The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has suspended the licence of 9105-8016 Quebec Inc. for failure to meet standards outlined in federal legislation.
Tuesday, December 31, 2024
CFIA suspends pita-maker’s licence
Dairy farmer challenges milk dumping report
He said he dumped milk only once and that was during the Covid-19 pandemic and said none of his dairy-farming neighbours have dumped milk.
He uses any milk that he can’t sell to feed calves or pigs or to make cheese and said that’s likely what other dairy farmers do.
They could also donate it to the Ontario Provincial Foodbank System, he said.
Monday, December 30, 2024
Avian flu in Oxford County
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has declared a quarantine zone around Ingersoll in Oxford County where highly-contagious avian influensa broke out in a commercial poultry farm.
The quarantine zone is on both sides of Highway 401 which will present poultry-industry trucks and cars a challenge to take detours to stay out of the quarantine zone.
It is the sixth active case in Ontario this year.
British Columbia, by comparison, has 74 active cases..\
Quebec has two Manitoba one and none in the rest of Eastern Canada.
Chapman’s Ice Cream expanding
Chapman’s Ice Cream plans to build a third facility in Markdale this year, add 150 to 200 employees and make some new products.
"It's our biggest build ever, including back in 2010 when we started on Phoenix 1 after our fire," said Ashley Chapman,, the chief operatimg officer.
"That facility was about 165,000 square feet and this new one is about 175,000, so we're betting big on Canada."
"We should have all the factory up and running and all of the lines going by early 2026, hopefully before the end of the first quarter," he said.
"We're not going to plan too many crazy things, we just want to get it up and rolling first. But the 2027 season, you're going to see quite a lot of new things from Chapman's Ice Cream."
Avian influenza is gaining attention from medical watchdogs, including Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s Chief Medical Officer who ranked it as one of her greatest concerns heading into next year.
In the United States, veterinarians are critical of their federal government’s lack of measures to prevent the spread among dairy cattle when the first cows fell ill.
The scale of the farmers’ efforts to treat the sick cows stunned Dr. Keith Poulsen when he saw videos taken on a dairy farm where
staff built a system to hydrate hundreds of cattle at once. In 14-hour shifts, dairy workers pumped gallons of electrolyte-rich fluids into ailing cows through metal tubes inserted into the esophagus.
“It was like watching a field hospital on an active battlefront treating hundreds of wounded soldiers,” he said.
The U.S. government failed to eliminate the virus on dairy farms when it was confined to a handful of states, by quickly identifying infected cows and taking measures to keep their infections from spreading. Now at least 875 herds across 16 states, including Iowa, have tested positive.
Some veterinarians say they have lost faith in the government’s ability to contain the outbreak.
“We are in a terrible situation and going into a worse situation,” said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan.
“I don’t know if the bird flu will become a pandemic, but if it does, we are screwed.”
So far there has been no spread from person to person, but it that happens, it could blossom into another pandemic.
Friday, December 27, 2024
New Slack Farms barn
Mark Slack and his son, John, have built a new barn for their purebred Duroc hogs and for Durocs from Denmark.
The facility near Tamworth, Ont., has room for 625 sows, reports Jim Eadie of Swineweb.
it is outfitted with Gestal technology from Jyga Technologies and is designed for exceptional animal comfort and operational efficiency.
The barn, built under a new multiplication contract with DanBred, will focus on supplying breeding stock, including boar studs featuring Duroc genetics.
The sow barn will run as a companion to their gilt-rearing barn with capacity for 2,500 pigs.
Agritourism to gain protection
Farmers who host tourists may soon gain protection from lawsuits because Matthew Rae, member of the Ontario legislature for Perth-Wellington has introduced a bill called the Growing Agritourism Act.
It protects farmers who warn people of the inherent risks of visiting a working farm in Ontario by installing a simple sign or by signing a contract.
Rae said farmers are liable under the Ontario Liability Law every time someone gets hurt while visiting the farm — even if the farmer has done everything possible to mitigate those risks. That is costing agritourism operators thousands of dollars in extra insurance premiums. One is facing three tourist lawsuits, each for a million dollars or more.
Kevin Vallier, chief executive officer for Agritourism Ontario which has about 300 members said they support Rae’s bill.
"This act doesn't give carte blanche for agritourism operators to do whatever they want and never get sued," he told CBC News.
"It just provides a layer of protection because when you walk onto an active working farm, there are of course inherent risks. The ground is uneven, the grass could be wet, if you're feeding a baby goat, it might nip your finger."
One gentleman actually stepped over two barriers that prevented public access and then injured themselves," Vallier said.
"It can be incredibly frustrating for owners to because then, of course, their insurance goes up."
Thursday, December 26, 2024
Poultry workers pocket $400 million US
Nine poultry companies agreed to pay a total of $180 million US ($260 million Cdn) to settle claims they conspired to suppress wages of plant workers, according to a motion filed in a Maryland federal court.
The class of plaintiffs along with Allen Harim Foods, Amick Farms, Butterball, Fieldale Farms, Foster Poultry Farms, Jennie-O Turkey Store, Koch Foods, O.K. Foods, Tyson Foods and Keystone Foods requested preliminary approval from the judge.
Allen Harim (all in Cdn dollars $5.7 million), Amick Farms ($6.1 million), Butterball ($9.7 million), Fieldale Farms ($70 million), Foster Poultry Farms ($15.4 million), Jennie-O Turkey Store ($4.0 million), Koch Foods ($21million), O.K. Foods ($5.4 million), Tyson Foods and Keystone Foods ($160 million combined) also agreed to cooperate with ongoing litigation against Agri Stats, which is the lone remaining defendant.
Bruce nuclear dump site may still be in the running
A First Nation in northern Ontario is challenging the selection of a nearby region as the site of an underground repository that will hold Canada’s nuclear waste, arguing in a court filing that it should have had a say in the matter as the site falls “squarely” within its territory.
Eagle Lake First Nation has filed an application in Federal Court seeking a judicial review of the Nuclear Waste Management Organization’s decision to build the deep geological repository in the Township of Ignace and Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation area.
The decision was announced in November after Ignace’s town council and Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation both agreed to move forward, but Eagle Lake First Nation says it was “unjustifiably” rejected as a host community and denied its own right to consent to the project.
A site in Huron County was the only other one still under consideration for nuclear waste storage.
But it might also be challenged by an indigenous community.
“NWMO rejected ELFN as a host community and not for any fair, justifiable or defensible reasons,” but because members of the First Nation had raised concerns about the nuclear waste site, court documents said.
The challenge also names the federal minister of natural resources, accuses the NWMO of acting in “bad faith” and seeks to have its decisions quashed.
The NWMO, a non-profit body funded by the corporations that generate nuclear power and waste, said it is reviewing the legal challenge.
Depression linked to vegetarian diets
A British study has found that depression is 42 per cent greater among vegetarians, but also found that they have a 40 per cent lower incidence of irritable bowel syndrome.
The study by the University of Surrey found no notable differences in sodium, sugar or saturated fatty acid intake between those vegetarians who ate plant protein substitutes for meat and those who did not, but they did find higher blood pressure and higher markers of inflammation (C-reactive proteins) in the alt-meat eaters.
"The overall findings are reassuring, suggesting that plant-based meat alternatives may be a safe option when part of an overall balanced diet," Nophar Geifman, who worked on the study, said.
"However, the potential link between these types of food, inflammation and depression warrants further investigation."
The study analyzed data from the United Kingdom’s Biobank, a biomedical database containing genetic, lifestyle and health information, though the researchers note that the data is limited to predominantly white citizens. The data also covers only a single point in time, not accounting for potential changes over time.
Plant proteins healthier than meats
Substituting plant-based alternatives to meat is good for heart health.
An analysis that combined eight recent research reports said the plant-based alternatives lowered low-density lipoprotein (LDL, or "bad") cholesterol by 12 per cent, total cholesterol by six per cent and body weight by one per cent in adults without cardiovascular disease.
Tuesday, December 24, 2024
Honey harvest disappoints
Statistics Canada recently reported that Canadian honey production dropped by more than 18 per cent this year
Beekeepers harvested just under 78.18 million pounds compared with 95.65 million the previous year.
Disease hit hard this year, particularly in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
Production declined despite an increase in beekeepers from 14,983 to 15.430 and and bee colonies from 809,304 tp 829,120
Avian flu remains out of Canadian milk
While avian influenza outbreaks continue to ravage the poultry industry in lower mainland British Columbia, it has not shown up in milk.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said that by Dec. 19 it had tested 1,432 samples of raw milk from across Canada for highly pathogenic avian influenza and none had the virus.
“This is another proactive surveillance measure to monitor Canadian dairy cattle for HPAI and helps ensure that HPAI is caught early if introduced into the national herd,” the CFIA said on its website.
There are currently 74 active outbreaks in poultry in British Columbia and a total of 88 in Canada.
In California, two-thirds of dairy herds are infected. It is the biggest milk-producing state in the United States.
Saputo executive gone after three months
In a statement in September announcing Guido’s appointment, the company said his promotion from the president and chief operating officer of Saputo’s U.S. dairy unit would see him overseeing the company’s global operations, encompassing North America, Europe and the international division.
All the divisional presidents and COOs would report to Guido, Saputo said at the time.
Also at that time Carl Colizza took over from Lionel Saputo Jr. as chief executive officer. Saputo is providing “strategic oversight,” the company said then.
Saputo Inc. is Canada’s largest milk processing company and has global operations in the United States, South America, Europe and Australia.
Monday, December 23, 2024
Laplante guilty of chicken abuse
Robert Laplante, a chicken transporter, has failed in his bid to have a Canadian Food Inspection Agency finding quashed by the Canada Agricultural Review Tribunal.
Tribunal member Emily Crocco said Laplante should have known It would be cruel to truck wet chickens in temperatures of minus 27 Celsius at the farm where they were loaded and minus 22 at the slaughter plant where they were delivered.
And she said it was irrelevant when Laplante argued the chickens were sick.
There was testimony that the farmer knew the barn was humid and some areas of the litter were wet, yet decided the chickens should be delivered for slaughter.
More materials to be eligible for on-farm digesters
The Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness is proposing a change to regulations governing on-farm digesters to allow inclusion of more ingredients from off-farm suppliers.
It wants to allow organic waste materials from the production of ingredients used in food, animal feed, pet food, ethanol, and biodiesel production to be eligible, irrespective of the ingredients’ production location.
There is an open public comment period until Feb. 18.
Avian flu cases double
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is reporting a total of five outbreaks of avian influenza in Ontario, all of them this month.
The first case was near Strathroy and the CFIA has doubled that to two.
The second was in Oxford County and that also has been doubled now to two.
Only those four have resulted in the establishment of quarantine zones, according to the CFIA website.
Avian flu hits California dairies
State officials on Friday said two-thirds of its dairies are now under quarantine for avian influenza.
And the state’s largest organic milk producer’s milk has been contaminated with the virus, losing its raw-milk organic status.
California is the nation’s largest dairy producer with more than 980 dairies.
Farmers are frustrated because bird flu seems to be spreading rapidly despite precautions, reports eDairy News.
Some evidence suggests contaminated equipment and people who work at multiple farms can spread the virus. But the state’s veterinarian says there’s more at play that’s causing the spread.
Sick cows generally recover and start producing milk again, though sometimes they don’t reach the same level of output.
Still, the disease isn’t expected to impact milk supply significantly. And pasteurized milk is safe to drink.
California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency Wednesday to help agencies address the problem.
Poultry farms have been hit by the virus as well. More than 50 California farms tested positive this fall.
In those cases of poultry farms, all the birds in an affected flock have to be euthanized to prevent the virus from spreading.
Doctor speculates glyphosate hurts brains
New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt said she is willing to ban the herbicide glyphosate if a new investigation finds a link to the purported mystery brain illness that a Moncton neurologist says he is tracking.
The province has launched a new investigation into the hundreds of cases, saying the symptoms have sparked fear among many New Brunswickers that needs to be addressed.
Moncton neurologist Dr. Alier Marrero has suggested that glyphosate has contributed to blue-green algae blooms that can emit toxins that affect the brain.
"New Brunswickers are afraid about what glyphosate might do, and the mysterious neurological illness has given them reason to be more afraid," Holt said in a year-end interview with CBC News.
"So we have to make sure that we know exactly what that chemical is doing, and where and when."
If a link is found, "then we need to eliminate that exposure for New Brunswickers."
But Holt emphasized "we don't have good science to tell us that that is what's making New Brunswickers sick."
Chris Edge, the lead researcher on a 2023 study, said glyphosate is present in the environment but at low levels.
Edge said algae can feed on phosphate molecules in glyphosate, "but for that to work, glyphosate would have to be present in the rivers," and his study found it in only one sample.
"So [it's] theoretically plausible, but in reality we're not detecting glyphosate, so it's unlikely to be leading … to cyanobacteria blooms,” he said.
Sarah Nesbitt, one of Marrero's patients whose urine samples showed levels of glyphosate, said she believes the herbicide and a mix of other environmental factors contributed to her illness.
Saturday, December 21, 2024
U.S. corn growers victor over Mexico
Corn growers in the United States have defeated a Mexican ban on genetically-modified corn varieties in an appeal to the disputes-settling administration under the free trade agreement among Canada, the United States and Mexico (CUSMA).
The dispute traces back to December 2020, when Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador first announced plans to ban GM corn by the end of 2024.
Mexico’s position intensified in early 2023 with the issuance of a decree banning GM white corn, effective immediately.
This action spurred the National Corn Growers Association and state corn grower groups to push for a formal dispute settlement under the CUSMA, which the U.S. Trade Representative ultimately pursued.
The decision also opens the Mexican market to Canadian corn exports. Canada supported the appeal and said “Canada shares the concerns of the United States that Mexico is not compliant with the science and risk analysis obligations under CUSMA’s Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures Chapter.
“Canada believes that the measures taken by Mexico are not scientifically supported and have the potential to unnecessarily disrupt trade in the North American market.”
Phosphate mine in north to reopen
A British Columbia company has bought a phosphate mine near Kapuskasing and plans to bring it back into production.
Agrium closed in in 2013 saying the deposit was running out.
But there is keen demand for phosphorous fertilizer and another company said earlier this year it plans to open a mine near Hearst, also in Northern Ontario.
Infracon Construction Inc., the buyer at Kapuskasing, said it plans to work with Cargill Township the indigenous community of Taykwa Tagamou Nation.
Friday, December 20, 2024
Avian flu outbreak in Oxford County
There has been an outbreak of highly-pathogenic avian influenza on a commercial poultry farm in Oxford County.
There are about 4,000 birds on the farm.
It is the second outbreak in Ontario this week and this year.
Caledon sued over 5,000-acre expansion
Democracy Caledon has filed a lawsuit against the township of Caledon over 5,000 acres of farmland the province added for housing development.
Mayor Annette Groves said the township will vigorously defend itself.
The lawsuit cites 12 zoning bylaws passed this summer to fast-track housing developments.
Democracy Caledon filed the notice of application in the Ontario Court of Justice Dec. 5, arguing council’s approval of the zoning bylaws doesn’t conform to the official plans of Caledon and Peel Region and can be quashed for illegality under Section 273 of the Municipal Act.
In a news release Tuesday, the town countered that the bylaws were enacted “in accordance with the provincial legislation and in keeping with all procedural requirements of both the Planning Act and the Municipal Act.”
The bylaws would rezone 5,000 acres of land, leapfrogging several steps in the planning process to build 35,000 new housing units.
Democracy Caledon said the rezonings threaten farmland, the Greenbelt and ratepayers’ tax bills.
Caledon Mayor Annette Groves said the residents’ group is using “inaccurate and misleading information” to raise fears in the community.
She said “our solicitors have advised that this lawsuit is completely without merit, and the town will be vigorously defending it.”
The town said that all lands addressed by the 12 zoning bylaws sit within Caledon’s urban boundary or are adjacent to an existing settlement area.
Valerie M’Garry named drainage referee
Valerie M’Garry, a lawyer from Sarnia, has been named Ontario’s drainage referee.
She was solicitor for Sairnia for 10 years, including when it was merged with Clearwater.
The drainage referee hears appeals on the legal aspects of drainage work as well as appeals from drainage decisions by the Onario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness Appeal Tribunal.
The appointment was made by OMAFA.
Hormel settles price-fixing lawsuit
Hormel Foods has paid $2.4 million to settle its part of a pork price-fixing lawsuit that was filed against the largest pork packing companies in the United States.
A Minnesota federal judge has approved the deal.
The case was part of a larger legal action involving 27 consolidated cases and 146 parties. The allegations centered on claims that pork producers conspired to fix prices, with the case initially consolidated in December, 2022.
British research uses pigs for vaccination study
British researchers have used pigs to establish that delivering vaccines by breath is a viable alternative to injection.
“This is an important step toward human research,” Pirbright Institute at the University of Oxford said in a release. “Interest in administering vaccines mucosally, rather than by intramuscular injections, has been growing since the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic was declared in 2020.”
“Comprehensive measurement of immune responses in human lungs is not possible,” the researchers said, so they used pigs whose respiratory tract is similar to humans.
Samples collected from both the lungs and blood of vaccinated pigs, aided by mathematical modelling, showed that lung responses can be predicted from blood tests, making it easier to assess vaccine effectiveness in humans, the release said.
“To bring future vaccines to market, it is critical to define the correlates of protection—markers that can reliably predict the effectiveness of the vaccine, in humans,” said Dr. Simon Gubbins, head of transmission biology at The Pirbright Institute.
The findings of this study, published in Frontiers in Immunology have far-reaching implications for the future development of mucosally-administered vaccines in clinical trials, Pirbright said. The pig model’s ability to closely mimic human immune responses to respiratory infections make it an ideal platform for testing vaccine efficacy.
“The research found that immune responses in the blood could reliably reflect those in the lungs, thus offering a practical way to assess the effectiveness of vaccines targeting the respiratory system,” said Dame Sarah Gilbert, professor of vaccinology at the Pandemic Sciences Institute at the University of Oxford.
“The findings provide critical insights into how immune responses can be measured from easily accessible blood samples and are a foundation for future testing of mucosally administered vaccines in clinical trials,” she said.
Wednesday, December 18, 2024
Milk regulation due for update
The Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness intends to amend the Milk Act and the Food Safety and Quality Act.
The changes address situations that have evolved.
The ministry says the milk components found in dairy products no longer strictly come from unprocessed raw milk and cream - milk ingredients (rather than raw milk) are increasingly used by processors in the manufacturing of dairy products.
Legislation will be needed to make that change.
It is also moving to extend marketing board pricing controls to ingredients.
This will “support consistency in the end use pricing of milk products,” it said.
“The proposed amendments would expand the definition of a regulated product to include milk products, or milk products used as ingredients in processing.
"Subsequent amendments to regulations under the Act would provide DFO (Dairy Farmers of Ontario marketing board) with authority to licence any person marketing milk products and ensure their compliance with the end use pricing regime.
“These proposed amendments seek to safeguard the integrity of the supply management system, including creating uniform market conditions for processors whether they buy milk from DFO or not,” it said in its posting on the province’s regulatory registry.
OMAFA also said “there is inconsistent regulatory food safety oversight of milk in Ontario because the Milk Act does not provide for oversight of the production, transportation or processing of milk from species other than cow and goat. This situation persists even though the same food safety risks exist for milk from different species (cow, goat, sheep, water buffalo).
“Furthermore, the food safety policy for cow and goat milk is developed by the Ontario Farm products Marketing Commission (OFPMC) - an agency comprised of part-time appointees of the Lieutenant Governor in Council (LGIC often referred to as the cabinet) where food safety is not part of its core mandate.“
OMAFA is proposing to amend the Milk Act and the FSQA (Food Safety and Quality Act) to enable the transfer of food safety and quality provisions from the Milk Act and its regulations to future regulations under the FSQA.
“This would allow for the future development of modern, outcome-based dairy food safety regulations for milk and milk products from all species under a more suitable statute (FSQA) made by the LGIC (cabinet), as is the case with all other foods in Ontario.
Although it does not explicity say so, the Ontario Farm Product Marketing Commission would no longer delegate milk inspection and dairy farm standards and inspection to the milk board.
It's not clear from the proposals whether there would continue to be that delegation under the Food Safety and Quality Act.
OMAFA said it “will look for appropriate opportunities to reduce regulatory compliance obligations for businesses as a part of the legislative alignment while continuing to safeguard the public interest.
The Milk Act would continue to focus on the regulated marketing of cow milk.”
It doesn't look like Premier Doug Ford had a hand in these proposals, but he might learn that they won't go down easily or well with the rural constituencies that account for his majority.
Man deathly sick with bird flu
A patient in Louisiana was hospitalized with a severe case of avian influenza (H5N1), marking the first time a person has fallen severely ill with the virus in the United States. There is a similar case in British Columbia where a young man is in hospital.
The United States Centers for Disease Control there have been 61 human infections with avian influenza, but none of them serious.
On a call with reporters, Demetre Daskalakis, CDC Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said
the Louisiana patient is believed to have been exposed to sick or dead birds in backyard flocks, the first such linkage in the U.S. They were not commercial poultry and were not exposed to dairy cows or related products.
CDC is conducting additional genomic sequencing to isolate virus from clinical specimens from the Louisiana patient, they said.
Officials noted the D1.1 strain of H5N1 is different from the B3.13 genotype detected in dairy cows, sporadic human cases in multiple states, and some poultry outbreaks in the U.S.
No person-to-person spread of H5 bird flu has been detected.
Six farm groups withdraw from consultations
Six farm organizations have withdrawn from the federal government’s consultations on sustainable agriculture.
They are the Canadian Canola Growers Association, Canola Council of Canada, Cereals Canada, Grain Growers of Canada, Pulse Canada and Soy Canada.
They said Canadian agriculture is already the most sustainable in the world, and the strategy must contain measures that are practical, science-based, market driven and beneficial for the entire sector as well as the environment.
“Together, we have consistently voiced that there is a lack of industry alignment regarding the targets and actions proposed in the SAS (sustainable agriculture strategy).
“As a result, we have collectively decided to step back from the advisory committee, as the strategy’s direction does not fully represent the interests of our members,” they said.
Tuesday, December 17, 2024
Avian flu hits Strathroy farm
There has been an outbreak of highly-pathogenic avian influenza on a commercial poultry farm near Strathroy, reports the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
There are 914,000 birds on the farm. It is the only case in Ontario this year.
Food prices continue rising
Despite a decline in the consumer price index, food prices continued to rise in November.
Statistics Canada reported the overall inflation rate dropped to 1.9 per cent, but food prices rose by 2.6 per cent.
Compared with November, 2021, grocery prices rose 19.6 per cent.
Dairy prices will continue to rise.
The Canadian Dairy Commission said the price for milk that’s used to make dairy products such as butter and cheese will increase by 2.2 per cent on Feb. 1.
Prices for milk that consumers drink are set under provincial jurisdiction.
The Canadian Dairy Commission said the index used to determine prices takes into account dairy farmers’ costs of production as well as the consumer price index.
That doesn't seem right to me. I figure feed is one of the main costs of production and grain prices are significantly lower now than a year ago.
Milk producers pull plug on calf study
The University of Saskatchewan has dropped a study of all-dairy compared with beef-sired dairy calves after Alberta dairy farmers declined to participate.
They want to continue to use only white ear tags on their calves and not yellow tags that identify the beef-sired calves.
There is evidence that the beef-sired calves perform better at making beef and so they attract higher prices at auction.
The Saskatchewan research team wanted to find how much better they perform, but needed to identify the calves sired by beef semen.
Lactanet, a national dairy-industry performance-tracking service found there is a price difference between white- and yellow-tagged animals, but it did not delve deeper to discover if that holds true for cross-bred calves.
Last year, DairyTrace changed its ear tag policies.
Producers used to have an exception so they could put yellow button tags on beef-sired dairy calves instead of white DairyTrace tags.
As of Sept. 1, 2023, however, all calves born on dairy farms must have a DairyTrace tag, including those with beef sires.
The same policy changes ended dairy producers’ ability to put a yellow button on cull cows.
Monday, December 16, 2024
CFIA didn’t inspect Silk-making plant for Listeria
Only after customers who fell sick after drinking Silk products, and one died, was it determined through genetic testing that the contamination went on for a year before it was detected.
The Globe and Mail said the plant was not closely checked because the CFIA determined it was in a low-risk category, and the newspaper said that whole system is a problem.
It is far from the first time the CFIA’s food inspection has been brought into disrepute.
The Waterloo Region Record won a governor-general award for public service for exposing terrible conditions in meat-packing plants and CFIA veterinary inspectors failing on the job, including one who hid from inspection staff behind a locked office door and another who danced and and sang on the moving eviscerating table.
That veterinarian in charge of inspection at the plant also routinely loaded his trunk with beef from the plant and rented.a home from the plant’s owner, but was never confronted with a conflict of interest, despite newspaper queries to CFIA supervisors at the provincial and federal levels of responsibility.
Sunday, December 15, 2024
PED outbreak hits Perth farm
A finisher barn in Perth County has been hit by an outbreak of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus.
It is the first outbreak in Ontario since Nov. 14 and the 17th this year.
By comparison, Quebec and Manitoba have had almost none after clamping down to prevent spread of the disease.
Horse export ban stalled
Legislation that seeks to ban the export of horses for slaughter to Japan is stalled in the Senate and may fail to pass before the session ends.
Two Manitoba senators are sparring over the issue, one a former broadcaster who proposed the ban, the other opposed to the legislation.
Senator Charles Adler said the horses are being abused.
"Once the doors are closed in Canada and the plane is in the air, Canada, the department that is responsible has absolutely no way of knowing what happens to those horses," Adler said. "There is a high probability these horses will suffer or sustain an injury during this process or worse."
Conservative Senator Don Plett invited Adler to go with him to the airport to see how the horses are handled.
"You insinuated, Senator Adler, that these horses are suffering on the tarmac. They are being cruelly put into crates where they cannot turn around, where they cannot lay down, which isn't true," Plett said. Adler declined.
Animal Justice, an animal rights organization released documents from the Japanese government showing at least one horse died after suffering injuries during a June flight to Japan. Several others collapsed en route.
In September, the advocacy group provided documents revealing at least 21 horses died during or in the days after being flown from Canada to Japan between May 2023 and June 2024.
But the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) said In February that it knows of only five horse deaths related to air shipments since 2013.
The CFIA told CBC News it has reviewed the documents provided by Animal Justice and, as a result, now requires exporters and air carriers to document the start and end times of each stage of shipment from Canada, as well as the total transport time.
It has received a contingency plan from the air carrier that includes measures to mitigate animal suffering in case of delays.
The CFIA said it found only one death and eight serious injuries that occurred in flight or were observed upon arrival between June 2023 and June 2024. The additional cases happened after the horses were in Japanese quarantine.
Canada can't compel Japan to report any incidents after the horses are off-loaded from the cargo planes so the CFIA said that won't be included in its reporting. As of September, Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) is providing Canada with that information.
Canada can't compel Japan to report any incidents after the horses are off-loaded from the cargo planes so the CFIA said that won't be included in its reporting. As of September, Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) is providing Canada with that information.
Friday, December 13, 2024
CFIA changing B.C. HPAI zoning
After more than a month of almost daily outbreaks of highly-pathogenic avian influenza among flocks in Lower Mainland British Columbia, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has announced a pilot project for quarantine zones in which all traffic in and out of poultry farms is regulated.
The CFIA said this new approach for this specific region in Canada will allow industry to maintain business continuity and meet international trade obligations. It will also help reduce and simplify the surveillance requirements in this area for producers without increasing the risk of disease spread.
Eleven predetermined geographical zones will be declared and revoked as needed when an infected premise is within the zone or if the it is within 10 km of the zone’s borders.
In contrast with standard quarantine zones which are created or amended with each new detection, the Fraser Valley zone boundaries will remain constant and can be “re-activated” throughout this outbreak event.
When declared, these zones will transition from pre-determined zones to declared primary control zones to which quarantines apply. In all other parts of Canada, primary control zones (quarantines) will continue to be established around individual infected premises classified as poultry (according to the World Organization for Animal Health criteria), the CFIA said in a news release.
Outlook remains clouded by turmoils
The Canadian agriculture economy has been through constant turmoil since the Covid-19 pandemic swept around the world in 2022 and the outlook is for continued pressures and surprises, according to Aaron Goertzen, senior economist for the Bank of Montreal.
It will take time for crop inventories to normalize and if yields this year are average crop prices should stabilize and begin to regain some lost ground next year—but as always, producers are at the mercy of Mother Nature, he said.
In the livestock space, cattle producers appear to be taking initial steps toward restocking their herds, as the drought that previously afflicted large parts of cattle country has abated and feed costs are lower.
Hog producers have continued to expand cautiously, suggesting continued balance in that segment.
The weak Canadian dollar is acting as a broad support for Canadian agricultural prices, which would likely be around 10 per cent lower under a more neutral exchange rate, he said.
“The flip side, however, is that imported inputs are also costlier.
Overall farm costs have increased by more than 35 per cent
since the beginning of 2019 and are unlikely to come down.
What is coming down is interest rates.
He praised farmers for increasing productivity.
“It is an admirable feat that farmers can produce nearly three
times as much agricultural output per hour of labour than only
a quarter century ago.
“And even today, producers continue to invest heavily in their operations. A short walk through a farm trade show illustrates the incredible amount of technology being deployed by both crop
and livestock producers, suggesting continued outperformance ahead.”
President-elect Donald Trump represents huge uncertainty for the coming year, and not just on the threat of tariffs on exports to the United States, but also the global economy and wars.
One uncertainty Goerzen did not mention is what will happen if there is an outbreak of a serious disease such as African Swine Fever, foot and mouth disease or a crops-ravaging disease.
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