Smoke and mirrors on 'free range' in Oz? Monday, April 5, 2010 Last year, Humane Society International surveyed more than 3,000 Australians and found that over 93 per cent questioned didn't know that the label "free range" applied to meat from pigs that had access to the outdoors only in the first few weeks of life before being transferred to a "factory farming operation."Lisa Chalk, communications manager for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), complains that terms like "free range," "corn-fed" and "organic" are used inconsistently. Australia's largest animal welfare organization is calling for mandatory national standards.Pork production standards and labels are still on the back burner in Australia, for now. Meanwhile, the RSPCA has egg production in its gun sights. Chalk calls hen cages "legalized cruelty" and wants all hens raised out of cages.It's more than an animal cruelty issue, because consumers are paying more for eggs that are raised under so-called ethical standards. A consumer watchdog group charges that there are many more free range eggs on the market than could possibly be produced and consumers are paying more for them than for eggs produced in battery cages. Oops!! BP Choking on changes to hotdogs Brits promise more honest labelling
Alberta ROCT makes drug and weapons busts Thursday, June 25, 2026 A team of RCMP officers dedicated to keeping rural communities safe made significant drug and weapons busts recently. On June 20, the Rural Organized Crime Team (ROCT), which the provincial government provided $2 million of support for earlier in the month, found drugs and firearms during... Read this article online
Canada’s only commercial olive farm up for sale Thursday, June 25, 2026 A rarity in Canada, the only commercial olive farm in the country, is going up for auction in August. CLHbid.com will oversee the sale of The Olive Farm and its almost 74 acres of land in Salt Spring Island, B.C. Canadian olive production is very low because of its cold winters, and... Read this article online
Manitoba grain elevators listed as endangered Thursday, June 25, 2026 Grain elevators in the RM of Brenda-Waskada are considered some of the top 10 endangered structures in all of Manitoba. The Manitoba Historical Society on June 23 published its annual list of “historically significant buildings around our province that deserve to be preserved and better... Read this article online
NOAA Declares El Nino, Raising Key Weather Risks for Agriculture Thursday, June 25, 2026 The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has officially declared the onset of El Niño, confirming that ocean temperatures in the central Pacific have risen high enough to trigger one of the world’s most influential climate patterns. The declaration follows sustained... Read this article online
Anti-Dumping Probe Targets Wheat Gluten Imports in Canada Thursday, June 25, 2026 The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has opened an anti-dumping investigation into certain wheat gluten imports entering the Canadian market from Italy, Poland, and the United Kingdom. The inquiry will examine whether these products are being sold in Canada at unfairly low prices,... Read this article online