intermarché CEO Thierry Cotillard told BFM TV ⁠the "unprecedented" attack would represent losses amounting to "tens of millions of euros nationwide in a single day."

The attacks resemble disruptions ⁠reported at about a dozen U.S. military commissaries in late August that led to food losses after fridges were affected.

Dutch ​retailer Ahold Delhaize, which operates the Netherlands's largest supermarket chain Albert Heijn and has major operations in the U.S., said it was dealing with a "security issue" on its network and ​had taken several systems offline as a precaution.

A message ⁠on the retailer's smartphone app said it was unable to deliver groceries because of a "cybersecurity incident."

Online orders account for about 10 per cent of Albert Heijn sales. Physical stores remained open, while Dutch news agency ANP reported that rival retailers had seen a surge in delivery orders.

Ahold Delhaize said there was no reason to see a link between the incidents in France and its supermarkets.

Another round of government subsidies

 

The federal and provincial governments announced a new round of subsidies to encourage farmers and processors to diversify markets other than the United States.

Ontario Agriculture Minister Sam Oosterhof said in a news release that the money will help more than 130 Ontario farmers and processors sell more Ontario grown products around the world.

This government funding, combined with cost-shared investments by the sector, is expected to generate up to $134 million in investments for

Ontario farmers and processors.

“The Market Diversification and Trade Resiliency Initiative is protecting agri-food jobs and agribusiness resilience in the face of unprovoked tariffs from Donald Trump,” said Oosterhof.

“This $22 million investment is unleashing over $110 million in private sector investment, creating over 900 new good-paying jobs and keeping Ontario’s food supply chain secure, sovereign and self-reliant,” he said.

The news release also highlighted previous projects funded earlier by the federal-provincial program.

Up to $499,000 went to Martin’s Family Farm in Waterloo to develop an innovative packaging line for apple sauce.

Up to $70,000 went to Beck’s Broth in Kitchener to launch new products and expand distribution nationally.

Up to $494,000 went to Lynch Ag Ltd. in Englehart for a handling line, optical sorter and AI enabled grading software to support increased interprovincial and export sales.

Up to $310,000 went to Canada Royal Milk in Kingston for a pulse light system and a shrink wrapper packaging system to diversify beyond Canadian retail markets.

Syngenta picks Jeff Cecil

 

Syngenta has picked Jeff Cecil as president and regional director of North America.

He was a farmer in west Kentucky before beginning his career with Syngenta.

Hee takes over from Vern Hawkins who is retiring after 40 years with Syngenta.

Cecil said “I think the farm economy is troubling. It’s definitely a challenged market space. The geopolitical situation is volatile, and I think that we need to be as stable as we can be through that.”