By: Nancy Russel A survey by the P.E.I. Potato Board found a growing number of potato farmers in the province turning to a wide variety of cover crops to improve their soil and reduce erosion, and even generate some cash along the way. “The main goal of the survey was to get a benchmark for where we’re at on cover crops,” … Read More

Agribusiness giant takes quarter stake in processor By: Dave Bedard One of the world’s biggest grain companies is getting in on a processing facility under construction in Winnipeg to extract plant-based proteins from canola and peas. Winnipeg-based Merit Functional Foods announced Thursday it has received a $30 million “capital investment” from Bunge, giving the U.S. grain firm a “minority interest” … Read More

By Diego Flammini McDonald’s Canada is once again preparing to source all its beef from Canadian farms starting next month. John Betts, president and CEO of McDonald’s Canada and its 1,400 Canadian locations, made the announcement during the Canadian Beef Industry Conference last week. “As of September, we are going back to 100 per cent Canadian beef,” he said during the … Read More

By: Trevor Wilhelm Sporting a fresh haircut from a Leamington barbershop, Premier Doug Ford announced Thursday he is boosting Ontario’s risk management funding by $50 million a year to help farmers get through the economic devastation of COVID-19. Ford, who toured parts of Essex County and Chatham-Kent, said the province is accelerating a campaign promise to top up the Risk … Read More

(Ottawa) August 6th, 2020 – The latest round of fees introduced by large grocery retailers on their suppliers has attracted coverage in the news media over the past week (for examples, see here and here).  This is occurring at a time when farmers and food and beverage processors are already facing a complex web of arbitrary fees and penalties in their relationships with … Read More

By Christine Gelley Farming is truly risky business. Every moment of every day on the farm holds inherent risk. The main duties of the farm manager in any sector are to identify, evaluate, and mitigate risk. All the little steps of risk mitigation add up to make a big difference that we can’t always see, but can still save us … Read More

Aspire farms processes crickets into all-natural, sustainable, superfood ingredients By: Aly Lancione London, Ont. will soon be home to the world’s largest indoor cricket farm. Aspire Food Group, a global industry leader in the production of edible insects, will soon build a 100,000-square-foot plant that will bring bugs, as food, to the North American market. The new facility will be … Read More

“If you’re going to start with precision ag, get to a sensing system that’s telling you where you’re weak and where you’re strong.” By: Ryan Ridley With wheat seeding approaching in the fall, many farmers are looking for ways to improve their return on investment on this next crop. Farms.com spoke with Doug Wiegand, Regional Sales Lead at Precision Planting, … Read More

The Premier announced a plan to continue reopening the province while managing COVID-19 outbreaks among farm workers in Windsor-Essex By: Jackie Clark Premier Doug Ford is taking a novel approach to the handling of COVID-19 outbreaks on farms in Windsor-Essex while still allowing for reopening in much of the region. The cabinet will allow Windsor-Essex, except for Kingsville and Leamington, … Read More

Government investing $15 million into health and safety measures for farm operations The Government of Ontario is taking additional steps to better protect workers in the agri-food sector during the COVID-19 outbreak. The province is significantly expanding the Agri-food Workplace Protection Program and committing up to $15 million to enhance health and safety measures on farms and in food processing … Read More