The Food and Agriculture Organization says its vegetable oils index rose 4.2 percent in January to reach record levels
ROME, Italy (Reuters) — World food prices rebounded in January and remained near 10-year highs, led by a jump in the vegetable oils index, the United Nations food agency said Feb. 3. The Food and Agriculture Organization’s food price index, which tracks the most globally traded food commodities, averaged 135.7 points last month against an […] Read moreTag Archives COVID-19 virus — page 3
Force not needed in COVID protests: Man. premier
Manitoba’s premier isn’t comfortable with the use of additional force to end protests at the Emerson, Man., border crossing or in the city of Winnipeg. In a statement released Feb. 14, Heather Stefanson said she had spoken with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other premiers. Stefanson remains confident that the RCMP and City of Winnipeg […] Read more
Showdown at the border
The scene in and around the border village of Coutts, Alta., continues to be unstable after more than a week of protest. The disruption is affecting movement of beef products and live cattle into the industry’s largest export market. There are calls from beef producer organizations and politicians to end the blockade, and many of […] Read more
Vaccine mandates prompt food price worries
More social disruption predicted if COVID-19 vaccinations required for interprovincial trucking; expert warns of inflation
The federal Conservative critic for national supply chain resilience says Ottawa should expect more trucker demonstrations and blockades if it pushes ahead with additional vaccine mandates that affect interprovincial truck traffic. Prince Albert MP Randy Hoback said Ottawa’s policies promoting mandatory vaccinations in the commercial trucking industry have already caused avoidable frustration among many truck […] Read more
COVID vaccine protests rooted in rural disconnect
Political scientists say the social unrest over public health orders is similar to what’s been seen in the United States
Protests against government restrictions shouldn’t have caught anybody by surprise, says a University of Alberta political scientist. Jared Wesley and his team have watched the parallels between rural Saskatchewan and Alberta and the rural United States for about a decade. He said the underlying dynamics are the same and vaccine mandates have little to do […] Read more
Pork sector hopes for better year
Labour shortages caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, high feed costs and lower prices posed constant threats to Canada’s hog industry in 2021. Nevertheless, pork appears to be in a good spot entering 2022, according to two analysts. “2021 was not the best, but not the worst,” said Tyler Fulton, director of risk management for Hams […] Read more
Nothing transitory about inflation and supply chains
One word that’s gone way out of fashion for 2022 is “transitory.” That’s the term much-used early last year by many economists and central bankers in describing their outlook for inflation, which was rising as the world’s economies revived from the initial blow of the pandemic. It was also used to describe the supply chain […] Read more
Blockade hits major Man. border crossing
UPDATED – February 10 – 1520 CST – Reaction from Manitoba Pork added – A protest that began early this morning has shut down the main border crossing between Manitoba and North Dakota. At around 9 a.m., the RCMP alerted Manitobans that traffic was not moving through the Emerson border crossing, which connects Highway 75 […] Read more
Transition challenges expected after pandemic
Dangerous divergence seen between ability of wealthy nations to keep their populations safe and that of poorer countries
A lot of problems await the world once the pandemic recedes, the World Economic Forum says. The extreme stress of current and nearby problems is undermining the ability of governments around the world to address critical long-term issues. “The economic impacts of the pandemic, including (stressed) supply chains, rising commodity pricing, inflation and especially increased […] Read more
BLOG: Trucker unrest result of misguided public policy
Vaccine mandates affecting the trucking industry have understandably prompted a determined and outraged response from a number of Western Canada’s truckers and rural residents. A proportion of Canada’s commercial truckers who drive big rigs are opposed to federal rules that limit their mobility, as well as their ability to earn a living. Similarly, many farmers […] Read more
