The Sprout: Feds detail COVID-19 food security funding – iPolitics

The Sprout: Feds detail COVID-19 food security funding – iPolitics

Good morning and welcome to the Sprout, where it’s National Hamburger Day – because that’s the first food that comes to mind a few days before Christmas. Also, if you happen to be in California (and only in California), it’s National Kiwi Fruit Day.

A reminder, the Sprout will be taking a holiday break starting Dec. 23. We’ll be back with all your agriculture news on Jan. 4. Here’s today’s agriculture news.

The Lead 

Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau says the federal government will distribute $30 million to Indigenous communities and about $65 million to local organizations across Canada to support food security during the COVID-19 pandemic.

During a virtual news conference on Friday, the federal agriculture minister outlined how the latest $100 million cash infusion aimed at easing food insecurity challenges caused by the pandemic would be divvied up. Food Banks Canada and Breakfast Club of Canada will each receive $18.5 million, and Community Food Centres Canada, Second Harvest and The Salvation Army will also receive just under $9 million each, Bibeau said. The Canadian Press reports.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters at his own briefing that the fact more than a third of food bank users were children was unacceptable.

In other agriculture-minister related news: Bibeau also released a statement last week about Canadian agricultural exports in 2020. “Indications are that Canada is on track to surpass our record last year of $67 billion in agriculture and agri-food exports, and that we are making significant progress towards our Government’s goal of $75 billion by 2025,” it reads. You can find the full release here.

Around Town 

The House of Commons has risen for its holiday break. MPs are scheduled to return on Jan. 25.

In Canada 

Canadians are planning to diet less and donate more in 2021, a new survey has found. As CTV News reports, only 30 per cent of Canadian respondents to a survey released Friday by the Agri-Food Analytics Lab (AAL) at Dalhousie University and Angus Reid plan on eating healthier in 2021 – a drop of 28 percentage points compared with last year’s survey and a break with the traditional end-of-year vow to eat better the next year.

The Ontario government has formally capped the delivery fees third-party food delivery apps can charge – just in time for another province wide-lockdown. Ontario Premier Doug Ford is expected to announced the new lockdown, starting Dec. 24 at 1 p.m. ET Monday afternoon.

Macleans takes a look at Canada’s foreign policy goals for 2021.

Internationally

Top officials in China said late Friday that the country will industrialize biotech breeding as part of a broader effort to improve food security. As Reuters reports, the move is being seen as a signal that Beijing could soon take a further step towards commercializing genetically modified (GM) crops.

Low-income children in the United States are waiting months for food aid to replace lost school breakfast and lunches. As Politico reports, millions of low-income schoolchildren have gone almost an entire semester without receiving federal payments meant to help their families buy groceries — despite soaring child hunger in the United States and congressional authorization for the aid.

And Denmark says it will dig up millions of depopulated mink who’s remains are now becoming a new contamination risk. Bloomberg reports.

Noteworthy 

The Kicker 

The Trump administration is taking steps to roll back Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rules around the make up of … frozen cherry pies. According to one former FDA chief, the changes mean “the American people are free [to] add extra fruit, sugar, and make the crust especially thick.” The Washington Post reports.

Until tomorrow.

Published at Mon, 21 Dec 2020 16:27:54 +0000