Canadians create over 50 million mt of food waste every year.

Food waste a troubling statistic

Prime Cuts with Steve Kay

North America is the land of plenty for most of its residents. One does not hear of people starving to death, as occurs in some developing nations. In fact, America and Americans discard more food every year than any other country. That is a scandal in and of itself. But even worse is that nearly […] Read more

While over half the food produced in Canada ends up in the landfill, meat products are the least-wasted of the food categories.

The drive to reduce food waste in Canada

The average Canadian household wastes 79 kilograms of food each year, estimates an organization looking to reduce food waste. About 58 per cent of the food produced in Canada is lost to the landfill, estimates the National Zero Waste Council, which comprises representatives from the Canadian food industry, retail, food service and government. Wasted food […] Read more


(AgropurSolutions.ca)

Agropur cheese plant workers take deal, halt strike

Milk not taken at Granby, Que. plant for over five weeks

Milk delivery to a major cheese plant in Eastern Canada is expected to resume soon as unionized employees at dairy co-operative Agropur’s facility at Granby, Que. end a five-and-a-half-week strike. The plant’s 250-odd workers, represented by the Syndicat des salaries de la fromagerie — an arm of Centrale des syndicats democratiques (CSD) — have voted […] Read more

Les Halliday finds cull potatoes to be highly palatable to cattle. Like any feed, they need to be introduced slowly. To avoid choking hazards, they should be chopped or ensiled before feeding.

Making food waste work in your feeding program

There are several benefits and challenges to weigh when introducing food waste as a feed source

When customers visit Mike Buis’ on-farm retail store to purchase beef, they often ask what unusual product he’s feeding his cows that day. “It keeps it interesting,” says Buis, who farms at Chatham, Ont., and feeds cull vegetables and processing byproducts to his herd. “They need to almost drive directly by the feed bunk to […] Read more



Cattle may be a uniquely efficient solution to some of the problems we see around food loss.

Waste not want not

Research on the Record with Reynold Bergen

When I was a kid, “no dessert if you don’t finish your supper” encouraged us to eat everything on our plates. Others grew up with the guilt-based “children are starving in the Third World” approach. There are more than twice as many people on earth today as there were 40 years ago, so issues such […] Read more


University of Guelph professor Evan Fraser, shown here in cartoon form discussing food security initiative “Feeding 9 Billion,” has been named co-chair of the new Canadian Food Policy Advisory Council. (Feeding9Billion.com video screengrab via YouTube)

Advisory council named to steer national Food Policy

Development of Canada’s Food Policy is taking a major step forward with the naming Friday of a new advisory council featuring industry, academic and government members tasked with guiding the policy. Public consultations on a “Food Policy for Canada” started in 2017, leading to the release of a 2018 report from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada […] Read more

Federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland appears at a news conference in Ottawa on Sept. 24, 2020. (Photo: Reuters/Blair Gable)

CFA seeks continued ag support in next federal budget

Federation also presses for Buy Canadian campaign, processing support

Federal budget consultations are underway, with agricultural groups lobbying the government to support the industry further in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland on Jan. 25 launched pre-budget consultations and since then, her schedule has involved several meetings with stakeholders. “We want to hear ideas from Canadians, from all walks of […] Read more


Young steers and heifers enjoy bakery items from Save-On-Foods.

Turning food waste into livestock feed

Jill Burkhardt shares her experience with a program that allows farmers to recycle grocery store shrink

Doughnuts, broccoli, pineapples, bread, cakes and cookies — sounds like some things you’d eat during the week? Well, it’s what our feeder cattle eat. Yes, you read that right, our feeders eat doughnuts, fruits, vegetables and cakes. How? It’s all thanks to a program called Loop and a local grocery store chain, Save-On-Foods. Loop started […] Read more

Farmer Anil Salunkhe feeds strawberries to a cow during a 21-day nationwide lockdown to slow the spread of COVID-19 in the Satara district in India’s Maharashtra state on April 1, 2020. (Photo: Reuters/Rajendra Jadhav)

How COVID-19 is upending global food supply chains

Cows fed strawberries in India, watermelons rot in U.S., okra not reaching Canada

Satara/Singapore/London | Reuters — In the fertile Satara district in western India, farmers are putting their cattle on an unorthodox diet: Some feed iceberg lettuce to buffalo. Others feed strawberries to cows. It’s not a treat. They can either feed their crops to animals or let them spoil. And other farmers are doing just that […] Read more