Alberta MP John Barlow is back in the saddle as the shadow minister for agriculture, agri-food and food security. 

One of the six scholars named to a $15,000 Nuffield Canada scholarship is Mark Phillips, marketing specialist for the Prince Edward Island Potato Board. He intends to research public trust issues. 

Global crop protection company Corteva has named Canadian Chuck Magro as the next CEO, effective November 1, 2021.

Kevin Schooley is stepping down from his role as general manager after 18 years with the Berry Growers of Ontario. 

A snowy scene of a fruit orchard near Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario has won the “Photo of the Year” award from the Canadian Farm Writers’ Federation. The Grower published the photo by veteran photographer Denis Cahill in its January 2020 issue. 

Jourdan Tregunno is all smiles for the new Jupiter seedless table grape grown on two acres near Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario He’s a member of the Ontario Fresh Grape Growers’ Marketing Board that has high hopes that this variety may appeal to a different consumer segment with its candy-like flavour. 

This truck load of freshly cut celery is destined for a food processing plant near Centre Hall, Pennsylvania. Holland Marsh grower Tim Horlings says that the eight-hour haul from Newmarket Ontario to the U.S. is the last stage of six months of tender care from seedling to soup. 

Amanda Dooney, farm manager for Suncrest Orchards, shares the challenges of a pandemic year and how she’s making life better for Jamaican temporary foreign workers thinning apples near Simcoe, Ontario. She’s promised new bunkhouse quarters in time for harvest 2021.  

Nothing has been easy at EZ Grow Farms for the last pandemic year. And yet, pre-laid plans to expand the footprint of the strawberry plant propagation greenhouse has come to fruition near Langton, Ontario. Dusty Zamecnik is riding a revolution that’s taken the Ontario greenhouse strawberry industry from 50 to 120 acres in the last two years. 

The global pandemic continues to have many local impacts, from the ballooning costs of housing temporary foreign workers during the 14-day quarantine to short supplies of wooden pallets. One spot of good news is the vaccination clinic at the Ontario Food Terminal where just under 6,900 frontline workers, agri-business staff and immediate families were vaccinated in May. This young worker is scooping up bundles of fresh rhubarb to fulfill an order at the terminal’s farmers’ market. 

Apple grower Kyle Oakley and his family have transitioned to market gardeners in the last decade with the help of high tunnels. It’s an example of the trend to more protected and controlled environments.

Dr. Evan Fraser, director of the University of Guelph’s Arrell Food Institute, comments on the competitive pressures within today’s food system and shares his perspective on what’s needed for the next generation of farmers.

Amanda Dooney shares with The Grower how stable accommodations and accommodating change have kept temporary foreign workers happy and safe during the pandemic.

Dusty Zamecnik discusses the new technologies that are driving his greenhouse expansion, including global genetics for best flavour.

Potato growers welcome new products and label extensions that offer options for chemistry rotations.

The produce industry’s biggest international trade show, Fruit Logistica, has been postponed to April 5-7, 2022 due to the fourth wave of the pandemic in Europe.

The United States Labour Department approved 317,619 seasonal guest workers in the last fiscal year, a figure that’s up 15 per cent from the previous year. That’s an all-time record with Florida, Georgia and California farmers being the heaviest users of the program. 

J.R. Simplot is parlaying its CRISPR-Cas9 genome-editing expertise into the arena of strawberries, hoping to breed characteristics of longer shelf life with the help of Plant Sciences Inc in Watsonville, Calfornia. 

The U.S.-based Produce Marketing Association and United Fresh have announced that the merged organizations will be called International Fresh Produce Association, effective January 2022. 

The recent merger between Canadian Pacific Railway Limited and Kansas City Southern means there is now a single-line, competitive option for domestic intermodal shipments between Mexico, the U.S. Midwest, and Canada. Rail can now compete with trucks for time-sensitive shipments in high-value perishables.