Wagon-dragging B.C. islanders face weeks without vehicle bridge, knocked askew by tug

DELTA - When Abby Collier heard that the only bridge connecting Westham Island to Delta and the Metro Vancouver mainland had been damaged by a boat strike last week, she assumed it would be closed for a few days.

After all, it had happened before and the small island community of mostly farmers where she's lived for 15 years had always managed.

Then, days later, the community of about 130 households learned they would also be under a boil water advisory after a leak was discovered in the water main under the bridge.

"I would say initially we weren't concerned, and then we were very concerned," Collier said.

Months after B.C. ostrich cull, why does protest movement persist?

Melody Leinweber's latest tattoo is a stylized portrait of an ostrich with a colourful beak, pink and turquoise stars around its head and a twinkle in its eyes.

The mother of four from West Kelowna, B.C., said the inspiration was twofold — her daughter had wanted an ostrich for Christmas, and Leinweber never wanted to forget the 314 ostriches culled by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency last November after an outbreak of avian influenza on a British Columbia farm.

"I still haven't been able to tell my kids that the ostriches aren't here anymore," she said.

Leinweber is not alone in mourning the flock at Universal Ostrich Farms, shot by marksmen on a night of cold, drenching rain.

Union, farm groups say cuts at federal agriculture centres will set sector back

The union representing workers at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and some farming groups are firing back at Ottawa over abrupt job cuts and closures. 

The Agriculture Union said Monday the decision to shutter seven of the department's research operations will set the sector back by decades. 

“We have been warning the federal government for months about cutting an already-decimated department. There is simply no more room to cut," Milton Dyck, national president of the Agriculture Union, said in a news release. 

"While our partner nation to the south is slashing research, we should not be.”

Manitoba Ag Days takes flight with focus on drone tech advancements

Manitoba Ag Days kicked off its annual event on Tuesday with a strong spotlight on innovation as the large-scale drones showcased on the trade show floor drew plenty of attention.

Agriculture minister says first exports of canola seed and beef soon going to China

China is moving quickly to import Canadian canola and beef after Ottawa struck a deal with Beijing to reduce tariffs, Federal Agriculture Minister Heath MacDonald said Tuesday. 

MacDonald told reporters in Ottawa a Chinese importer has ordered 60,000 metric tonnes of canola seed, and he's aware of a company shipping its first load of Canadian beef to China next week.

It's expected be the first time China has purchased Canadian canola seed and beef since it imposed measures to block the products.

"That's how quickly this whole process has taken place," MacDonald said. "When the door opened, it opened."

Despite deal with China, Canadian canola remains at risk to external forces: report

Despite Canada's recent landmark deal with China on reducing canola tariffs, new research shows the major Prairie crop remains a vulnerable export.

The analysis from The Simpson Centre for Food and Agricultural Policy at the University of Calgary says canola is overreliant on two major markets: China and the United States.

Both countries absorb nearly 90 per cent of Canadian canola exports worth billions of dollars, and options are limited to send the crop elsewhere, the research paper says.

"We don't want to have the same market concentration and keep the sector vulnerable to retaliatory tariffs or trade policy changes," lead researcher Farzana Shirin said in an interview Monday.

Tribunal upholds $10K fine for B.C. ostrich farm over failure to report sick birds

The Canada Agricultural Review Tribunal has upheld a $10,000 fine handed to the British Columbia ostrich farm whose flock of more than 300 birds was culled last fall, nearly 11 months after the confirmation of an avian influenza outbreak.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency issued the fine alleging Universal Ostrich Farms violated the Health of Animals Act by failing to report sick and dying birds on the property in southeastern B.C. in December 2024.

The tribunal's decision says the CFIA was instead alerted by an anonymous caller saying they believed the ostriches were sick with avian flu on Dec. 28 that year.

The decision posted online and dated Dec. 11, 2025, says the farm requested the tribunal review the CFIA's violation notice, arguing it "did its best" given the owners thought the ostriches had a non-reportable disease and they had attempted to reach at least two veterinarians who were not available at the time.

U.S. investigations into Canadian mushroom imports to move ahead

The U.S. International Trade Commission has voted to move forward with investigations into fresh mushroom imports from Canada. 

It says there's a "reasonable indication" the U.S. industry is being "materially injured" by imported mushrooms allegedly sold at less than fair value and subsidized by the Canadian government. 

A petition was filed in September by the Fresh Mushroom Fair Trade Coalition, which includes six U.S. growers and packers.

A final report is expected next month. 

Canadian farmers hoping Carney can find resolution to canola tariffs in China

Canadian farmers are hoping for a breakthrough on punishing tariffs as Prime Minister Mark Carney talks trade in China this week. 

Rick White, president of the Canadian Canola Growers Association, says Beijing's steep levies on the major Prairie crop will cost producers at least $2 billion this year if the issue isn't resolved.

"Farmers are already frustrated. They're exasperated, they're worried, they're stressed," White said in an interview Tuesday. "Every day, every week, every month this goes on, it just gets worse and worse and worse."

Carney's trip starts Wednesday, and he will be joined by cabinet ministers and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe. Carney is also set to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

N.S. researchers study drones for pesticide spraying, but Ottawa strict on regulation

HALIFAX - As a drone glided across farmland on a December day in Truro, N.S., its robotic voice called out, "enable spraying." Two nozzles on the bottom of the drone opened and released a vortex of liquid — just water that day, but other times it's coloured dyes. 

Dalhousie University student Chloe Toombs hopes one day that liquid will be a pesticide.

Toombs, a master’s candidate in the faculty of agriculture, is researching how plants absorb liquid released overhead by a drone. It's still early, but results suggest drones could be just as effective as traditional equipment in applying chemicals to farmers' fields.

That's good news for farmers, Toombs says, because drones are much less destructive to some plant life compared to sprayers that drive on land; using the flying machines to spray fertilizer, she adds, could also potentially help cut costs. The bad news, however, is that the use of drones for agriculture in Canada — particularly for spraying pesticides — is tightly regulated and restricted.

From small farms to your cup: What it takes to make that one cup of fresh coffee

OAKVILLE - As a stream of roasted coffee beans drops into a barrel, it fills an Oakville, Ont., roastery with a smell practically strong enough to caffeinate you. 

The roasted beans, now a rich, deep brown, were once small and green, bagged in large burlap sacks and shipped to Canadian ports from the coffee-producing countries of Ethiopia, Colombia and Brazil. 

It's at Reunion Coffee Roasters where they find their defining character. The strength of your brew and whether it will taste fruity or earthy is methodically decided at the roastery's lab, where they sample various beans and perfect the taste.

Walking through his roughly 50,000 sq. ft. roastery, Reunion president Adam Pesce points out industry-scale machines where the green beans are washed, weighed and roasted to get the preferred colour, flavour and aroma. 

P.E.I. researchers look at how cow poop can strengthen soil, reduce emissions

HALIFAX - Like many farmers, Nick Green trades and barters as a way to ensure his cattle have enough land to graze. 

Unlike many farmers, Green trades in manure. 

“We essentially provide a service,” Green said. And that service is waste. Cow poop, to be exact. 

Green is part of a Living Labs P.E.I. project, where farmers partner with researchers working under Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada to test out theories in real-world conditions and on a large scale. 

Purple haze in the sky over Delta, B.C., sets off awe, curiosity and questions

On the darkest nights of winter when the cloud cover is just right, there's a purple haze above parts of Metro Vancouver and it has nothing to do with Christmas or Jimi Hendrix. 

Cathy Latremouille said she looked outside her Crescent Beach home in Surrey on Friday night to see what looked like a "great big candy floss sky."

"I've never seen anything like it before," said Latremouille. "It's a good thing I don't face south, I would have thought the United States was going up in flames."

The magenta glow was a puzzle.