Egg Farmers respond to Food Banks appeal

Egg Farmers of Canada is responding to an appeal from Food “Food Banks Canada and their dedicated team of staff and volunteers play a critical role in our communities,” said egg agency chairman Roger Pelissero, Ontario’s representative on the national agency and brother of Harry Pelissero, general manager for Egg Farmers of Ontario.

“ We know these are challenging times fror all Canadians, with the most vulnerable communities impacted the most,” said Pelissero.

“We believe it is more crucial now than ever to rally around our friends, neighbours and fellow Canadians with our support.”

Chris Hatch, chief executive officer for Food Banks Canada, said “contributions such as the one made by Egg Farmers of Canada will help ensure that food can continue their critical work.”

He said food banks anticipate record demand.

My, my! So generous of all those multi-millionaire egg farmers.

OFA advocates for truckers

The Ontario Federation of Agriculture is lobbying the federal and provincial governments in support of truckers.

It has noted that they are facing closed truck stop and rest areas, food services and insurance.

Private out-of-country insurance is no longer available to cover COVID-19.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford has promised to keep On Route facilities open.

The province has also assured the OFA that the transportation industry is still eligible for Ontario Hospital Insurance Program coverage and insurance for travel in the U.S.

OFA vice-president Mark Reusser said “together, OFA, Food and Beverage Ontario and the Ontario Agri-Business Association recently sent a letter to (Ontario Agriculture Ernie) Hardeman requesting an exemption from Ontario’s reduced load period weight restrictions on all Ontario highways and roads in response to COVID-19.” 

Quebec has already implemented a similar temporary exemption.

Hundreds of farmers dumping milk

Dairy Farmers of Ontario has told hundreds of its members to dump their milk, but that they will still be paid and drivers will still come to test their milk.

The problem is a glut at some processing plants who have lost their restaurant customers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the beginning, shoppers were stocking up on milk and supermarkets limited clients to one bag per shopping trip.

Now, however, demand has declined, mainly because restaurants are closed.

Meanwhile, Agropur cites the pandemic for its decision to cut 60 people from its staff and to temporarily lay off another 200.

CFIA extends testing deadlines

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is extending testing deadlines for chronic wasting disease, scrapie and bovine leukosis.

For cattle owners enrolled in the Canada Health Accredited Program (Enzootic Bovine Leukosis) and whose certification deadlines fall between Mar. 31 and June 30, the deadline has been extended to July 31.

For those enrolled in the Scrapie Flock Certification Program, deadlines that fell between Jan. 1 and Mar. 31 now have until July 31.

For those enrolled in the Chronic Wasting Disease Herd Certification Program (deer and elk) whose deadline dates for herd inventory and annual report submission fell between March 1 and June 30 will now have a deadline of July 31.

CFIA imposes new COVID-19 requirements

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has imposed another layer of COVID-19 regulations and paperwork for packing plants.

Companies will have to generate and file a plan for how they will deal with the current COVID-19 situation.

They must follow public health guidelines on social distancing, says the CFIA’s new instructions. There could be exceptions where it’s not practical to keep people that far apart, such as for inspections, the rules imply.

But they must test employees for COVID-19 if the local public health unit makes a request, they must report any positive test results to the CFIA and the local public health unit and their plant will need an inspection and clearance from the local public health unit.

How to go, CFIA! Nothing like adding more work for public health units.

Conestoga Meat Products runs clean ship

Conestoga Meat Products Ltd., a farmer-owned hog-slaughter and processing plant at Breslau, runs a clean ship, judging by Canadian Food Inspection Agency records for 2017.

The records were released under Access to Information and I followed up to ask for a set of copies.

Only several minor infractions show up, none affecting the quality or food safety of the pork shipped from the plant.

For example, one of the most serious issues mentioned is about an employee who used his hog-herding paddle to hit a pig on its snout.

I have been perusing CFIA reports on North American meat-packing plants for more than 40 years and only once have I encountered a better track record.

That was for a brand-new turkey processing plant which did no slaughtering at Ayton, Ont.

B.C. migrant farm workers spread COVID-19

Twelve temporary foreign workers have tested positive for COVID-19 in West Kamloops, British Columbia.

Quarantines have been imposed on another 63 foreign workers in the community and on 12 employers.

The farm workers arrived there March 12 and the virus was discovered March 20.

Normally about 10,000 temporary foreign workers are employed on farms in British Columbia.