(Bayer.com)

Bayer to consider shedding animal health unit

Leverkusen, Germany | Reuters –– Bayer might look into selling its animal health division if it continues to struggle to find takeover targets for the business, the German drugmaker’s incoming chief executive said. “Animal Health is a business that we have been trying for many years to strengthen strategically, that is to say inorganically. That […] Read more

(Peggy Greb photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

Investor group launches campaign to curb antibiotic use in food

Reuters — Fifty-four large investors managing one trillion pounds (C$1.84 trillion) in assets have launched a campaign to curb the use of antibiotics in the meat and poultry used by 10 large U.S. and British restaurant groups. McDonalds and JD Wetherspoon were among those to receive a March 15 letter from institutions including Aviva Investors […] Read more


(BritishCheese.com)

Russian cheese lovers find way around import ban

Moscow | Reuters — An entrepreneur has found a way to supply Italian parmesan, Dutch Gouda and British Cheddar to cheese connoisseurs in Russia, sidestepping a ban on importing European food that the Kremlin imposed in the fallout from the conflict in Ukraine. Russia’s government banned wholesale imports of fresh food products from the European […] Read more



Be cautious about writing blank cheques for supply managed commodities

To blindly compensate supply managed sectors in ratifying the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) makes as much sense as bailing out Bombardier through federal support. Stephen Harper’s defunct Conservative government pledged last fall to pay out $4.3B over 15 years to the supply-managed dairy, chicken and egg sectors. That amount is allegedly based on the premise that […] Read more

Saskatchewan Agriculture Minister Lyle Stewart, shown here at Ag in Motion in 2015, plans to leave the post following a recent cancer diagnosis. (File photo by Lisa Guenther)

Saskatchewan ag minister, ag critic return in election

Saskatchewan’s agriculture minister and opposition ag critic both easily held their ridings Monday night as the governing Saskatchewan Party completed its electoral hat trick. By about 1 a.m. Tuesday, Premier Brad Wall’s Saskatchewan Party had won 51 of 61 ridings, for a third straight majority mandate coming out of Monday’s general election. The opposition New […] Read more



(Stephen Ausmus photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

Two more states’ eggs, poultry allowed into Canada

Cross-border travellers may again bring raw poultry meat, eggs and live birds into Canada from North Dakota and Missouri. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency last week shortened its list of U.S. states under avian influenza-related restrictions to just one. Indiana remains under limits imposed in January after highly pathogenic (“high-path”) H7N8 avian flu turned up at […] Read more


(PremiumBrandsHoldings.com)

Premium Brands buys meat supplier C+C

Montreal meat distributor and processor C+C Packing is set to become a new eastern arm for Vancouver food firm Premium Brands. Premium Brands last Tuesday announced a $146 million cash-and-stock deal to buy C+C and its in-house processing arm Premier Meat Packers. The company supplies fresh and frozen meats to grocery chains, the hotel and […] Read more

Mexico clears Canadian poultry meat for import

Duck and other poultry from Canada may again be exported to Mexico, for the first time since 2004. Canada’s Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay and International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland on Thursday announced Mexico had reopened its border to fresh poultry meat including chicken, turkey and, “most significant in terms of historical trade,” duck. Mexico had […] Read more