Too much at stake for Canada to ignore agribusiness mega-mergers
A series of mega-mergers among global seed and agricultural chemical companies is threatening to consolidate the sector and curtail competition. Bayer’s $62 billion offer to buy Monsanto in May was just the latest in a spate of deal-making among the major firms in the sector. In December last year, Dow and DuPont announced a $130-billion […]
Food insecurity: Not just a poor country’s problem
We are accustomed to thinking of food security as a poor country’s problem, something for national governments and the United Nations to solve. But a week-long trip to Whitehorse with the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation was a stark reminder of the food-security challenges faced here in Canada. Listening at the first-ever Yukon Food Security Summit, organized by […]
Innovation Minister Bains most lobbied minister in Trudeau cabinet
Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains is easily the most lobbied member of the Trudeau cabinet in the Liberal government’s term so far. Mr. Bains (Mississauga-Malton, Ont.), the top official of the newly named department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (formerly Industry Canada), had 116 communication reports filed since the new government took office in […]
Animal transport regulations: time for change
Imagine travelling—mostly standing—more than two days and two nights without water, food, or rest. Yet 52 hours is the allowed travel time for Canada’s cattle, sheep and goats, according to federal animal transport regulations. For pigs, poultry and horses, the prescribed time is 36 hours without water, food, or rest. That’s in addition to the […]
Is another dust bowl coming?
GUELPH, ONT.—In the 1930s, a bad drought and an economic malaise upended farming systems around North America causing the Dust Bowl. Could climate change and the persistent post-2008 economic doldrums do the same? On one hand, the environmental signals are sobering. The drought in California seems to be long-lasting and even this year’s record El […]
Action needed to help drought-stricken small farmers in Africa
A massive drought that has devastated huge swaths of southern and eastern Africa is putting nearly 14 million people at risk of hunger. This is a humanitarian emergency demanding immediate action. But while short-term action to address current food needs is critical, the international community must also take ambitious action to support smallholder farmers in […]
Bernier’s frank talk on supply management starts Tory leadership race on right foot
TORONTO—During my previous political job, I had the opportunity to talk and privately meet many people in Ottawa, including then ministers of the former government of Stephen Harper. I learned a lot during those meetings and I had a chance to know good people and politicians. One of those who impressed me the most was […]
The road to Paris goes through Bamako
The famous transcontinental road races, like the Paris-Dakar and the Budapest-Bamako rallies, have something in common with the race against climate change: they are gruelling, and they go through Africa. The global effort to respond and adapt to climate change must also go through Africa: through the fields of the farmers of the world who […]
TPP
Farming issues getting heard on Hill, agricultural lobbying up 50 per cent from last year
Representatives of Canada’s farming industry have been stepping up their lobbying on Parliament Hill in recent months, with trade being one of the main areas of discussion. Communication reports filed in the federal lobbyists registry show that some of the agricultural groups that have had communications with federal officials in April include the Canadian Cattlemen’s […]
