File photo of a chicken processing line in Ukraine. (AlexanderLipko/iStock/Getty Images)

Canada extends Ukraine tariff-free access

Access to supply-managed sectors tightened

Winnipeg | Reuters — Canada on Friday extended Ukraine’s tariff-free access for most goods, but tightened access for eggs, poultry and dairy — sectors protected under the Canadian supply-management system. Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said tariff relief for Ukrainian goods such as steel — a temporary measure started a year ago — would continue for […] Read more

(Keith Weller photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

U.S. Supreme Court upholds California’s pig confinement law

Dissent suggests 'substantial burden against interstate commerce'

Reuters — The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday preserved a California law banning the sale of pork in America’s most-populous state from pigs kept in tightly confined spaces, rejecting an industry challenge claiming that the voter-backed animal welfare measure impermissibly regulates out-of-state farmers. The justices voted 5-4 to uphold a lower court’s dismissal of a […] Read more


Close-up of a McDonald’s double Quarter Pounder with bacon. (Corporate.mcdonalds.com)

McDonald’s reported laying off hundreds of corporate employees

Layoffs don't include restaurant-level workers

New York | Reuters — The number of corporate employees McDonald’s Corp. plans to lay off this week will tally in the “hundreds,” a source familiar with the burger chain’s thinking said on Monday, as the company moves forward with a previously announced restructuring. The fast-food company is closing its offices “out of respect,” and […] Read more

(Nadezhda_Nesterova/iStock/Getty Images)

Bill to keep supply management off trade table moving forward

CCA, other groups oppose proposal as Bloc MP's private bill passes second reading

A federal private member’s bill that would codify the current government’s promise to leave supply-managed ag commodities out of any future free trade deals has advanced to the committee stage. Introduced last June 13 by Bloc Quebecois MP Luc Theriault, Bill C-282 came back last Wednesday to pass second reading in the House of Commons […] Read more


(TrouwNutrition.ca)

International joint venture buys Prairie layer hatchery

ILD, Trouw Nutrition to co-own Clark's Poultry

A Manitoba company providing day-old layer chicks to poultry producers in the three Prairie provinces is under new joint ownership. International Layer Distribution (ILD), a subsidiary of German egg layer breeding firm EW Group, and Trouw Nutrition Canada, a livestock feed arm of Nutreco, on Monday announced their joint venture has acquired Clark’s Poultry for […] Read more

(Scott Bauer photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

U.S. avian flu outbreak of 2022 wipes out record number of birds

Vast majority of caseload originated with wild birds: USDA

Chicago | Reuters — Avian flu has wiped out 50.54 million birds in the United States this year, making it the country’s deadliest outbreak in history, U.S. Department of Agriculture data showed Thursday. The deaths of chickens, turkeys and other birds represent the worst U.S. animal-health disaster to date, topping the previous record of 50.5 […] Read more


(Diane Kuhl/iStock/Getty Images)

CUSMA compensation set for supply-managed sectors

Feds pledge over $1.7 billion in payments, programs

A final round of payments and programs for Canada’s supply-managed dairy and feather sectors — this time in compensation for the sequel deal to NAFTA — is now on deck for 2023 and beyond. Compensation to those sectors for domestic market concessions granted under the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) was telegraphed in federal Finance Minister Chrystia […] Read more

(Lauri Patterson/iStock/Getty Images)

Thanksgiving in a time of bird flu

North America's poultry sector is embroiled in a fall surge of avian influenza, even as turkey demand hits one of its annual peaks

It’s the final stretch until Thanksgiving, but anyone hoping to bring their raw bird over the border may be disappointed. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is warning the public that raw poultry, including turkey, from restricted areas of the U.S. will not be allowed past the international border due to the ongoing fight with […] Read more


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

File photo of a small flock of tundra swans taking off from a grain field in early spring. (WWing/iStock/Getty Images)

Spring planting work can kick up avian flu, feather sector warns

Three more poultry outbreaks confirmed in Canada so far this week

Spring planting work could soon start to bring unintended gifts left by wild birds from fields into farmyards, Ontario’s poultry and egg sectors warn, as more cases of avian flu are confirmed at poultry farms across the country. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency on Thursday reported three additional outbreaks of H5 avian influenza in commercial […] Read more