Angry exchange on British pork prices Tuesday, May 31, 2011 Retailers and pork producers in Britain have been exchanging angry words over pork pricing.In early March, Andrew Opie, the director of food for the British Retail Consortium, complained in a letter to TheGrocer online magazine, that retailers "are an easy target" for pig producer protests. "Supermarkets don't pay producers directly for pork" and making pork more expensive in stores "will just cause customers to buy less, the exact opposite of what farmers want," he said.Stewart Houston, chair of the British Pork Executive (BPEX), replied to the same magazine that a BPEX report showed that retailers were making £16 million a week selling pork and pork products, "profitable processors" made £8 million and farmers were losing £3 million.Houston charged that retailers have recently been importing greatly increased volumes of cheap pork produced to lower welfare standards than currently apply in Britain.The reason behind the angry words, and the protests, is the feed pricing crisis in Britain. BP Pork exports contribute to Smithfield's profit comeback Behind the Lines - June/July 2011
Farmers Balance Costs and Technology Investments - Tractor Sales Down Wednesday, March 11, 2026 Sales of agricultural tractors and combines in the United States and Canada delivered a mixed performance in February, highlighting how farmers are adapting their purchasing decisions amid shifting commodity markets, input costs, and economic conditions. While tractor sales softened... Read this article online
Sask. NDP wants tougher penalties related to foreign farmland ownership Wednesday, March 11, 2026 The Saskatchewan NDP wants foreign farmland owners who don’t obey the law to face stiffer penalties. Trent Wotherspoon, the party’s deputy shadow minister for agriculture and rural affairs, and the shadow minister of finance, introduced The Saskatchewan Farm Security (Foreign Farmland... Read this article online
Middle East conflict pushes fertilizer costs higher, forcing Ontario growers to rethink corn acres Wednesday, March 11, 2026 Ontario farmers are bracing for a turbulent spring as fertilizer and fuel prices surge in response to the escalating conflict involving Iran, a development that analysts say could reshape planting decisions across North America. The spike in nitrogen costs—the most critical and... Read this article online
Group calls on Health Canada to make labels mandatory for gene-edited pork Tuesday, March 10, 2026 An advocacy group of farmers and environmental organizations wants Health Canada to implement mandatory labelling on pork from gene-edited pigs. Earlier this year, the federal agency approved the sale of gene-edited pigs as food. The pigs are resistant to Porcine Reproductive and... Read this article online
Global Conflict Drives Major Surges in Commodity Markets Monday, March 9, 2026 A major international conflict the war in Iran has disrupted trade flows, pushing energy and grain prices sharply higher. On the weekly Ag Commodity Corner+ Podcast with Commodity Strategist Abhinesh Gopal shared the markets made sharp moves in the week of March 2 to 6, after a rapidly... Read this article online