Canada’s voluntary standard for labelling genetically modified food is gathering dust, two years after it was officially adopted. Greenpeace Canada has challenged food manufacturers to show it a product with a label informing customers that it contains GM ingredients, but nobody has taken the group up on the challenge and a visual inspection of store […] Read more
Sean Pratt
Stories by Sean Pratt
Biotech seeks tax break
A survey of biotech firms shows many are unhappy with Canada’s investment, taxation and regulatory climate. Forty-eight percent of the companies surveyed for the Canadian Life Sciences Industry Forecast 2006 said they plan to move all or part of their business outside of the country. “Canada stands to lose almost half of its life science […] Read more
Grain commission tightens business licences
Starting Aug. 1, unlicensed grain companies are going to see the bad-cop side of the Canadian Grain Commission. In the past, the agency had a good-cop policy of persuasion to convince facilities to become licensed and bonded. “We’re at the point now where we realize persuasion is just not going to cut it in terms […] Read more
No GM tolerance rules for Canada
If Europe softens its organic regulations to allow low levels of genetically modified contamination, Canada won’t be following suit, says the person co-ordinating the development of a regulation in this country. The European Commission is contemplating a revision of its organic regulation that includes an allowance for up to 0.9 percent GM material in organic […] Read more
U.S. bean acreage forecast confounds experts
Bean growers on both sides of the border are confounding traders with their intention to seed more pintos. A report released last week by the United States Department of Agriculture shows that despite slumping prices and large expected carryover in most of the popular classes of beans, U.S. growers plan to expand acreage by three […] Read more
Fuel market tightens, prices rise
Political unrest and tightening supply and demand dynamics are contributing to a run up in diesel prices, say petroleum analysts. “There’s not a lot of good news,” said Michael Ervin, president of MJ Ervin & Associates, a Calgary-based consulting firm specializing in petroleum products. Crude oil prices set record highs last week with prices surging […] Read more
APAS defends $3.4 billion aid request
Saskatchewan’s main farm lobby group wants $3.4 billion in aid for the province, more than three times what Ottawa doled out to all 10 provinces one year ago. It is a big request, one that put Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan at odds with Saskatchewan agriculture minister Mark Wartman, who earlier this month led a […] Read more
New bean reduces frost, disease risk
Alberta bean growers will be keenly following field trials of a newly registered pinto variety this summer. AC Agrinto, a tall, early-maturing bean that yields about the same as the highest yielding existing varieties, is the first pinto line out of Agriculture Canada’s bean breeding program to receive registration. It offers growers better standability and […] Read more
Sask. considers organic centre
The Saskatchewan government is investigating whether it should help establish an organic learning centre in the province. A consultant has been hired to do an organic training needs assessment to see if there are ways the government can assist the province’s 1,200 organic producers become better farmers. It is a show of support for what […] Read more
Ranchers reap rewards for grass preservation
BEECHY, Sask. – Ted Perrin comes by range management honestly. “I was the first baby raised on the Matador,” said the 68-year-old farmer from Beechy, Sask. The Matador Community Pasture was one of the first in Canada and a model for those that followed. It is where Perrin learned about grassland management from his father […] Read more
