George’s settles chicken price-fixing suit

George’s of Springdale, Arizona, has settled claims by a dozen restaurant companies that it conspired with other poultry producers to inflate and fix chicken prices.

Financial terms of the settlement were not immediately available.

Goerge’s operates eight plants in Arkansas, Missouri and Virginia.

The 12 plaintiffs  have ended their claims. They are Barbecue Integrated, Bojangles, Boston Market, Captain D’s, El Pollo Loco, FIC Restaurants, Golden Corral, Johnny Rockets, Shamrock Foods, United Food Service, White Castle and WZ Franchise Corp. 

A federal judge earlier this year approved a $104 million settlement between George’s and other processors, including Amick Farms, Fieldale Farms, Marc-Jac Poultry, Peco Foods, Pilgrim’s Pride and Tyson Foods.

Greens blast Ford over development

 

Mike Schreiner of Guelph, the lone Green Party member iin the Ontario legislature, is blasting Premier Doug Ford for using environmentally-protected land for housing.

Ford wants to use 7,400 acres of Greenbelt land near Toronto for housing, but said he will replace it with more land somewhere else.

“Ford’s legacy of environmental destruction gets worse every day. And once these critical environmentally sensitive lands are gone, they are gone forever,” said Schreiner.

“We cannot allow this government to force the false choice between protecting the environment and building the housing we desperately need,” he said.

“It’s time to end expensive sprawl and to permanently protect our remaining farmland, watersheds, and green space for present and  future generations.”

Environmental defence also spoke out against Ford’s proposaals, citing the traditional territories of the Huron-Wendat, the Anishnaabeg, Haudenosaunee, Chippewas and the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation.

“This afternoon the Ontario government announced that it intends to break its loudest, clearest election promise, by inflicting a fatal 7,400 acre wound on the vital and wildly popular Greenbelt,” environmental defence said.  

It is clear that this attack would end the critical role the Greenbelt plays to stop sprawl and protect farmland, forests, and the source of our drinking water, as well address climate change. The government should be ashamed and the people of Ontario should be outraged, it said.  

Promises by the government to “swap” in 9,400 acres of land in other locations will do nothing to mitigate the damage to the Greenbelt system. That is in part because at least some areas being floated as replacements for bulldozed segments of the Greenbelt were already off limits for development – meaning those additions would not mitigate the net loss of protected lands, it said.

“The government's plans would utterly destroy the certainty of permanent protection that is vital to the functioning of the Greenbelt as a whole,” it said.

"Stripping these 7,400 acres of protection at the request of land speculators would unleash a firestorm of land speculation across the entire Greenbelt – denying farmers the certainty they need to continue stewarding theforests, wetlands and soils on their land, and pushing ownership forever out of reach.”

Lawn spraying ok again in Manitoba

 

It’s going to be ok to spray lawns for dandelions, cinch bugs and grubs in Manitoba again, but there are no signs that Ontario is going to follow suit.

The Manitoba government said it’s not the expert on the pesticides safety – the federal health department‘s Pest Management Regulatory Agency is.

Manitoba’s NDP government banned the cosmetic use of pesticides on lawns, parks and other public spaces in 2014.  Now the the Conservatives are reversing that, but retaining bans for sensitive areas and where there are children and pets, such as schools, hospitals, child-care centres and provincial parks.

“We recognize Health Canada as the foremost expert in this field to evaluate pesticides,” said environment, climate and parks minister Jeff Wharton. 

“Pesticides registered with Health Canada go through a rigorous review process that assesses the risk of pesticides to human health, animal health and the environment, and must meet strict health and safety measures. Manitoba will continue to rely on Health Canada to evaluate pesticide products and all pesticides sold and used in Manitoba.”

In Ontario, it’s not scientists, but politicians, who decide who can use what pesticides, when and where. For example, it’s ok to spray golf course lawns for weeds, but not household lawns.

Government needs to help farmers on climate

 The Arrell Food Institute said the Canadian governments need to help farmers to adopt management practices that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and global warming.

“The world needs another green revolution,” said the report prepared jointly by the Arrell Food Institute at the University of Guelph and the Royal Bank of Canada.

Agriculture and food production are responsible for about 10 per cent of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions, but that is poised to increase by 26 per cent by 2050.

The report outlines a list of potential solutions that it says could reduce those emissions in Canada by up to 40 per cent, including new technologies and alternative agricultural management processes. But farmers and food producers lack the incentive and infrastructure to adopt them, the report said.

“We will never achieve a green economy if we don’t have an economic system that reflects the environmental cost – or at least accounts for – the environmental costs of our production,” said Evan Fraser, director of Arrell Food Institute.

He said farmers are only rewarded for producing food, not for how they produce it.

One example highlighted in the report is regenerative agriculture, the set of farming practices aimed at improving soil health, which has increased in popularity in recent years. Further adoption of these practices in Canada could potentially prevent 35 megatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions each year.

But for farmers, this comes with significant upfront costs – and the risk of not seeing a return on the investment. According to the report, it takes farmers about four years to recoup the costs of their investment, and six years before they see profits.

Farmers face similar risks with adopting many of the new technologies highlighted in the report as well. Some of these technologies include anaerobic manure digesters, soil testing aimed at reducing fertilizer use and feed additives that could reduce livestock methane emissions.

“It’s all doable,” said Fraser. “We’re talking about technologies that are either available now, or rapidly becoming commercially available,” he said. “It’s not science fiction.”

But, the report says, governments need to help create the conditions to encourage these solutions.

“We need to invest in the infrastructure, systems and national verification standards,” said John Stackhouse, senior vice-president at RBC.

Lenore Newman, director of Food and Agriculture Institute at the University of the Fraser Valley, said that currently, the government’s approach to funding is a huge barrier.

“The funding in Canada is a bit scattershot,” she said – split not only between the federal and provincial governments, but also through the many departments and bodies that intersect with food. “On a national level,” she said, “there is no dedicated agricultural funding stream for researchers.”

She pointed at the Netherlands as a model. There, academics, government and the private sector work together closely, using a targeted approach. Despite the relative size of the country, it’s the second-largest agriculture exporter in the world.

Canada, which is already a major global producer of grains, pulses and proteins, has similar potential, said Newman. “Canada needs to wake up and realize we’re a food superpower,” she said.

Milk price heading up again

The Canadian Dairy Commission has served notice it intends to increase the price dairy farmers are paid for milk by 2.2 per cent, or 1.74 cents per litre, effective Feb. 1.

The increase is to cover increasing production costs and to reflect changes in the Consumer Price Index. The two are used in a formula to determine milk pricing.

The Feb. 1 increase would have been higher, but 2.5 per cent was deducted because there was an unusual price increase on Sept. 1.

Last year the Feb. 1 increase was 8.5 per cent.

The support price for butter – the price the commission pays for butter that the processors can’t sell for a better price to others – will increase from 10.0206 to 10.02180 on Feb. 1.

There is no change to processors’ butter-making margin nor to storage fees.

Inflation still inching up

Inflation continued to inch up in September, according to a report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

For all countries, the rate increased from 10.3 in August to 10.5 in September.

For the G-20 countries, it increased from 9.2 to 9.5 per cent.

And for the G-7, it increased from 7.5 to 7.7 per cent.

CFIA covers up inspection reports

The Access-to-Information officers at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency are covering up meat inspection reports for the JBS beef-packing plant at Brooks, Alta., and the Olymel pork-packing plant at Vallee Jonction, Que.

According to the registry, the reports for inspections between Jan. 1, 2018, and July this year were released in response to an Access-to-Information request.

But when Ontario Farmer asked to see the file, the response was more than 100 pages of the regulations and all of the inspection reports are censored.

What was released was a chart detailing the number of CFIA inspectors and veterinarians employed.

In the past the meat inspected reports have been provided to reporters who filed applications under Access to Information.