A few weeks ago, the Grain Farmers of Ontario encouraged farmers to boycott the Ontario government’s public consultation process concerning new regulations governing access and use of neonicotinoid seed treatments on corn and soybean seed. At the time, GFO stated that there was little to be gained at the public meeting, and that GFO and... Read More
Category: News
Perhaps compelled by the Christmas spirit (although unlikely), two seed industry heavyweights have decided to settle their differences and drop their remaining legal challenges against each other. DuPont and Monsanto announced Tuesday that they have agreed to dismiss patent infringement lawsuits against each other over seed-related technologies. Monsanto had claimed DuPont infringed on certain Monsanto... Read More
The final government-backed reports regarding recommendations for the fate of the University of Guelph's Alfred and Kemptville campuses rolled out in mid-December, and the findings were exactly what at least one group was hoping for. Marty Derks is chair of the Kemptville College Renewal Task Force assembled to maintain the Kemptville campus as an agriculture... Read More
Syngenta has announced it has received the safety certificate for its Agrisure Viptera trait (also know as "event MIR162") from China’s regulatory authorities, formally granting import approval. The approval covers corn grain and processing byproducts, such as dried distillers grains (DDGs), for food and feed use. The Agrisure Viptera corn trait provides protection against a... Read More
The University of Manitoba has announced the appointment of Dr. Karin Wittenberg as the new Dean of the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences. The first female dean in the faculty's history, Wittenberg is a professor in the Department of Animal Science and had served as Acting Dean since Dr. Michael Trevan stepped down in... Read More
The number of people in British Columbia enjoying chicken or turkey for a Christmas dinner this week likely won't be impacted by the outbreak of avian influenza in the province, according to survey results released by Chicken Farmers of Canada on behalf of the poultry and egg industries today. The results show that British Columbians... Read More
Whether it was the rail transportation fiasco in Western Canada, the ongoing country-of-origin labeling dispute with the U.S., the Canada-E.U. trade deal, UPOV '91, bee health, the Canadian Wheat Board...the list goes on — 2014 was another eventful and exciting year in Canadian agriculture. Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz joined RealAg’s Kelvin Heppner to look back... Read More
Grain Farmers of Ontario met December 18, 2014, with government representatives to ask the provincial government to abandon the proposed seed treatment regulations and, instead, "support an approach that will work for the complexities of both grain farming and bee keeping." "Family farmers need your commitment to agriculture now," says GFO of the provincial government,... Read More
‘Twas the week before Christmas, and down with a crash Came feeder cattle futures and Russia’s cash. CN charged too much to move grain by rail, And we laughed ’cause people got BS in the mail. Here’s TWORA for December 18th, 2014: Related: Happy Holidays from the RealAg Crew to You The Seedpod — Ep.... Read More
CN Rail exceeded its volume-based "cap" on grain revenue in the 2013-14 crop year by almost $5 million, according to a ruling issued by the Canadian Transportation Agency today. The CTA says CN's grain revenue of $672,110,852 was $4,981,915 above its entitlement of $667,128,937. Under federal regulations, the railway now has 30 days to pay... Read More