Recent Issues

China is home to nearly 1.5 billion people and is the world’s second largest economy, valued at USD$17.74 trillion in 2021. Canada’s agri-food exports to China represented almost CAD$9.4 billion in 2020, an increase of 43.3% from 2019. While China’s continued growth has been beneficial for exporters and significantly alleviated its domestic poverty rates metrics, the pace of its growth has also left some behind. Moreover, while its historical growth rate has been quite high, its potential growth may slow, with trade implications for exporters like Canada. These implications may be compounded by an increasingly inward-facing approach to development, as well as several key structural factors, including access to food, energy, and healthcare; an ageing population; and food security concerns. Due to the nature of today’s global supply chain, any instability in China has potential risks for its trade partners.

Markets: Market Disruptions

Posted Date: March 10, 2023

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The urgent need for a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions has increased the pressure across the globe on businesses in every sector and governments at every level to make changes to how they operate toward reducing or eliminating environmental impacts. Agriculture is among those sectors most affected by this momentum of change, not only because of its significant impacts on people, economies, and on the natural environment, but because it is an immediately available “technology” that can significantly influence global carbon levels for the better.

Management: Technology and Innovation

Posted Date: February 2, 2023

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The cultured protein movement has gained significant momentum due to accelerating consumer demand for the food industry to become not only carbon neutral, but carbon negative, more humane, more affordable, more nutritious, more abundant, more secure, and more localized. To meet the increasingly numerous and complex demands of a growing population, food production is on the cusp of a new revolution with cultured protein stepping forward to assert itself as part of the solution to what many perceive as threats to food safety, security, animal welfare and the environment. Risks of cultured protein are still unfolding as development of this technology continues to evolve. However, in terms of risks to livestock farmers, cultured proteins represent a direct challenge to animal agriculture, no matter how technologically developed farming is or may become.

Management: Public Trust and Consumer Advocacy

Posted Date: November 21, 2022

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The threat of cyberattacks on agricultural producers is increasing, along with the resulting costs for individual farmers and agri-food businesses alike with payments to hackers reaching new highs every year. Cyberattacks are an issue of concern for any individual, industry, or government. More than 20% of Canadian businesses were a target of a cyberattack in 2019. A recent report puts the cost of cyberattacks on Canadian businesses in the hundreds of millions each year, although the actual amount is certainly higher as most attacks go unreported.

Management: Technology and Innovation

Posted Date: June 8, 2022

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When COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), it wasn’t clear to producers what that would mean for the demand for agricultural products. In Canada, we faced challenges such as an increased demand for wheat flour and a decreased demand for dairy, leading to dumping. In a different industry, the world’s silicon chip manufacturers expected demand for electronic devices to decrease, and so production of these essential components was slowed down. Very soon, however, demand not only increased, but it began to outpace the rate of production. This shortage of chips began to affect many other industries, including agriculture, which uses a lot of advanced technology.

Markets: Market Disruptions

Posted Date: March 30, 2022

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Business risk management (BRM) is most often understood in reference to federal or provincial risk management programs aiming at mitigating the consequences of financial and production uncertainties. But business risk management is more than that. The approach of business risk management is also about reducing or eliminating risk by taking proactive, systematic action to ensure resilience to potential impacts resulting from known or unknown threats. This approach does not and should not exclude reactive supports, but can enable farmers to rely more on themselves to build holistic durability and adaptability into their farms. They can do so by having a plan to prevent, mitigate, and manage not only what can be controlled, but what cannot be controlled.

Management: Business Management

Posted Date: January 31, 2022

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The global pandemic has revealed that agriculture is an essential industry, and farmers are resilient. While we celebrate these successes, it’s also important to reflect on what we could have done differently to manage risk and maximize opportunity. Moving forward, farms that use foresight and put business practices in place to reduce uncertainty will be better positioned for continued success.

Management: Business Management

Posted Date: November 11, 2021

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The current COVID-19 pandemic has raised the question of the link between the nature of animal farming and the risk of new pandemics, with a view that intensive industrial-scale animal farming increases the risk of pandemics and that the current global supply chain for animal products is vulnerable to this risk. Some viruses present in farmed animal population have broken the species barrier and become pathogenic for humans with the risk of human-to-human transmission (e.g., the G4 variant of avian influenza, H5N6 or H5N1). As these animal diseases threaten human health, one may see increased public distrust of animal products.

Biosecurity: Public Trust and Consumer Advocacy

Posted Date: May 27, 2021

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The controversial nature of palm-oil-derived ingredients used in animal feed is related to the bad press for palm oil in general due the environmental impacts resulting from its production and the potential risk for human health. The use of such additives is perfectly legal in Canada, however, several dairy industry associations (CILQ, PLQ and DFC) have asked dairy farmers to stop using feed containing palm oil ingredients to preserve the trust of Canadian consumers in dairy products.

Management: Public Trust and Consumer Advocacy

Posted Date: May 13, 2021

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