Florence shuts down farming, food processing

Hurricane Florence has shut down most farming and food processing in North and South Carolina.

Hog-packing and chicken-processing plants closed before the rains and flooding began.

Farmers have little choice but to watch the devastation, which includes flooding manure lagoons and in some cases flooded barns resulting in drowned herds and flocks.

There is a large coastal plain where rivers drop only two feet over a 40-kilometre stretch to the ocean.

Those areas are flooding from two sources – an ocean surge of six to 10 feet, then persistent torrential rain that is going to last several days.

It will be weeks before fields will be dry enough to support equipment.

Despite the obvious disaster that’s unfolding, Andy Curliss, chief executive officer for the North Carolina Pork Council, said things are fine.

He said many hogs have been moved out and that manure lagoons have more capacity than usual because of a dry summer.

But he said all that before the rains began to push flood waters to record highs.

My wife and I have volunteered on disaster response a number of times in these areas of the Carolinas, so unfortunately know the type of damage being done.

What amazes me is that governments allow large hog farms with huge manure lagoons to establish on this coastal plain. It's a recipe for certain disaster.

Doctors issue food poisoning alert

Canada’s Council of Chief Medical Officers of Health has put out a caution notice with particular concern about frozen raw breaded chicken products.

There have been hundreds of cases of salmonella food poisoning linked to the frozen chicken and there have been some recalls, such as by Loblaws for its No Name products and Pinty’s Delicious Food Products Inc.’s frozen breaded chicken products.

“Despite these warnings and efforts to educate the public on safe food-handling practices, we continue to see hundreds of salmonella illnesses among Canadians of all ages because of consumption of or exposure to improperly cooked frozen raw breaded chicken products,” the council said in its statement.

It is urging Canadians to cook all chicken products, including these frozen ones, to at least 74 Celsius, which is ab out 165 Fahrenheit.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the Public Health Agency of Canada want the poultry industry to identify and implement measures at the manufacturing and processing level to reduce salmonella to below a detectable amount in frozen raw breaded chicken products for all products produced on or after April 1, 2019.

“However, until April 1, 2019, and likely for up to a year after this date, frozen raw breaded chicken products containing salmonella will continue to be in the marketplace and in freezers across the country,” the medical officers noted. 

“This is why, collectively, we are stressing the importance of handling and preparing frozen raw breaded chicken products with caution.”

World hunger increasing

The trend to fewer hungry people has been reversed, prompting the Canadian Foodgrains Bank to ask for donations.

The number of hungry people is back to levels not seen for a decade, according to a new report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

The report says that increased climate variability and extremes combined with conflict are the key drivers eroding and reversing the substantial gains that have been made in reducing the prevalence of hunger. 

It is estimated there are now about 821 million people, or one in nine people around the world who go to bed hungry each night.

“We are deeply concerned that after decades of progress, we are now falling back in the fight against hunger,” said Canadian Foodgrains Bank executive director Jim Cornelius.

“It is more important than ever that we continue to work toward the goal of a world without hunger. This means finding ways to reduce conflict and helping vulnerable people increase their resiliency to climate variability and extremes,” he said. 

“We need to equip people and communities to prepare for and adapt to climate-related emergencies and changes.”

In 2017-18, almost half of all Foodgrains Bank programming went toward responding to hunger emergencies caused by conflict in places such as South Sudan, Syria and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Foodgrains Bank also trained small-scale farmers ito adapt their farming to better withstand drought, erratic rain and other severe weather conditions.

“In the face of rising hunger, it’s more important than ever for Canada to lend its support to its global neighbours, supporting peace-building efforts and helping to finance adaptation,” says Cornelius.

“We know ending hunger is an achievable goal, and we invite Canadians to join with us in helping to reach that goal.”

                           

Canadians seek tariff relief

The Canadian Pork Council is calling for government intervention to help the pork sector cope with the impact of trade disputes between the United States and its key trading partners.

The U.S. is offering $12 billion and most applications are expected to come from soybean and pork producers.

Ron Bonnett, president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, said farm leaders met with federal and provincial agriculture ministers in July to discuss the trade wars among the U.S., China and Mexico and pressed the politicians to develop contingency plans.

Bonnett said farm leaders have not yet asked for any “specifics,” but said Canadians are losing their competitive position because of the tariffs and U.S. subsidies. He made his comments during a telephone interview break from farm work.

Among the options, he said countervailing duties are not a good choice because they would escalate the trade war and “despite what (U.S. President Donald) Trump says, nobody wins a trade war.”

He said U.S. farmers are turning out to be a significant ally in that respect; they have consistently urged Trump to leave trade issues alone, including NAFTA, and have said the compensation programs are not an answer they prefer.

In addition to direct subsidies, the U.S. is putting more money into export promotion and is buying more commodities for school lunch and welfare programs.

Canada doesn’t buy commodities for welfare or school lunches.

Bonnett said the Canadian politicians have said the AgriStability program should be adequate for farmers, but he said it only kicks in after a substantial drop in profits and takes too long to deliver relief.

Bonnett said the NAFTA negotiations and tariff wars underline the importance of finding export markets other than the United States.

“I have complete admiration for our negotiators” involved in the NAFTA talks, he said. “They've not lost their cool. I think they’ve done an extremely good job.

                     

                           

Europeans critical of Canada’s cheese import system

European cheese exporters are not happy with Canada’s quota system for controlling cheese imports.

Under the free trade deal with Europe, their access to Canadian markets was allowed to double from two to four per cent.

However, the Canadian government decided to grant 60 per cent of the import permits to small-scale businesses. Some have been finding it difficult to make a profit.

Ray Price of Sunterra Group in Alberta told Reuters that it’s expensive to transport the volume he’s been allocated. He’d need four times as much to fill a container and take advantage of normal transportation charges.

The federal government has countered that many of the permits may be exercised between Thanksgiving and Christmas and that after the new importers line up supply chains, imports will increase to fill the quota.

Attilio Zanetti, whose Italy-based company Zanetti exports to Canada, said “We were hoping and expecting to significantly increase our Canadian sales.

“I would not recommend Canada’s CETA cheese tariff rate quota scheme to the Americans (negotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement). 

“My advice would be ‘Buyer beware,'” Zanetti said.

                          

France bans all neonics

France is banning all neonicitinoids and its ban includes all outdoor and indoor uses. 

Canada’s bans, to take full effect in three years, allow continued controlled use in greenhouses.

In France beekeepers and environmentalists praised the new policy, but cereal and sugar beet farmers warn it could leave them defenceless in protecting valuable crops against harmful insects.

By enforcing the blanket ban, France is going further than the European Union, which voted to outlaw the use of three neonicotinoids – clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam – in crop fields starting on December 19.

France has banned these three plus thiacloprid and acetamiprid.

                          

MEDA chooses new president

Dr. Dorothy Nyambi will be taking over as president and chief executive officer of Mennonite Economic Development Associates in late November.

She will succeed Allan Sauder who is retiring after heading the charitable organization for 16 years.

Nyambi is a dual citizen of Canada and Cameroon and is fully bilingual in English and French.

She has more than 20 years of experience in international development. She has worked on policy and programming at the strategic and analytical level, with country, regional and continental scope.

She has work experience in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean and North America. 

She began her career as a medical doctor before moving into international development.

MEDA is an international economic development organization whose mission is to create business solutions to poverty.

It works with 400 partners in 62 countries to help 910,000 clients unleash their potential to earn a livelihood, provide for their families and enrich their communities.

MEDA has offices in Waterloo, Ottawa, Washington, DC and Lancaster, PA, and internationally.