NFU supports food hubs

 

The National Farmers Union has come out in favour of new food hubs but said the federal government’s promise of $432 million spread among dozens of pilot projects would be a mistake because they would collapse after the subsidies end.

Instead what is needed is well-funded hubs that include food-processing ventures with support from local farmers and run as locally-controlled co-operatives, it said.

It should not be food hubs run by large established companies such as Sysco and Gordon’s Food Services, the NFU said.

It also noted that the promise of a Food Link Fund with $1 billion pales when compared with the profits of Canada’s biggest supermarket chains.

Food hubs could provide the missing link between regional farms and institutions—such as prisons, schools, hospitals and universities, it said.

Mandating that publicly-funded programs—like the National School Food Program—purchase a fixed proportion of their food from local hubs would create a stable demand for farmer goods.

“The NFU maintains that new food hubs should be publicly owned, co-operatively owned, or farmer owned-and-operated,” it said.

It pointed to the Summerland Food Hub in British Columbia as an example that will operate as a partnership between a non-profit producer cooperative (the LocalMotive Farmers Network Cooperative) and a non-profit processing organization (the Okanagan Food and Innovation Centre).

Ontario idea wins international award

An idea that started in a field in Merlin, Ont. has won the Ig Nobel prize in Switzerland. It is awarded to science that makes a person laugh, then think.

The idea came from Anne Verhallen who was working for the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food at the time. She thought burying cotton would measure microbial activity, so the trial was to bury cotton in two fields, one that was conventionally farmed, the other that had cover crops and no till management.\

And the cotton she chose was men’s underwear briefs, prompting farmer Woody Van Arkel to call it the “soil your undies” project.

Two months after they were buried, the one in the conventionally-farmed field was fine, the one in the no-till, cover-crop field was decomposed.

And that became an easy way for farmers to get a measure of their soil health.

The 2026 Ig Nobel soil science award was presented recently in Zurich, Switzerland, to Franz Bender, Marcel van der Heijden, Atlant Bieri and Pia Viviani, for burying 1,000 identical pairs of underpants across Switzerland, then digging them up after two months to measure decomposition, and by extension, the level of soil microbial activity. 

Nine hundred soil samples from the burial sites were also collected.

As detailed by Bender and van der Heijden, the citizen-science project helped “collect a unique dataset,” and provided “the opportunity to advocate for soil conservation in Switzerland and beyond.”

Their research was simply a larger number of fields and briefs than the first triial 11 years earlier in Chatham-Kent.

Grain farmers seek diesel price relief

Grain Growers of Canada asked the federal government for a 50-cents per litre diesel subsidy 18 days before United States President Donald Trump announced a $8-billion diesel subsidy for farmers.

Grain Growers said in its letter to federal finance minister Francois-Philippe Champagne that it wants immediate help, but failing that, help when Champagne tables his budget Nov.8. 

“This is just highlighting that other countries are recognizing it as an issue as well,” said Kate Sauser, executive director of Grain Growers.

Grain Growers calculated that a Class 8 combine consuming 70 litres of diesel per hour, seven days a week over 30 harvest days, would use 16,800 litres of fuel.

“This calculation excludes fuel used by grain carts, trucks and other equipment supporting harvest,” Grain Growers stated in its letter.

At the proposed rebate of 50 cents per litre would be $8,400 for that one combine.

Farm Credit Canada estimates that a 5,000-acre farm in Saskatchewan

is experiencing an increase in its fuel bill of between $68,000 and $106,000 in 2026, not including the increase in trucking costs and rail freight.

                  

Conagra plans to leave Dresden tomato plant

Conagra is planning to either sell or close its tomato plant in Dresden. It said it is in discussions with Highbury Canco of Leamington.

Highbury Canco emerged when Heinz closed its tomato-processing plant.

The plant in Dresden has been in business since 1947.

Conagra didn't explain why it plans to leave the area, only that its decision was made after a careful review.

Steve Pinsonneault, the provincial member of the legislature for Lambton-Kent-Middlesex, said “the potential closure of the Conagra tomato processing facility in Dresden would have a significant impact on the local community and surrounding agricultural sector. I understand the potential consequences extend well beyond the facility itself. Local tomato growers, employees, suppliers, and other businesses all have a stake in its future, and the effects would be felt throughout the community." 

In 2022 Conagra said it employed 175 workers at the plant full time and roughly 225 seasonally.

Chicken consumption increasing

 

Per capita chicken consumption in Canada is at record levels and expected to climb further, according to the United States Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS).

In its annual report on the Canadian poultry market, the agency projects 2026 chicken meat consumption at a record 39.5 kilograms (87.1 pounds) per person, still about 16 pounds below U.S. per capita consumption, leaving room to grow. Canadian prices are more than two times higher than the U.S.

The Canadian data represents a 10.3 per cent increase per person from a decade ago and 5.6 per cent in the last two years. FAS is forecasting another increase next year by 0.8 per cent to 39.8 kilograms.

“Total chicken meat consumption in Canada has nearly tripled over the last 35 years, due in part to the country’s steady population growth, which peaked in 2025 at 41.6 million people, up from nearly 28 million in 1990,” FAS’s Ottawa bureau said in the report.

Chicken has been steadily available and cost less than beef and lamb and Muslims and Jews shun pork. Rising per capita consumption is expected to keep the country’s total demand rising. The federal government is about to announce updated immigration targets.

Total Canadian domestic consumption is projected to increase by 1.7 per cent to 1.63 million tonnes in 2027.

“Increased chicken consumption can also be attributed to the proliferation of chicken-based quick-service offerings, as well as Canada’s changing ethnic composition,” FAS wrote.

“Canada’s immigrant population increasingly originates from countries with stronger dietary preferences for chicken rather than beef or pork.” said FAS. “Rising diversity has also expanded the range of foodservice outlets offering chicken-based dishes. As in the United States, chicken’s popularity in foodservice and at retail is indisputable.”

U.S. exporters last year sold 191,000 tonnes of poultry worth $609 million to Canada. Exports through August are 1.8 per cent behind the 2025 pace. 

Canada’s chicken marketing agency has repeatedly raised concerns about spent fowl imports that escape tariffs, noting that the total have at times exceeded total U.S. supply of spent fowl.

FAS also said a significant fraction of U.S. chicken exports to Canada receive further processing for re-export to the United States, as well as some other markets. The only other meaningful source of Canadian chicken imports are Brazil, Thailand and Chile, which has only gained a notable market share since 2023.

PED in Perth County

 

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

Chicken demand remains strong

 

Because consumer demand for chicken remains strong, the national supply management agency is calling for production at 4.5 per cent above base quota for the period from Feb. 7 to April 3.

Ontario’s production target is 4.7 per cent above base, putting it back in the lead after two quota periods of lagging the national targets.

The Ontario board said on its website that “demand for chicken continues to be strong. This is supported by competing meat prices, steady per capita consumption and overall positive economic indicators.”