A 2021 Toyota Tundra Trail edition pickup truck. (Media.toyota.ca)

Sale of new fuel-powered cars, light trucks to be banned from 2035

Interim targets to be set for 2025, 2030

Ottawa | Reuters — Canada will ban the sale of fuel-burning new cars and light-duty trucks from 2035 in an effort to reach net-zero emissions across the country by 2050, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government said on Tuesday. Only zero-emissions cars and trucks can be sold from 2035, according to a statement, adding that a […] Read more


(StockstudioX/E+/Getty Images)

Farm workers qualify for Alberta’s ‘critical worker’ benefit

Employers can apply starting Tuesday

Alberta has expanded the pool of workers eligible for its pandemic-related Critical Worker Benefit to include farm workers starting Tuesday (June 22). The province announced Tuesday that eligibility for the $1,200 payments would expand to more categories of workers who “provided critical services to Albertans, were essential to the supply and movement of goods, and […] Read more

A hawk on a fence post in Saskatchewan’s Qu’Appelle Valley. (Bobloblaw/iStock/Getty Images)

Indigenous-led ag projects get federal funding

Funding to support business planning and other studies

Sixteen projects to help support Indigenous-led food system initiatives will receive $4 million from the federal government. “Our government is working to create a more inclusive agriculture sector that respects the values of Indigenous Peoples,” Agriculture Minister Marie Claude Bibeau said in a statement Friday. “These investments are intended to ensure that Indigenous Peoples have […] Read more


Two Raven OMNiPower (formerly DOT) machines at work in the field. (RavenPrecision.com)

CNH to buy Raven Industries

Heavy equipment maker to pay US$2.1 billion for precision ag firm

The parent company behind Case IH, New Holland, Flexi-Coil and Steyr farm equipment is set to absorb a significant U.S. supplier of precision ag tech to its product lines and others. CNH Industrial on Monday announced a friendly all-cash agreement to buy up all shares in Sioux Falls, South Dakota-based Raven Industries for about US$2.1 […] Read more

A DOT (now OmniPower) autonomous unit at work on the Olds College Smart Farm. (Olds College video screengrab via YouTube)

College farms, GFM Discovery Farm to get smarter together

Two Alberta colleges sign on for new CAAIN-backed network

A pair of Alberta college farms and Glacier FarmMedia’s Saskatchewan farm are the first to plug into a national network of “smart farms” to improve the ag sector’s smart technology experience. The Olds College Smart Farm will lead the Pan-Canadian Smart Farm Network, which will also include Glacier FarmMedia Discovery Farm at Langham, Sask. and […] Read more


(Flaman Group video screengrab via YouTube)

Clean ag tech adoption fund open for applications

Intake open and ongoing for Agricultural Clean Technology Program

A federal program farmers can use to invest in “cleaner” on-farm equipment — including money specifically for more efficient grain dryers — is now taking applications. Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau on Wednesday announced the $165.7 million Agricultural Clean Technology Program is “now open to applicants.” First launched in 2018 and earmarked for expansion under […] Read more

(MyLand.ag)

AGI to buy into soil microbe breeding firm

Machinery maker to take minority stake in MyLand

A U.S. company ramping up a system to harvest, reproduce and restore beneficial microbes from a field’s own soils, as a way to restore peak fertility, expects to get backing soon from a Canadian farm equipment maker. Winnipeg-based Ag Growth International (AGI) said Monday it has signed a conditional letter of intent with Phoenix-based MyLand […] Read more


Brazilian meatpacker JBS SA’s logo on a tower in Jundiai, northwest of Sao Paulo in southeastern Brazil, on June 1, 2017. (File photo: Reuters/Paulo Whitaker)

JBS says it paid US$11 million in bitcoin for ransom

Cyberattack disrupted plants in North America, Australia

Reuters — Meatpacker JBS USA paid a ransom equivalent to US$11 million (C$13.3 million) following a cyberattack that disrupted its North American and Australian operations, the company’s CEO said in a statement Wednesday. The subsidiary of Brazilian firm JBS halted cattle slaughtering at all of its U.S. plants and its Alberta beef plant for a […] Read more

File photo of the flags of Canada and its provinces and territories at Canada Place in Vancouver. (lilly3/iStock/Getty Images)

Feds launch consultations on next ag policy framework

Programming types, cost-sharing among expected contentious points

Consultations for Canada’s next agricultural policy framework are officially underway. The five-year framework agreement currently in place, known as the Canadian Agricultural Partnership (CAP), is a $3 billion funding deal between federal, provincial and territorial governments that funds a wide range of programming within the sector. That deal, agreed upon in mid-2017, kicked off in […] Read more