Latest news with #CanadianAgri-FoodPolicyInstitute
Winnipeg Free Press
05-07-2025
- Business
- Winnipeg Free Press
Digital agriculture languishing in Canadian fields
Opinion Frustration oozes out of the opening lines of a report highlighting the current state of adoption for digital agriculture in Canada. 'Digital agriculture offers powerful tools to address Canada's pressing agricultural challenges, but the current approach isn't delivering results,' says the analysis compiled by Manitoba-based EMILI and the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute. 'Despite the potential to increase yields by 20 per cent, while reducing environmental impact, Canada captures just three per cent of global agtech venture capital investment compared to 55 per cent in the United States.' SUPPLIED A drone-mapping tech demonstration takes place at Innovation Farms, the Manitoba field space EMILI uses for testing new ag technology. If the trend continues, the report forecasts fewer Canadian agtech companies and fewer innovations to support Canadian farmers, which places the sector at a competitive disadvantage relative to more 'digitally advanced nations.' EMILI (Enterprise Machine Intelligence Learning Initiative), an industry-led body that works with farmers, industry, investors and innovators to promote the development of digital tools for agriculture. So from its perspective, any pace of adoption is too slow. But if you overlay the issues holding it back and the future challenges Canadian agriculture faces in productivity, competitiveness, profitability, generational transfer, labour and sustainability — to name a few — it's hard to argue with the report's conclusion. In short, while farmers have widely embraced technology such as GPS guidance systems, which have shown to reduce fuel costs by as much as 15 per cent and increased yields by upwards of 10 per cent, they have been slow to fully embrace this expanding suite of technologies. It's not because they are stodgy old stick-in-the-muds like they are sometimes portrayed, but because the results so far can't consistently align with the promises. That hesitancy in turn puts a chill on investment as startups working in the innovation space struggle to scale up to commercial release and enter a marketplace where uptake is anything but certain. Just as with the adoption of no-till farming two generations ago, farmers moving into this space aren't just buying different field equipment, they must change how they think about farming to achieve the benefits. It's how they apply what is described as the 'broad ecosystem' of software, robotics and AI-driven insights to their on-farm management that unlocks the potential. 'These tools don't just boost yields. They save time, reduce stress and strengthen farmers' control over their operations. Recognizing this full scope is key to unlocking its full potential across all farm types,' the report says. However, on the farm, potential doesn't pay the bills. If it doesn't rain or it's too cold, hot or wet, the return on investment on a new technology evaporates, even if it works as promised, which isn't always the case. Plus, there are significant barriers to adoption, not the least of which is poor connectivity. More than one-fifth of rural Canadians still lack access to high-speed internet and 90 per cent of Canada's farmers live in underserved areas. Data ownership and control are another problem. Farmers are repeatedly assured they retain ownership of their data, but control over how it is used is a grey area underscored by lengthy consent forms that seemingly require a legal degree to decipher. Farmers are careful about how much intel about their operations they share, as it can affect relationships with suppliers, buyers and competitors. Information is power. Wednesdays A weekly dispatch from the head of the Free Press newsroom. Another issue is interoperability; the different technologies and platforms in the marketplace today don't always talk to each other — making it hard for farmers to harvest the benefits of an integrated system. On top of all that, the policy approach within Canada has been fragmented and short-sighted. 'Canada's mix of federal and provincial programs is not sufficient to drive a digital revolution in Canadian agriculture,' the report says. It calls for digital agriculture to become the focus of Canada's next five-year plan for agriculture when it is negotiated by federal, provincial and territorial ministers. That plan must include an enabling regulatory environment, investment in programs and partnerships, as well as extension support for farmers. Or Canada will fall even further behind. Laura Rance is executive editor, production content lead for Glacier FarmMedia. She can be reached at lrance@ Laura RanceColumnist Laura Rance is editorial director at Farm Business Communications. Read full biography Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Winnipeg Free Press
03-05-2025
- Business
- Winnipeg Free Press
Ensuring Canada's food system is on solid ground
Opinion Canadian farmers are more accustomed to dealing with uncertainty than most. If they are a bit nonchalant about the changing climate, it's because they adapt to it every day as part of their farm routine. They have no control over the markets. They get a vote on who sets their policy environment, but as they represent less than two per cent of the population, many would argue they have little sway over the outcome. After last week's federal election, they at least have certainty over who they are dealing with. Their organizations were busy pumping out news releases indicating their willingness to work with the Liberals led by Mark Carney. It's not the outcome many of them wanted, but they all recognize they must work with this government to navigate the economic and regulatory hardships caused by our chaos-loving next-door neighbour — especially as attention turns to positioning that trading relationship for the future. While many farm organizations have zeroed in on the most pressing issues for their members, the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute focused its advice to the new government on framing key issues more broadly to set the stage for the upcoming debates. A series of papers by the institute's directors, staff and distinguished fellows provides some important context to issues that have long simmered and are about to boil. Some of these perspectives don't align with how farm groups see things. Elise Bigley, the institute's director of strategic projects, writes Canada's suite of business risk management programs needs a rethink to better define their core purpose and consider whether a one-size-fits-all approach is practical. 'Trying to design a margin program that works well for a mixed farm and for a single commodity operation is difficult and likely means it will not work well for either, as is the case with AgriStability,' she says. Support programs' costs, shared by federal and provincial-territorial governments and farmers, have soared 50 per cent since 2018. Meanwhile, more farmers are opting out because these programs don't meet their needs and provincial governments have stepped in with top-ups that defeat the purpose of having a national plan. 'It is important to consider whether Canada is maintaining the right balance between reactive and proactive approaches to risk management, especially in light of the calls for increased investment in BRM (business risk management) programs and strategic initiatives,' Bigley said. 'There needs to be a more transparent dialogue around whether it would be more prudent to increase investments in domestic value-added, trade diversification and innovation to help farmers proactively manage the increased risks they are facing.' C.D. Caldwell, a Dalhousie University professor emeritus who focuses on agricultural ecology, makes a strong case for supporting Canada's supply management of dairy, poultry and eggs. Despite higher prices at the grocery store, the overall cost of the system to Canadians is far lower than in the U.S., where up to 73 per cent of an American dairy farmer's returns come from taxpayers, he said. Caldwell said the Canadian system brings value far beyond the economic rationale, such as the environmental benefits of matching supply to demand and stabilizing the rural economy. 'We need a food system in Canada that has a balance of economics, environment and health. The old idea of supply management is a new idea for ecological, healthy, sustainable systems. It should be modified, if necessary, but the principles remain sound,' he wrote. The CAPI papers also highlight the need for better support of young farmers, more biodiversity, enabling the adoption of digital agriculture and data tools, promoting 'buy local' and decluttering regulatory systems. 'Just as 'one-size-fits-all' does not work for hockey equipment, it doesn't work for regulatory design or compliance regimes,' writes Rory McAlpine, who recently retired as senior vice-president, government and industry relations with Maple Leaf Foods. The new government faces a cacophony of voices with pressing concerns, but these issues deserve attention. What could be more important than ensuring the country's food system is on solid ground? Laura Rance is executive editor, production content lead for Glacier FarmMedia. She can be reached at lrance@ Laura RanceColumnist Laura Rance is editorial director at Farm Business Communications. Read full biography Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
CNN
10-03-2025
- Business
- CNN
Fact check: What Trump doesn't mention about Canada's dairy tariffs
President Donald Trump correctly noted Friday, as he has before, that Canada has tariffs above 200% on dairy products imported from the US. But Trump again failed to mention a critical fact. Those high tariffs kick in only after the US has hit a certain Trump-negotiated quantity of tariff-free dairy sales to Canada each year – and as the US dairy industry acknowledges, the US is not hitting its allowed zero-tariff maximum in any category of dairy product. In many categories, notably including milk, the US is not even at half of the zero-tariff maximum. 'In practice, these tariffs are not actually paid by anyone,' Al Mussell, an expert on Canadian agricultural trade, said in an email Friday. Trump also made a claim that is simply false. He told reporters Friday that the situation with Canadian dairy tariffs was 'well taken care of' at the time his first presidency ended, 'but under Biden, they just kept raising it.' In reality, Canada did not raise its dairy tariffs under then-President Joe Biden, as official Canadian documents show and industry groups on both sides of the border confirmed to CNN. The tariffs Trump was denouncing Friday were left in place by the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, which Trump negotiated, signed in 2018 and has since touted as 'the best trade deal ever made.' The White House did not respond to CNN's Friday request for comment. Trump vowed Friday to retaliate against Canada with new US dairy tariffs in the coming days, but Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Sunday on NBC that the president's response to Canada on dairy will actually come on April 2, the day Trump has said he will impose reciprocal tariffs on countries around the world. Trump did achieve dairy concessions from Canada. Canada has for decades irked US lawmakers with 'supply management' policies that support Canadian farmers and protect its dairy, egg and poultry industries from foreign competition. Under Trump's USMCA, Canada guaranteed it wouldn't apply any tariffs to specific amounts of US imports per year in 14 dairy categories, such as milk, cream, cheese, ice cream, butter and cream powder, and yogurt and buttermilk. These new US-specific quotas, which Canada agreed to increase over time, gave American farmers and companies more access to the Canadian market. But the USMCA didn't get Canada to lower the tariffs that apply to imports above the quota thresholds. And contrary to Trump's Friday claim, those tariffs didn't spike under Biden. Mussell, senior research fellow at the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute and research lead at Agri-Food Economic Systems, pointed CNN to Canada's published tariff lists for 2025, 2020 (the last calendar year of Trump's first term) and 2017 (the first calendar year of Trump's first term, before the USMCA was in place). They show the dairy tariff levels were the same each year for imports above the zero-tariff maximums – for example, 298.5% for above-maximum butter and 245.5% for above-maximum cheddar cheese. Those tariff levels are eye-popping, and they certainly function as major trade barriers above the zero-tariff quota maximums. (Mussell noted: 'The US has precisely this same system for its dairy market. It has tariff-rate quotas, and beyond that volume, very stiff tariffs and almost no imports.') But the International Dairy Foods Association, which represents the American dairy manufacturing and marketing industry, pointed out Friday that the US is not at Canada's zero-tariff maximum in any category. Becky Rasdall Vargas, the organization's senior vice president of trade and workforce policy, argued in an interview that Canada is to blame for the inability of the US to get to the maximums, saying Canada is unfairly deploying obstacles that make it 'harder and harder' for the US to sell into the Canadian market. She said that while 'we don't love the tariffs,' the primary issue is that 'we can never even fill the quota to begin with' because Canada is using administrative tactics to deny the US the market access it is supposed to have under the USMCA. We won't try to adjudicate this complex debate, which the Biden administration and the Canadian government battled out at a USMCA dispute resolution panel. Regardless, Trump's assertion that Canada kept hiking its dairy tariffs when Biden was in charge is just not true. Canada's protectionism over its dairy, egg and poultry industries is an exception, not the norm. The US Department of Agriculture notes on its website that under the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, which preceded Trump's USMCA, 'almost all' US agricultural exports to Canada, and vice versa, faced no tariffs or quotas. The USMCA kept in place that zero-tariff, zero-quota trade while securing greater US access to the smattering of Canadian markets that are governed by supply management. And while Trump claimed in February that 'they don't take our agricultural product for the most part,' Canada is actually the world's second-largest export market for US agricultural products as a whole, according to the US Department of Agriculture, purchasing about $28.4 billion worth in 2024. Canada is also the second-largest US export market for dairy, purchasing about $1.1 billion worth in 2024. That figure has grown steadily over the past decade, from about $625.5 million in 2015.
Yahoo
10-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Fact check: What Trump doesn't mention about Canada's dairy tariffs
President Donald Trump correctly noted Friday, as he has before, that Canada has tariffs above 200% on dairy products imported from the US. But Trump again failed to mention a critical fact. Those high tariffs kick in only after the US has hit a certain Trump-negotiated quantity of tariff-free dairy sales to Canada each year – and as the US dairy industry acknowledges, the US is not hitting its allowed zero-tariff maximum in any category of dairy product. In many categories, notably including milk, the US is not even at half of the zero-tariff maximum. 'In practice, these tariffs are not actually paid by anyone,' Al Mussell, an expert on Canadian agricultural trade, said in an email Friday. Trump also made a claim that is simply false. He told reporters Friday that the situation with Canadian dairy tariffs was 'well taken care of' at the time his first presidency ended, 'but under Biden, they just kept raising it.' In reality, Canada did not raise its dairy tariffs under then-President Joe Biden, as official Canadian documents show and industry groups on both sides of the border confirmed to CNN. The tariffs Trump was denouncing Friday were left in place by the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, which Trump negotiated, signed in 2018 and has since touted as 'the best trade deal ever made.' The White House did not respond to CNN's Friday request for comment. Trump vowed Friday to retaliate against Canada with new US dairy tariffs in the coming days, but Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Sunday on NBC that the president's response to Canada on dairy will actually come on April 2, the day Trump has said he will impose reciprocal tariffs on countries around the world. Trump did achieve dairy concessions from Canada. Canada has for decades irked US lawmakers with 'supply management' policies that support Canadian farmers and protect its dairy, egg and poultry industries from foreign competition. Under Trump's USMCA, Canada guaranteed it wouldn't apply any tariffs to specific amounts of US imports per year in 14 dairy categories, such as milk, cream, cheese, ice cream, butter and cream powder, and yogurt and buttermilk. These new US-specific quotas, which Canada agreed to increase over time, gave American farmers and companies more access to the Canadian market. But the USMCA didn't get Canada to lower the tariffs that apply to imports above the quota thresholds. And contrary to Trump's Friday claim, those tariffs didn't spike under Biden. Mussell, senior research fellow at the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute and research lead at Agri-Food Economic Systems, pointed CNN to Canada's published tariff lists for 2025, 2020 (the last calendar year of Trump's first term) and 2017 (the first calendar year of Trump's first term, before the USMCA was in place). They show the dairy tariff levels were the same each year for imports above the zero-tariff maximums – for example, 298.5% for above-maximum butter and 245.5% for above-maximum cheddar cheese. Those tariff levels are eye-popping, and they certainly function as major trade barriers above the zero-tariff quota maximums. (Mussell noted: 'The US has precisely this same system for its dairy market. It has tariff-rate quotas, and beyond that volume, very stiff tariffs and almost no imports.') But the International Dairy Foods Association, which represents the American dairy manufacturing and marketing industry, pointed out Friday that the US is not at Canada's zero-tariff maximum in any category. Becky Rasdall Vargas, the organization's senior vice president of trade and workforce policy, argued in an interview that Canada is to blame for the inability of the US to get to the maximums, saying Canada is unfairly deploying obstacles that make it 'harder and harder' for the US to sell into the Canadian market. She said that while 'we don't love the tariffs,' the primary issue is that 'we can never even fill the quota to begin with' because Canada is using administrative tactics to deny the US the market access it is supposed to have under the USMCA. We won't try to adjudicate this complex debate, which the Biden administration and the Canadian government battled out at a USMCA dispute resolution panel. Regardless, Trump's assertion that Canada kept hiking its dairy tariffs when Biden was in charge is just not true. Canada's protectionism over its dairy, egg and poultry industries is an exception, not the norm. The US Department of Agriculture notes on its website that under the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, which preceded Trump's USMCA, 'almost all' US agricultural exports to Canada, and vice versa, faced no tariffs or quotas. The USMCA kept in place that zero-tariff, zero-quota trade while securing greater US access to the smattering of Canadian markets that are governed by supply management. And while Trump claimed in February that 'they don't take our agricultural product for the most part,' Canada is actually the world's second-largest export market for US agricultural products as a whole, according to the US Department of Agriculture, purchasing about $28.4 billion worth in 2024. Canada is also the second-largest US export market for dairy, purchasing about $1.1 billion worth in 2024. That figure has grown steadily over the past decade, from about $625.5 million in 2015.
CNN
10-03-2025
- Business
- CNN
Fact check: What Trump doesn't mention about Canada's dairy tariffs
President Donald Trump correctly noted Friday, as he has before, that Canada has tariffs above 200% on dairy products imported from the US. But Trump again failed to mention a critical fact. Those high tariffs kick in only after the US has hit a certain Trump-negotiated quantity of tariff-free dairy sales to Canada each year – and as the US dairy industry acknowledges, the US is not hitting its allowed zero-tariff maximum in any category of dairy product. In many categories, notably including milk, the US is not even at half of the zero-tariff maximum. 'In practice, these tariffs are not actually paid by anyone,' Al Mussell, an expert on Canadian agricultural trade, said in an email Friday. Trump also made a claim that is simply false. He told reporters Friday that the situation with Canadian dairy tariffs was 'well taken care of' at the time his first presidency ended, 'but under Biden, they just kept raising it.' In reality, Canada did not raise its dairy tariffs under then-President Joe Biden, as official Canadian documents show and industry groups on both sides of the border confirmed to CNN. The tariffs Trump was denouncing Friday were left in place by the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, which Trump negotiated, signed in 2018 and has since touted as 'the best trade deal ever made.' The White House did not respond to CNN's Friday request for comment. Trump vowed Friday to retaliate against Canada with new US dairy tariffs in the coming days, but Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Sunday on NBC that the president's response to Canada on dairy will actually come on April 2, the day Trump has said he will impose reciprocal tariffs on countries around the world. Trump did achieve dairy concessions from Canada. Canada has for decades irked US lawmakers with 'supply management' policies that support Canadian farmers and protect its dairy, egg and poultry industries from foreign competition. Under Trump's USMCA, Canada guaranteed it wouldn't apply any tariffs to specific amounts of US imports per year in 14 dairy categories, such as milk, cream, cheese, ice cream, butter and cream powder, and yogurt and buttermilk. These new US-specific quotas, which Canada agreed to increase over time, gave American farmers and companies more access to the Canadian market. But the USMCA didn't get Canada to lower the tariffs that apply to imports above the quota thresholds. And contrary to Trump's Friday claim, those tariffs didn't spike under Biden. Mussell, senior research fellow at the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute and research lead at Agri-Food Economic Systems, pointed CNN to Canada's published tariff lists for 2025, 2020 (the last calendar year of Trump's first term) and 2017 (the first calendar year of Trump's first term, before the USMCA was in place). They show the dairy tariff levels were the same each year for imports above the zero-tariff maximums – for example, 298.5% for above-maximum butter and 245.5% for above-maximum cheddar cheese. Those tariff levels are eye-popping, and they certainly function as major trade barriers above the zero-tariff quota maximums. (Mussell noted: 'The US has precisely this same system for its dairy market. It has tariff-rate quotas, and beyond that volume, very stiff tariffs and almost no imports.') But the International Dairy Foods Association, which represents the American dairy manufacturing and marketing industry, pointed out Friday that the US is not at Canada's zero-tariff maximum in any category. Becky Rasdall Vargas, the organization's senior vice president of trade and workforce policy, argued in an interview that Canada is to blame for the inability of the US to get to the maximums, saying Canada is unfairly deploying obstacles that make it 'harder and harder' for the US to sell into the Canadian market. She said that while 'we don't love the tariffs,' the primary issue is that 'we can never even fill the quota to begin with' because Canada is using administrative tactics to deny the US the market access it is supposed to have under the USMCA. We won't try to adjudicate this complex debate, which the Biden administration and the Canadian government battled out at a USMCA dispute resolution panel. Regardless, Trump's assertion that Canada kept hiking its dairy tariffs when Biden was in charge is just not true. Canada's protectionism over its dairy, egg and poultry industries is an exception, not the norm. The US Department of Agriculture notes on its website that under the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, which preceded Trump's USMCA, 'almost all' US agricultural exports to Canada, and vice versa, faced no tariffs or quotas. The USMCA kept in place that zero-tariff, zero-quota trade while securing greater US access to the smattering of Canadian markets that are governed by supply management. And while Trump claimed in February that 'they don't take our agricultural product for the most part,' Canada is actually the world's second-largest export market for US agricultural products as a whole, according to the US Department of Agriculture, purchasing about $28.4 billion worth in 2024. Canada is also the second-largest US export market for dairy, purchasing about $1.1 billion worth in 2024. That figure has grown steadily over the past decade, from about $625.5 million in 2015.
