File photo of Upside Foods’ chicken product. (Upsidefoods.com)

Lab-grown meat cleared for human consumption by U.S. regulator

FDA's review not technically approval

Washington | Reuters — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the first time cleared a meat product grown from animal cells for human consumption, the agency announced on Wednesday. Upside Foods, a company that makes cell-cultured chicken by harvesting cells from live animals and using the cells to grow meat in stainless-steel tanks, […] Read more

File photo of a CN locomotive in Chicago. (Photo courtesy CN)

Third U.S. union rejects national rail contract deal

Two major unions' decisions due next week

Washington | Reuters — A third U.S. rail union voted on Monday to reject a tentative national contract reached in September, but expects to continue negotiating to reach a deal. The International Brotherhood of Boilermakers (IBB), which represents about 300 U.S. rail employees, rejected the agreement, said the union and the National Carriers’ Conference Committee […] Read more


Mycotoxins, such as vomitoxin, are produced primarily by Gibberella ear moulds (seen here) and can be disruptive when fed to livestock, especially hogs.  Photo: OMAFRA

U.S. corn farmers wary of vomitoxin, latest stress on global grain supplies

Chicago | Reuters – A fungus that causes “vomitoxin” has been found in some U.S. corn harvested this fall, causing headaches for growers and livestock producers and forcing ethanol plants and grain elevators to scrutinize grain deliveries. The situation is another hit to global grain supplies that have sunk to the lowest in a decade since Russia […] Read more




‘I’m in favour of scientific research on a pilot project scale. Experimenting with national and global food supplies? No.’ – Steve Dittmer.

Dittmer: Skeptical of the unproven

Free Market Reflections with Steve Dittmer

I’ve often had to apologize for something inane our politicians or fringe ranchers have been doing down here. But you weren’t supposed to try to catch up. Please tell your politicians to quit trying to outdo our stupidity. It’s unseemly, un-Canadian. I’ve always been appalled at the left’s devotion to dogmas impossible to scientifically, logically […] Read more


Gary Millershaski, a farmer and scout on the Wheat Quality Council’s Kansas wheat tour, inspects winter wheat stunted by drought near Syracuse, about 170 km west of Dodge City, on May 18, 2022. (File photo: Reuters/Julie Ingwersen)

U.S. winter wheat growers seed into dust as Plains drought persists

Chicago | Reuters — With seeding roughly halfway complete, the 2023 U.S. hard red winter wheat crop is already being hobbled by drought in the heart of the southern Plains, wheat experts said. Seeding plans may be scaled back in the U.S. breadbasket despite historically high prices for this time of year, reflecting rising global […] Read more

(Fudio/iStock/Getty Images)

Biden overhauling U.S. marijuana policy

Prior federal offenses to be pardoned; moves could ease U.S. business for cannabis firms

Washington | Reuters — U.S. President Joe Biden took steps to overhaul U.S. policy on marijuana on Thursday by pardoning thousands of people with federal offenses for simple marijuana possession — and initiating a review of how the drug is classified. Biden said thousands of people with prior federal convictions could be denied employment, housing […] Read more


File photo of a truck arriving at a Smithfield Foods pork plant at Smithfield, Va. on Oct. 17, 2019. (Photo: Reuters/Tom Polansek)

Smithfield Foods to pay US$75 million in pork price-fixing settlement

Follows similar settlement by JBS

Reuters — Smithfield Foods has agreed to pay US$75 million to settle a lawsuit by consumers who accused the meat producer and several competitors of conspiring to inflate prices in the $20 billion-a-year U.S. pork market by limiting supply. A preliminary settlement in the antitrust case was filed on Tuesday night with the federal court […] Read more

File photo of a BNSF grain train crossing the Gassman Coulee trestle near Minot, North Dakota. (Photo courtesy BNSF Railway)

U.S. railroad strike averted

Biden calls deal a 'win for America;' strike's impact would have reached up into Canada

Updated | Washington | Reuters — Major U.S. railroads and unions secured a tentative deal on Thursday after 20 hours of intense talks brokered by President Joe Biden’s administration to avert a rail shutdown that could have hit food and fuel supplies across the country and beyond. Biden called the deal a “big win for […] Read more