The federal government has served a year’s notice on partially hydrogenated oils (PHOs) as ingredients in foods sold in Canada. Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor announced Friday that PHOs will be added to Canada’s List of Contaminants and Other Adulterating Substances effective Sept. 15, 2018, giving Canadian food processors and importers “enough time to find […] Read more

Partially hydrogenated oils on the way out
Ellen Crane named Nuffield Canada scholar
Youth: News Roundup from the September 2017 issue of Canadian Cattlemen
A young leader in Canada’s beef industry has been chosen as one of four 2018 Nuffield Canada scholars. Ellen Crane of Murray Siding, N.S., is currently the general manager of the Maritime Beef Council, co-ordinator for the Verified Beef Production Plus program in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and president of the Maritime Hereford Association. […] Read more

Alberta, feds back Lethbridge potato processing plant
The federal and Alberta governments are set to cover over $22 million in costs related to the construction of Cavendish Farms’ new potato processing plant at Lethbridge. The two levels of government on Monday announced $20 million for the City of Lethbridge for related municipal infrastructure developments, through the federal/provincial Clean Water and Wastewater Fund […] Read more

Film director Cameron backing Saskatchewan organic pea plant
A major new pulse plant has set up shop southwest of Saskatoon with plans to help back development of pulse-based foods and mentor organic growers — and bringing with it a pair of unusually high-profile investors. Verdient Foods on Monday announced the opening of a pulse food processing plant at Vanscoy, Sask., with plans for […] Read more
David Francis Farm wins CCA Environmental Stewardship Award
NewsMakers from the September 2017 issue of Canadian Cattlemen
David and Vicki Francis and their son Bret of David Francis Farm of Lady Fane, P.E.I. are the 2017 winners of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association Environmental Stewardship Award. The family has invested heavily in soil conservation on its potato and beef operation building grassed waterways, buffer zones, terraces and berms to reduce erosion. Their rotational […] Read more

UFA to shut down outdoor outfitter business
Alberta farmers’ co-operative UFA is set to get out of an “increasingly competitive” space in the retail sector by closing its outdoor supply chain Wholesale Sports. The co-operative, which bought what was then a seven-store chain in 2008, announced Thursday it would start inventory liquidation sales Friday at all 12 of its remaining Wholesale Sports […] Read more

Johne’s found in three per cent of cows in Sask. surveillance program
Health: News Roundup from the September 2017 issue of Canadian Cattlemen
Saskatchewan’s Johne’s Disease Surveillance Program has been very successful in that voluntary participation by cow-calf producers has increased every year to the point where there has been a waiting list the last two years. On the flip side, it has confirmed many participants’ fears of finding positive animals. From November 2013 to March 2017, there […] Read more

Prairie pork industry leader Bill Vaags, 82
UPDATED, Sept. 15 — A memorial service is planned for Sept. 19 in Winnipeg for a prominent Prairie figure in the business of promoting and securing export markets for Canadian pork. Bill Vaags, a pork producer at Dugald, Man. who led the Canadian Pork Council from 1985 to 1990 and chaired Canada Pork International from […] Read more
History: The Outlaws of the Cariboo
Reprinted from the September 1950 issue of Canadian Cattlemen
The Outlaws of the Cariboo By P. W. Luce, Vancouver, B.C. ‘Suicide Valley is the ominous name of a place four miles south of Clinton, a town of considerable importance in the gold days of the Cariboo. Some unremembered prospector hanged himself there long ago, but today the sheltered spot might well be called Double […] Read more

Prograin head buys into soy processor Ceresco
CORRECTED, Sept. 15, 2017 — A major Quebec processor and exporter of identity-preserved (IP) soybeans for food markets is set to be sold to an investor group including the head of soybean firm Semences Prograin. SG Ceresco, based southwest of Montreal at St-Urbain-Premier, will be sold to a joint venture between Prograin president Alain Letourneau’s […] Read more