Angry Saskatchewan restaurant owners say they will fight the proposed application of the provincial sales tax on meals they serve. Several of the 40 owners and employees who attended a public meeting in Regina Jan. 20 issued emotional pleas to leave the tax off restaurant meals. The suggestion was made in the recently released report […] Read more
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Restaurant owners against footing bill for education
Maple Leaf to fingerprint pork
WINNIPEG – Canada’s largest hog producer and processor has launched a system that can trace a pork loin on a Japanese meat counter back to the farm where the hog was born. Maple Leaf Foods said the system could one day be extended to trace beef and other meat. It said its high-speed DNA database […] Read more
Internet fails to click in rural areas
Rural Canadians are not embracing the internet as quickly as rural policy makers had hoped, a Statistics Canada analysis has concluded. The federal government has promoted internet and national broadband service to help rural residents overcome distance and isolation problems. But a report authored by Statistics Canada analyst Vik Singh says there is lower internet […] Read more
BSE rules, not terrorists, hold up soldiers’ beef
When Canada’s 2,500 hungry soldiers in Afghanistan sit down for a beef dinner after a day of patrolling, the steak on their plate is more likely to have come from Texas than Alberta. That bugs one Alberta Conservative MP who has worked to support the Canadian cattle industry through the income and marketing crisis launched […] Read more
Make your farm an ‘experience’
WETASKIWIN, Alta. – Once farmers put out the welcome mat for visitors to the farm, they need to make sure they make the visit as memorable as possible, says an Alberta Agriculture farm marketing specialist. Part of creating that memorable experience is having enough choice for every visitor, said Kerry Engel of Alberta Agriculture’s agri-entrepreneurship […] Read more
CWB trims costs, cuts staff
The Canadian Wheat Board is slashing jobs and restructuring in a bid to save farmers money and make the board more responsive. “Our farmer stakeholders are under severe financial pressure and need to extract maximum value from the marketplace,” said chief executive officer Adrian Measner. When Measner was appointed to the board’s top job in […] Read more
U.S. wheat industry moves toward unified lobby
ATLANTA, Ga. – The U.S. wheat industry is one step closer to speaking with a single voice. The three major producer-supported national wheat groups agreed last week to carry on discussions aimed at merging into one. Backers of the plan say a merger would create a more powerful and influential lobby group for U.S. wheat […] Read more
Communicator willingly steps into conflicts
LETHBRIDGE, Alta. – She left rural Alberta at age 15 and now works in the city to inform others about agriculture. Brenda Hunik operates Encompass, a communications company that has worked extensively with groups like the Alberta Beef Producers and the Canadian Cattle Commission. Despite hard times from bovine spongiform encephalopathy and a closed border, […] Read more
Banks buckle down on feedlot owners
Any grace period banks had extended to feedlot owners after the discovery of BSE in Canada seems to be over, according to the general manager of the Alberta Cattle Feeders Association. “The banks are seriously reassessing their situation,” said Axelson. He said nervous bankers are telling feedlot operators they want to see an improved debt-to-equity […] Read more
Avian flu poses small risk to Canadians
Fowl from Canadian farms are relatively safe from the Asian avian flu because they are raised in controlled environments indoors, but humans could be at risk from a mutated strain of the virus. Reports indicate no evidence to show the virus has passed from human to human, only between the affected birds and those handling […] Read more
