Bill 156, the Security from Trespass and Protecting Food Safety Act, 2020, has received Royal Assent following a vote of 68 for, 22 against in the Ontario legislature. The new law features heavier fines for trespassing on farms, including: Escalating fines of up to $15,000 for a first offence and $25,000 for subsequent offences, compared... Read More

Originally announced in February — what seems like a lifetime ago now — Tim Hortons has made good on its commitment to introduce a non-dairy option for its hot beverage line up. Following poor profitability performance to round out 2019 (comparable sales were down over 4%), the company laid out its plans to change a... Read More

U.S. dairy groups are accusing Canada of making it difficult for U.S. dairy exporters to take advantage of the full market access negotiated in the new North American trade deal, which takes effect on July 1. The Canadian government published the fine print on how the allocation of its tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) will work under... Read More

Organizers of the World Dairy Expo have announced the 2020 edition of the show has been cancelled due to COVID-19. The largest dairy event in North America was slated to be held September 29 to October 3, 2020, at Madison, Wisconsin. General manager Scott Bentley says after meeting with government and public health officials, it... Read More

A federal grand jury in a U.S. District Court in Colorado has indicted four current and former senior executives from two major American chicken companies for their role in conspiring to fix prices and rig bids for broiler chickens. "Executives who cheat American consumers, restauranteurs, and grocers, and compromise that integrity of our food supply,... Read More

The four western Canadian provincial hog producer groups are asking three major pork processors for a larger cut of the value of each hog. The boards of directors for the B.C. Pork Producers Association, Alberta Pork, Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork Council have sent a letter to Maple Leaf Foods, Olymel, and Donald’s Fine Foods... Read More

Live cattle futures have been slowly chipping way at the drastic declines experienced earlier this year due to COVID-19. In the last 30 days, the June cattle future has climbed $15.45 to just under $100. At its lowest point, in early April, the June future was $76.60. With U.S. cash trading between $115 and $120... Read More

Canada and the U.S. have experienced very similar paths of food system disruption due to COVID-19. Both countries have seen the fall in restaurant demand and packers going offline, followed by milk dumping, animals being euthanized, and consumers hyperventilating over shortages of toilet paper and ground beef. Although they've experienced the same impacts and stress... Read More

Donald's Fine Foods, based in Richmond, B.C., is looking at developing the defunct XL foods beef plant in Moose Jaw into a sow processing facility. The company is conducting a feasibility study and gauging overall support from producers, the public, and government for creating a "technologically advanced sow processing facility serving Western Canadian hog producers,"... Read More