File photo of a trumpeter swan in springtime on Marsh Lake, southeast of Whitehorse. (Scalia Media/iStock/Getty Images)

Northern egg harvesters cautioned over avian flu

High-path H5N1 found in wild birds in Yukon

Residents of Canada’s northern territories who harvest migratory wild birds and their eggs this spring are urged to take precautions as highly pathogenic avian influenza makes its way northward. The Yukon government’s animal health unit on May 27 reported confirmed cases of high-path H5N1 avian flu in two wild waterfowl carcasses. “Spring migration is ongoing […] Read more

Lisa Thompson. (LisathompsonMPP.ca)

Ontario ag minister returns in another Tory majority

Lisa Thompson retains seat in election

Ontario’s governing Progressive Conservatives will head back to the legislature with their incumbent agriculture minister at the caucus table. Lisa Thompson, Premier Doug Ford’s minister of agriculture, food and rural affairs since June last year, easily held her southwestern riding of Huron-Bruce in Thursday’s provincial election by a spread of 15,594 votes over Liberal challenger […] Read more


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Hepatitis A outbreak linked to organic strawberries

Cases reported in two provinces, three states

Washington | Reuters –– Food safety regulators in both Canada and the U.S. are investigating a hepatitis A outbreak potentially linked to tainted organic strawberries that has sickened 17 people in the U.S. and 10 in Canada, the agencies said. Fifteen illnesses were reported in California, and one each in Minnesota and North Dakota, the […] Read more

Yara’s fertilizer terminal at Stockton, California. (Sebastian Braum photo, Yara.com)

Fertilizer maker Yara says world faces extreme food supply shock

Sanctions cut global fertilizer supply 15 per cent, company says

Davos, Switzerland | Reuters — Norwegian fertilizer giant Yara says donors urgently need to close the U.N.’s $10 billion food programme funding gap to avoid a catastrophe as sanctions on Russian fertilizers and Ukraine’s grain export problems have created an extreme global shock. “The world has realized that food can be a weapon and it […] Read more


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U.S. seeks another CUSMA dispute panel on Canadian dairy quotas

Canada announced revised policies last week

Ottawa | Reuters — The Biden administration is requesting that a second dispute settlement panel be formed under the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) to review a trade dispute with Canada over dairy import quotas, it said on Wednesday. The U.S. alleges that Canada’s dairy tariff-rate quota allocations deny eligible U.S. applicants, including retailers, access to Canadian […] Read more



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Canadian retailers impose limits on baby formula purchases

Canada not as hard hit by shortage as U.S.

Toronto | Reuters — Many Canadian retailers have imposed limits on the amount of baby formula customers can buy amid a shortage following Abbott Laboratories’ February production suspension in the United States, an industry spokesperson said on Wednesday. Canada has not been as hard hit by the shortage caused by the suspension at the Abbott […] Read more

A hemp plant in Alberta. (Jennifer Blair photo)

Regulations, versatility pull hemp in different directions in West

Crop 'still struggling with reaching its full potential'

MarketsFarm — Accounting for 60 per cent of Canada’s 1,100 cultivation licenses as of 2020, according to Health Canada, Western Canada is the country’s most important region when it comes to hemp production. But while there are more products on store shelves, more cultivars than ever before and high prices for the crop, demand for […] Read more


A sign with McDonald’s golden-arches logo is on display near one of the chain’s restaurants in Moscow on May 16, 2022. (Photo: Reuters/Evgenia Novozhenina)

Golden arches to go dark in Russia as McDonald’s exits after 30 years

Russia, Ukraine form nine per cent of chain's revenue

Reuters — McDonald’s Corp. on Monday became one of the biggest global brands to exit Russia, laying out plans to sell all its restaurants after operating in the country for more than 30 years following the invasion of Ukraine. The world’s largest burger chain, which owns about 84 per cent of its nearly 850 restaurants […] Read more

(DimaSobko/iStock/Getty Images)

U.S. eyes baby formula imports amid nationwide shortage

About 40 per cent of formula products out of stock in U.S.

Washington | Reuters — U.S. health regulators will announce action on baby formula imports as soon as Monday to address a nationwide shortage that has left parents scrambling to feed their babies, the Food and Drug Administration’s chief said. FDA commissioner Robert Califf provided no details, but President Joe Biden said last week he was […] Read more