Erik BJORGAN for Parliament

Government memos reveal fish farmers pressured government to keep sea lice drugs secret, six years before biologist Alexandra Morton made it public. Read the rest of this entry »

Groups applaud MPs for moving Bill C-474 to Committee for study

Ottawa. Last night, Parliament passed Private Members Bill C-474 through second reading, in spite of intense pressure from the biotech industry. The Bill, which would require analysis of potential harm to export markets before the sale of new genetically modified (GM) seeds, will now be studied by the House of Commons Agriculture Committee. Read the rest of this entry »

Ontario farmer not guilty of selling raw milk

The Canadian Press

An Ontario farmer who operates a raw milk co-op was found not guilty Thursday of 19 charges related to selling unpasteurized milk. Michael Schmidt, from Durham, Ont., defended himself in 2009 against the charges for dispensing milk straight from the cow.

While raw milk is legal to drink, it’s illegal to sell in Canada.

Schmidt’s legal battles sparked a heated debate over the safety of raw milk. Advocates have extolled its flavour and health benefits, while health officials and the province’s milk marketing board, the Dairy Farmers of Ontario, have argued raw milk isn’t fit for widespread distribution.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/01/21/raw-milk-trial.html?ref=rss

by Wayne Roberts

Suppose they had a depression and nobody came?

Instead of accepting today’s economic downturn as a pink slip that can’t be refused, what if our governments reacted as if they had received a Facebook invitation: by selecting “join cause”, “learn more” or “ignore”?

When faced with the possibility of a recession, panicked politicians from around the world didn’t consider a range of options; they didn’t click on “learn more.” Instead, they hit “join cause.’” With a similar lack of vision, governments the world over are trying to spend their way out of the crisis by dumping loads of money into infrastructure projects, claiming a need for “shovel-ready” projects to “kick start’” the recovery.

The terms “shovel-ready” and “kick start” tell us that politicians turned to pre-ecological and pre-knowledge-based-economy styles of thinking. The possibility of a citizen-led economic recovery that featured agriculture, food and their allied sectors received no serious attention. But it should have, since such an approach could go a long way toward alleviating the ill effects of a downturn today while nurturing more sustainable economic foundations for tomorrow.

Read the rest of this article … http://www.agridigest.com/featureEatthis.html

Canadian agriculture salutes Margaret Webb of the Toronto Star for this exceptional piece of work.

Follow the flow of food. That’s what any farmer will tell you. Because apples don’t grow in supermarkets. So to get to the root of the exploding obesity epidemic, I went in search of a junk food farm.

Such farms are not so easy to spot. No fields of Dorito bags waving in the breeze, no orchards blooming with soda pop, no soil bursting with 99-cent burgers.

What you do see are vast operations growing the raw materials for junk food: soybeans and corn.

The two crops go into the production of many things: pharmaceuticals, industrial products, animal feed – and inexpensive calories.

Tonnes of soybeans and corn are turned into “edible food-like substances,” as food system critic Michael Pollan calls them, used in virtually all processed foods, beverages and junk food.

Last year, Ontario farmers planted 2.4 million acres of soybeans and just over 2 million acres of corn. That’s nearly half of all cropland in the province, a near-colonization of Ontario farms by the soy and corn industry.

It has provided an abundance of cheap calories for a food system that operates by Doritos economics. A bushel of corn produces some 440 two-ounce bags of 99-cent chips. Farmer grosses $3.70 for the bushel of corn, Doritos more than $440.

Read the rest of this article … http://www.agridigest.com/featureWherejunk.html

Dear Premier Campbell, Minister Shea, Eric Foster MLA Vernon-Monashee,
Colin Mayes MP Okanagan-Shuswap

Similar to other forms of “factory” farming, wherever in the world salmon is farmed in open net-cages, disease outbreaks cannot be controlled. The Chilean industry has been devastated by Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA) for two years and both Scotland and Norway continue to discover new cases. North America is not immune to viral diseases.

The constant threat of a disease running rampant through the industry’s open net-cages puts our wild fish at unacceptable levels of risk.

This week, governments around the world are being asked to take responsibility for making salmon farming safe for wild fish stocks and ocean ecosystems. Please let me know what specific actions your governments are taking to address the impacts of open net-cages.

Sincerely,
Russ Collins and Huguette Allen,
130 Shuswap River Dr
Lumby V0E 2G6
250-547-0272