Scenic autumn view of the rural landscape, orchards, vineyards, and wineries of Oliver located in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia, Canada. Photo: laughingmango/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Local food system would reap big economic benefits researcher says

B.C. researchers found that the Okanagan could produce two thirds of its own food while maintaining exports

Assuming an average Canadian diet, the Okanagan can currently produce 88 per cent of its dairy needs, Mullinix and colleagues wrote in a report on the study. It can produce 60 per cent of its poultry needs, 34 per cent of its fruit needs (due to fruits eaten that can’t be grown in the region, or are eaten out of season), and small amounts of other food groups like grains, red meat, eggs and oils.

The money will be aimed at improving living quarters for temporary foreign workers, the federal government said.  Photo: Getty Images

Agriculture workers not mentioned in TFW rule changes

Food processing sees foreign worker limit reduced by ten per cent; construction, healthcare exempted

The federal government announced Thursday that, effective May 1, some sectors would be allowed no more than 20 per cent of their workforces to be made up of temporary foreign workers (TWFs) brought in via the low wage stream—down from 30 per cent since 2022. 



A farmer equipped to face police tear gas is posing for a photo while Indian farmers, who have been protesting for a week to demand guaranteed crop prices, wait to march to the capital near the Shambhu border that divides the northern Punjab and Haryana states, some 200 kilometers (120 miles) from New Delhi, India, on February 21, 2024. Photo: Rohit Lohia/NurPhoto.

Protesting Indian farmers burn effigies of Modi and other ministers

Farmers paused their march Wednesday after the death of a demonstrator--blamed on police aggression

Shambu, India | Reuters -- Indian farmers demanding higher prices for their crops burned effigies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other ministers on Friday as they sought to expand their protest against his government months before elections.