Insights and Stories on General

Canada’s WTO envoy to oversee dispute settlements

Feb. 25, 2013 at 5:07 pm CST

The World Trade Organization has named its representative from Canada as the chair for its Dispute Settlement Body. Jonathan Fried, Canada’s envoy to the WTO since last August, will chair the DSB for a one-year term, the global trade body’s general council announced Monday. As DSB chair, Fried replaces Pakistan’s […]

Trudeau’s iconic ag minister Eugene Whelan, 88

Feb. 20, 2013 at 2:57 pm CST

BNP Paribas suspends ag fund after criticism

Feb. 12, 2013 at 6:20 pm CST

USDA sees one more boom year for U.S. farmers

Feb. 12, 2013 at 9:09 am CST

Famine hit North Korea’s rice basket in 2012, report says

Feb. 8, 2013 at 2:26 pm CST

PFGBest boss gets 50 years’ jail for fraud

Jan. 31, 2013 at 6:48 pm CST

A U.S. judge on Thursday sentenced the founder of Peregrine Financial Group (PFGBest) to 50 years in prison for looting hundreds of millions of dollars from the brokerage, saying his customers would probably never recover the money they lost. Russell Wasendorf Sr., who had tried to kill himself just before […]

By P.J. Huffstutter

GF2’s new AgriMarketing program taking applications

Jan. 31, 2013 at 6:04 pm CST

Canada’s federal and provincial ag departments, ahead of the April 1 launch of their new ag policy funding framework, have opened their new AgriMarketing program to applications from the industry. Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz, speaking Thursday in Edmonton, fleshed out details for both the AgriMarketing and AgriCompetitiveness arms of […]

AAFC to shed federal responsibility for co-operatives

Jan. 29, 2013 at 3:14 am CST

Canada’s federal agriculture department is poised to hand off its responsibility for policy and support relating to the co-operative sector. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s oversight of Canada’s Rural and Co-operatives Secretariat (RCS), which the department has held for over 30 years, is to be transferred to Industry Canada. Further details […]

Canada’s farm fatality rate seen declining

Jan. 25, 2013 at 3:09 pm CST

Newly-gathered data on work-related farm deaths in Canada over an 18-year span shows a marked drop in such deaths after the turn of the millennium, suggesting a "greater commitment" to managing safety risks. A report from Canadian Agricultural Injury Reporting (CAIR), documenting farm fatalities from 1990 to 2008, puts the […]

Food prices to stay high in 2013, FAO says

Jan. 10, 2013 at 5:49 pm CST

Food prices will stay at high levels in 2013 and low stocks pose the risk of sharp price increases if crops fail, the United Nations’ food agency said on Thursday, after its index showed prices fell for the third month running in December. A surge in food prices over the […]

By Catherine Hornby